Connection errors

"Connection refused" / "DNS failed"#

The site is unreachable from the AI client. Common causes:

• Site is on localhost (Claude.ai and ChatGPT can only reach public URLs — use a tunnel like ngrok for local dev)
• Firewall is blocking the AI client's IP
• The domain's DNS hasn't propagated yet

"SSL/TLS error"#

• Certificate has expired — renew via Let's Encrypt or your host
• Certificate isn't trusted (self-signed) — use a real cert
• TLS 1.0/1.1 only — StoreMCP requires TLS 1.2+

"Unauthorized" (401)#

• Check the bearer token exactly matches the key from StoreMCP → API Keys
• Key may have been revoked — create a new one
• For Application Passwords: confirm the user exists and the app password is active

"Forbidden" (403)#

• Acting user doesn't have the capability required by the tool
• Key is IP-restricted and the AI client isn't coming from an allowed IP

"Server error" (500/502)#

• Check WordPress error log — typically wp-content/debug.log
• Enable debug mode for a stack trace
• Confirm PHP memory limit is at least 256M

Test from the command line#

curl -i https://your-site.com/wp-json/storemcp/v1/health

You should get a 200. If you don't, the problem is at the network / WordPress layer, not the AI client.