How Claude handles this
You are in a chat window, not a terminal, and the symptom is vague. A page loads slowly, a speed test complained about caching, or someone told you the site is not cached. You switch the xspeedhub connector on from the plus menu in the chat, then type it the way you would say it to a colleague: why does my blog feel uncached? Claude lists your sites, matches blog, and reads the cache status and the health report in the same turn.
Back come the plugin's numbers: whether page caching is on, the cached page count, the hit ratio, the last purge, and health checks for the drop-in, the WP_CACHE constant, permalinks, conflicting plugins and cache directory permissions. Claude turns them into a short answer with the failing check first. When caching is simply switched off, it can offer to turn it on, which installs the cache drop-in and defines WP_CACHE as needed. That is a write, so it should say what it will do and wait for you. If another caching plugin owns the drop-in, the site refuses to enable xSpeed and says why, and Claude passes that on; removing the other plugin is yours to do.
Claude in a chat has no shell, so it cannot request your page the way a terminal agent can. Everything it knows comes from the connector. Its own gate is the connector's tool permission. Under Customize, then Connectors, you set each tool to Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked, and the prompt in the conversation offers Allow once or Always allow. A diagnosis is several read calls in a row, which is why people set the reads to Always allow.
Set up Claude once
Already connected? Skip to the prompts. Alternatives and troubleshooting are on the Claude guide.
1Put your sites in xSpeed Hub
Sign in at app.xspeedcache.com with Google or email; the Hub is free and has no site cap. Then connect each WordPress site from its own dashboard: click Connect Hub in the xSpeed Cache top bar, then Connect via xSpeed Hub. Each site needs the free xSpeed Cache plugin.
2Add xSpeed Hub as a custom connector
Go to Customize > Connectors and click Add custom connector. Name it xspeedhub and paste the URL. Under Authentication choose Sign in now, and if Claude asks how it identifies itself, choose Register automatically, which uses dynamic client registration. Click Add. On a Team or Enterprise plan an Owner does this under Organization settings > Connectors, with Add, then Custom, then Web.
https://app.xspeedcache.com/xspeed/mcp
3Connect and turn it on in a chat
Click Connect on the xspeedhub connector and approve access on the xSpeed Hub page that opens. Then, in a conversation, click + in the message box, choose Connectors and switch xspeedhub on. Claude can use the connector only in conversations where that toggle is on.
+ > Connectors > xspeedhub (on)
Full Claude setup, sign-in options and FAQ
Before you send a prompt that changes something
Reads change nothing on your sites, though contact_support emails xSpeed support. Writes run once your connection allows them, so your client's approval prompt and a read-only connection (the token's Read-only everywhere switch, or a Viewer sign-in) are the gates that matter. Claude can ask for your approval before it uses a connector tool. Allow once runs that call, and Always allow skips the prompt for that tool from then on. Under Customize > Connectors you can set each tool, or a group of tools, to Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked. xSpeed Hub has no confirmation step of its own, so a write tool you set to Always allow runs as soon as your connection allows writes. Keep purge_cache, update_settings, toggle_cache and the other write tools on Needs approval, block the ones you never want. For read-only access, sign in as a Viewer member of the workspace, or use the connection token with Read-only everywhere on, which needs the Request headers beta. The switch does not apply to a normal OAuth sign-in.
What do I ask?
Three prompts written for Claude. More for this job are below.
Using xSpeed Hub, why is my blog not serving cached pages? Check the health report and tell me which check is failing.
The hit ratio on shop looks low. Ask xSpeed Hub whether caching is broken, or whether something else is going on.
Use xSpeed Hub to check every site I have and tell me which ones have page caching switched off.
What happens, step by step
When a WordPress page is not served from cache, the cause is usually one of a few things: caching is off, the cache drop-in or the WP_CACHE constant is missing, another caching plugin is in the way, or the pages carry something that makes them uncacheable. Through xSpeed Hub an agent can read the cache status, run the site's full health diagnostics, time a cached request against an uncached one, and check which Pro features would help, all without changing anything.
01
Start with the quick summary
get_cache_status returns whether page caching is on, the stats (cached pages, size, hit ratio, last purge) and the web server xSpeed detected. It is a glance. If caching is off, or the hit ratio is far below what you expect, the agent moves on to the diagnostic.
02
Run the diagnostic
get_health is the tool for troubleshooting. It returns the environment checks with pass or warn tones (the advanced-cache.php drop-in, the WP_CACHE constant, rewrite rules, PHP and WordPress versions, caching plugin conflicts), the cache stats, 24 hourly hit and miss buckets and a 30-day hit-ratio series. The Hub tells the agent to use it, not get_cache_status, when you are troubleshooting rather than glancing.
