ProcessWire Weekly #621

This week in the processwire.com blog: ProcessWire and AI

In the processwire.com blog post titled ProcessWire and AI, Ryan gives us a glimpse into his experiences so far working with Anthropic's AI coding assistant Claude in the context of ProcessWire. Here's what's covered in the blog post:

• Summary of what an AI agent is in the ProcessWire context, along with Ryan's own experiences using Claude Code for development
• Overview of how ProcessWire is integrating with AI, including observations from Claude regarding ProcessWire's pros and cons in the context of AI compatibility
• Productivity gains and workflow changes (e.g. code review, idea generation, and error prevention) that AI-assisted coding has brought to the table
• Brief introduction of a new AI-focused module called Agent Tools, and links to some community discussions about AI

One thing that is particularly interesting in terms of ProcessWire's future development is following quote from Ryan:

ProcessWire was built for this moment, something I think a lot of you AI experts in the community noticed before I did. I'm convinced that ProcessWire is on a path to be the most AI-friendly open source CMS available. I'm on board now and look forward to our future, which I think is looking very good indeed.

— Ryan

As Ryan states in the post, the process of using AI for ProcessWire work has been very positive, but there are still things we can do to make it smoother. Some planned improvements for AI compatibility include...

• CLI access to the full site structure (pages, templates, fields, modules, etc.)
• Purpose-built markdown documentation (API.md) for all core and ProFields Fieldtype modules, covering find and CRUD operations
• making our API docs easier for AI to access and parse

For more details, check out the full blog post from Ryan. If you have ideas about how we could improve ProcessWire further in this regard, be sure to post them as comments to the post; as always, all suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

New module: Agent Tools

Agent Tools is a new ProcessWire module created by Ryan Cramer. The purpose of this module is to make integration between ProcessWire and AI coding assistants, such as Claude Code, effortless to set up:

Once connected to your site, you can ask Claude to create and modify pages, templates and fields, or do anything that can be done with the ProcessWire API. It's even possible for an entire site to be managed by Claude without the need for ProcessWire's admin control panel, though we're not suggesting that just yet.

[...]

This module aims to add several agent tools over time, but this first version is also somewhat of a proof of concept. Its first feature is basic migrations system, described further in this document.

— Ryan

The modules directory entry covers the steps needed to set up the module, and make Claude (or another coding agent) aware of it. The module is a work in progress and will get more features as it matures, but currently it ships with a CLI for AI agents to execute code in ProcessWire's context, and a simple migrations utility.

The migrations utility included with this module is not a full-featured alternative to existing tools (such as RockMigrations), but it can be used to sync updates made by AI agent in a development environment to production. It has a simple GUI, it keeps track (in the database) of applied migrations, etc.

If you'd like to give the Agent Tools module a try, you can clone or download it from the Agent Tools GitHub repository, or install it via the modules manager in the admin. If you have suggestions, want to report an issue, or need help getting started, head down to the Agent Tools support forum thread.

Please note that the Agent Tools module is currently at beta stage. Test carefully before deploying it on a production site, make sure to have backups of your content, and — if possible — do report any issues you might run into. Thanks!

Site of the week: KONKAT

Our latest site of the week belongs to KONKAT, a design studio based in Hamburg. KONKAT was created by two experienced designers and developers, Diogo Oliveira and Jan Ploch, who — together with their network of partners — create bespoke brand identities and digital experiences for their clients.

Konkat is a concept-driven design studio based in Hamburg. We develop strong brands and digital experiences for businesses, NGOs, start-ups, and the cultural sector.

The KONKAT website has a portfolio section with plenty of details about each featured project, a section dedicated to available services, introduction to the studio itself, and of course basic contact details. Overall plenty of focus has been given to showcasing the handiwork of the studio, which feels like the right choice, especially given the top-notch quality of said projects. The website's design is really nice as well, and it is fast, responsive, and very easy to grasp.

As for some behind the scenes details, it looks like the front-end of this site was largely custom-built, and rather minimalistic; apart from the lazysizes library there don't seem to be any third-party JavaScript dependencies either. That being said, the site is powered by a rather profilic ProcessWire module: PAGEGRID, the visual page builder created by Jan Ploch.

Our congratulations to KONKAT for their new, ProcessWire powered website! It's a really nice-looking site and thoroughly enjoyable to browse, so for anyone reading this: definitely go check it out.

Stay tuned for our next issue

That's it for the 621st issue of ProcessWire Weekly. We'll be back with more news, updates, and content Saturday, 11th of April. As always, ProcessWire newsletter subscribers will get our updates a few days later.

Thanks for staying with us, once again. Hope you've had a great and productive week, and don't forget to check out the ProcessWire forums for more interesting topics. Until next week, happy hacking with ProcessWire!