README

MW Local AI Connector is a WordPress AI provider plugin plus a small local proxy for running inference against models on your own machine.

It is built for WordPress 7.0+ and the new Connectors primitives. The WordPress plugin runs on the remote site. The local proxy runs on a machine you control, talks to an OpenAI-compatible local backend such as Ollama or LM Studio, and exposes that backend to WordPress through an authenticated Tailscale Funnel.

This is an independent project by Matt Wiebe. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Actual Computer, Tailscale, Ollama, LM Studio, or any other third-party service it can be configured to talk to.

What It Does

Registers a mw-local-ai AI provider with the WordPress AI Client.
Adds a Settings screen for entering the proxy URL, API key, and selected model.
Loads model choices from the real proxied /v1/models endpoint.
Restricts the provider to the selected model so WordPress auto-discovery consistently uses it.
Ships a local node proxy that can:
- detect local backends,
- persist configuration in local/.env,
- expose the proxy through Tailscale Funnel,
- protect requests with a bearer token.

Repository Layout

mw-local-ai-connector.php: WordPress plugin bootstrap, settings UI, connector registration.
src/: provider, model, and metadata directory classes.
local/server.mjs: local proxy and Tailscale Funnel entrypoint.

Requirements

WordPress 7.0+
PHP 7.4+
Node.js 18+ with native fetch
One local OpenAI-compatible backend, such as:
- Ollama
- LM Studio
- another localhost backend by port number
Tailscale, if you want public exposure through Funnel

WordPress Plugin Setup

Copy this plugin into wp-content/plugins/mw-local-ai-connector.
Activate the plugin in WordPress.
Open Settings > Connectors or the dedicated Local AI settings page.
Enter:
- the proxy endpoint URL,
- the shared API key,
- the model to expose to WordPress.

The Connectors screen links back to this setup page.

Local Proxy Setup

Preferred install path:

npm install -g @mattwiebe/ai-connector-for-local-ai

Then initialize and run the proxy with:

laiproxy init
laiproxy up

macOS background service management:

laiproxy install
laiproxy start
laiproxy stop
laiproxy status
laiproxy rotate-key
laiproxy uninstall

You can also run it without a global install:

npx @mattwiebe/ai-connector-for-local-ai init
npx @mattwiebe/ai-connector-for-local-ai up

For local development from this repo, you can still use:

npm run init
npm run up
npm run service:install
npm run start
npm run stop
npm run status
npm run rotate-key
npm run service:uninstall

That guided setup will:

detect known backends or ask for the localhost backend port,
generate or accept an API key,
ask whether to enable Tailscale Funnel,
ask which public Funnel port to use, defaulting to 8443,
save everything into local/.env.

When Funnel starts, the proxy also checks public DNS for the generated ts.net hostname. If public DNS has not propagated yet, WordPress may temporarily report Could not resolve host; Tailscale says Funnel DNS propagation can take up to 10 minutes.

After that, normal startup is non-interactive:

laiproxy up

To reconfigure later:

laiproxy init

On macOS, laiproxy install or npm run service:install writes a LaunchAgent at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mattwiebe.mw-local-ai-connector.plist so the proxy can keep running in the background across logins.

To rotate the shared API key in the persisted .env file and print the new key:

laiproxy rotate-key

This also works as:

laiproxy rotate-key
npm run rotate-key

On macOS, if the LaunchAgent is currently running, rotate-key will restart it automatically so the background process picks up the new key immediately.

Useful overrides:

laiproxy up --port 13531
laiproxy up --funnel-port 10000
laiproxy up --backend http://localhost:11434
laiproxy up --api-key your-secret
laiproxy up --no-tunnel

Development

Developer docs, release notes, packaging details, and reference material now live in docs/developing.md.

mattwiebe / ai-connector-for-local-ai

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