Summary

Add first-class Studio Code support as a new runtime in wp-coding-agents, alongside the existing claude-code and opencode runtimes. Studio Code is the AI coding CLI built into WordPress Studio — Automattic's Electron desktop app for managing local WordPress sites.

This enables dogfooding the Intelligence system through Studio Code itself.

Background

Studio Code is built on the Claude Agent SDK (@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk). It uses:

• preset: 'claude_code' — which means it already has Claude Code's CLAUDE.md discovery and memory system built in
• cwd: ~/Studio/ — the working directory for all sessions
• MCP tools for WordPress site management (site_create, wp_cli, take_screenshot, etc.)
• A plugin/skills system at apps/cli/ai/plugin/skills/
• Session persistence as JSONL files at ~/.studio/sessions/
• Per-site instruction files: CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, STUDIO.md installed at ~/Studio/<site-name>/ on site creation

Key entry point: apps/cli/ai/agent.ts

Key Finding: Settings Already Load By Default

Investigation of the Agent SDK source (sdk.mjs) revealed that when settingSources is not set in the SDK options, the --setting-sources flag is never passed to the CLI process. The CLI's default allowedSettingSources is:

["userSettings", "projectSettings", "localSettings", "flagSettings", "policySettings"]

This means Studio Code already supports all of the following out of the box:

• ✅ CLAUDE.md file discovery (from cwd and parent directories)
• ✅ SessionStart hooks (from .claude/settings.json)
• ✅ User-configured MCP servers (from .claude/settings.json)
• ✅ Project, user, and local settings files

No upstream changes to Studio are needed. The runtime just needs to set up the right files in the right places.

Studio's Existing Instruction System

Studio already installs three instruction files per site (see PR #2788, PR #2886):

Skills are installed to .claude/skills/ and .agents/skills/ per site, sourced from WordPress/agent-skills plus a bundled studio-cli skill (PR #2741). There's also a UI for managing skills and instructions per-site (PR #2729).

Approach

Since the claude_code preset loads all settings sources by default, the wp-coding-agents runtime can integrate cleanly:

runtime_generate_config()

• Append Data Machine @ imports to the per-site CLAUDE.md (e.g., @path/to/SOUL.md, @path/to/MEMORY.md)
• CLAUDE.md is user-editable and not auto-updated, so our additions persist
• {{WP_CLI_CMD}} substitution should use studio wp

runtime_install_hooks()

• Install dm-agent-sync.sh as a SessionStart hook in .claude/settings.json — this works natively, same as Claude Code
• The hook syncs Data Machine agent context into CLAUDE.md before each session

runtime_generate_instructions()

• Generate AGENTS.md from the shared template
• Be careful not to duplicate content already in Studio's STUDIO.md (WP-CLI usage, site management, debugging, constraints, etc.)

runtime_merge_mcp_servers()

• Additional MCP servers (e.g., context-a8c) can be configured in .claude/settings.json and will load alongside Studio's built-in studio MCP server
• Studio's built-in server is passed via mcpServers in the SDK options; user servers from settings.json are additive

runtime_install()

• Verify studio CLI is available (bundled with Studio desktop app)
• Check version compatibility

runtime_skills_dir()

• Studio already installs skills to .claude/skills/ and .agents/skills/ per site
• wp-coding-agents skills should coexist alongside Studio's bundled skills

runtime_print_summary()

• Print setup summary with Studio-specific paths

Differences from Claude Code runtime

Open Questions

• cwd scope: Studio Code starts at ~/Studio/, not at the site root. Per-site CLAUDE.md may not be in scope until the agent navigates to a site directory. Need to test whether the preset discovers CLAUDE.md files in subdirectories or only at cwd.
• Instruction deduplication: Studio's STUDIO.md already covers WP-CLI, debugging, constraints, etc. How much of the AGENTS.md template content overlaps? Need to audit and avoid duplication.
• Runtime file similarity: The Studio Code runtime may be very close to the Claude Code runtime since the underlying mechanisms are the same. Consider whether it should be a thin wrapper or a standalone file.

Related

• Claude Code: dynamic agent sync via SessionStart hook #25 — Claude Code: dynamic agent sync via SessionStart hook
• SOUL.md scaffolding fails: stdin pipe doesn't work with studio wp #26 — SOUL.md scaffolding fails with studio wp stdin pipe
• Automattic/studio#2788 — AI instruction folder structure
• Automattic/studio#2886 — Remove feature flag from AI instructions
• Automattic/studio#2889 — STUDIO.md auto-update on site start
• Automattic/studio#2741 — Bundle WordPress agent skills
• Automattic/studio#2729 — Skills/instructions management UI