03
Time cached against uncached
run_benchmark requests the home page once with the cache bypassed and once normally, after a warm-up request, and returns the timings. If the second request still is not a cache hit, the page cache is not serving the home page, and the result says so. It measures xSpeed's own response time. It does not return a Lighthouse score.
04
Read what the checks mean
A warn is a lead, not always a fault. A static-file rewrite warning, for example, can mean the nginx snippet is not in your server config yet, or that xSpeed could not verify it, which is not evidence the config is wrong. The agent reads the detail line and tells you which one it is.
05
Fix it or hand it over
If caching is simply off, toggle_cache turns it on. If another caching plugin owns the drop-in, the site refuses to enable xSpeed and says why; removing the other plugin is yours to do. If nothing explains it, contact_support emails xSpeed support with the agent's summary, after the agent has confirmed the message with you.
Reference
| Quick check | get_cache_status (read): cache on or off, stats, detected web server |
|---|---|
| Diagnostic | get_health (read): environment checks, 24 hourly buckets, 30-day hit-ratio series, recent activity |
| One site per call | get_health does not accept site: "all"; call it for each site you care about |
| Benchmark | run_benchmark (read): home page only, cache bypassed against cache served, timings in milliseconds |
| Benchmark on every site | run_benchmark accepts site: "all" or a list of handles, one result per site |
| Benchmark history | get_benchmark_history reads past runs and the settings changes on the same timeline |
| Pro suggestions | get_pro_audit (read): which Pro features would help this site, from its settings and stats |
| Hit ratio scope | Counts requests that reach your server; pages answered by a CDN or Cloudflare edge are not counted |
| Support | contact_support emails xSpeed support with your account email and site list attached; classed read |
| Turning caching on | toggle_cache (write); refused by the site when another plugin owns the cache drop-in |
Rules worth keeping
- Diagnose with the read tools first. get_cache_status, get_health, run_benchmark and get_pro_audit change nothing on the site, so a read-only connection can run all of them. For clients that send the connection token, that means Read-only everywhere on; an OAuth sign-in gets the scopes the client asks for, unless the member is a Viewer.
- Do not answer a PageSpeed question with run_benchmark. It measures cached against uncached response time and returns no Lighthouse score; for a score, use the speed test or scan jobs.
- toggle_cache is a write. It runs as soon as your connection allows writes, and the Hub tells the agent to confirm the target site first. That is guidance to the agent, so your client's approval prompt is the gate that matters.
- contact_support sends a real email. The Hub tells the agent to confirm the message with you before sending, but the tool is classed read, so even a read-only connection can send one.
- The agent cannot edit your server configuration or another plugin's settings. When a check needs an nginx snippet or a conflicting plugin removed, it tells you what to do and you do it.
Good to know with Claude
Think before you choose Always allow for every tool in the connector. get_health and get_cache_status are safe to approve for good. toggle_cache changes the live site and contact_support sends an email, and the Hub does not ask you again: it only tells Claude to confirm. Set the reads to Always allow and keep toggle_cache and contact_support on Needs approval, or on Blocked if you never want them. Anthropic notes that Research can call connector tools without further approval, so block the write tools before you use Research with this connector. On the Free plan you can add only one custom connector.
More prompts for this job
They work in any client connected to xSpeed Hub.
Using xSpeed Hub, why is the cache hit ratio so low on shop? Run the full health check and tell me the most likely cause.
Using xSpeed Hub, is page caching actually working on blog? Benchmark cached against uncached and tell me if the second request was a hit.
xSpeed Hub's get_health on docs shows a warning about the static-file rewrite. What does it mean and do I need to act?
Use xSpeed Hub to check whether another caching plugin is conflicting with xSpeed on shop.
Caching looks off on the staging site. Use xSpeed Hub to turn it on and tell me if the site refuses.
Using xSpeed Hub, which Pro features would help the shop site, based on how it is set up now?
With xSpeed Hub, compare the last few benchmark runs on blog and tell me whether my settings changes helped.
Frequently asked questions
Keep going
Find out why pages are not cached with other agents
More with Claude
Documentation
- How to read your cache diagnostics
- Understanding cache hits and misses
- How to check your site health
- Common problems and troubleshooting
- How to enable Page Cache
- How to write prompts for xSpeed Hub
- Claude + xSpeed
- Every AI agent that works with xSpeed
From the blog