How Windsurf handles this
You are working on a WordPress theme in the editor, and the deploy has just emptied the cache on the live site. In the agent panel you ask for the site to be warmed. The agent calls list_sites to find the handle and then start_preloader on it, and the plugin starts crawling the sitemap in the background so visitors reach pages that are already stored.
Ask again for progress and the agent calls get_preloader_status, which says whether a run is active and how far through the URL list it has got. If the crawl needs to end early, ask for stop_preloader. Pages already warmed stay cached. None of this needs wp-admin, and a status check is a read, so it is safe to repeat while you carry on with your code.
Windsurf now ships as Devin Desktop. New tabs start with the Devin Local agent, and the older Cascade agent stays available for existing conversations. Devin Local prompts for approval before it calls any MCP tool, and the prompt lets you allow one tool or the whole xspeedhub server, for this session or permanently. Permission rules such as mcp__xspeedhub__get_preloader_status can allow, deny or always ask for a named tool. Smart mode lets a fast model run what it judges safe, and Bypass mode approves everything. The Hub adds no confirmation, so under either of those, or after you allow the whole server, start_preloader runs as soon as your connection allows writes. Since the status is a read, a quick check costs nothing, and it tells you whether the crawl you started is still going or has already finished its list.
Set up Windsurf once
Already connected? Skip to the prompts. Alternatives and troubleshooting are on the Windsurf 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 for the Devin Local agent
Run this in a terminal. Devin Local shares its MCP configuration with Devin CLI, and -s user saves the server to ~/.config/devin/mcp_config.json (%APPDATA%\devin\mcp_config.json on Windows) so it applies to every project. Without -s, the command saves to local scope, which is the current project only.
devin mcp add -s user xspeedhub https://app.xspeedcache.com/xspeed/mcp
3Sign in
Run the login command and approve access on the xSpeed Hub page that opens in your browser. There is no token to paste, and the client keeps the credentials it receives. If the server later shows Needs auth in the Devin Local MCP list, click Authenticate, or run devin mcp logout and then login again.
devin mcp login xspeedhub
Full Windsurf 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. The Devin Local agent prompts for approval before it calls any MCP tool. In the prompt you can allow that one tool or every tool on the xspeedhub server, for this session or permanently, and permission rules such as mcp__xspeedhub__get_cache_status allow, deny or always ask for a named tool. Smart mode lets a fast model run what it judges safe without a prompt, and Bypass mode approves everything, so with either of those a write reaches the Hub as soon as your connection allows writes. xSpeed Hub has no confirmation step of its own.
What do I ask?
Three prompts written for Windsurf. More for this job are below.
The deploy finished. Use xSpeed Hub to warm shop and tell me what the preloader reports.
With xSpeed Hub, check the preloader on blog and say whether it is still running.
Use xSpeed Hub to stop the preloader on shop for now. I will start it again tonight.
What happens, step by step
The first visitor to an uncached page pays for building it. The preloader fixes that by visiting your pages first. Through xSpeed Hub an agent can start the crawl on one site or on every site in a workspace, watch how far it has got, and stop it. The crawl runs inside WordPress in the background; the agent only starts it, reads its progress and stops it.
01
Check the cache and the preloader
get_cache_status tells the agent whether page caching is on, because there is nothing to fill when it is off. get_preloader_status shows whether a crawl is already running, so the agent does not start a second one.
02
Make sure the preloader is switched on
The preloader module is off on a fresh install, and the site refuses start_preloader until it is on. The agent can read the module with get_settings and, if you agree, switch it on with update_settings on the preloader module. The Hub tells the agent to briefly confirm intent before an update_settings call, but that is guidance to the agent, not a lock.
03
Start the crawl
start_preloader makes the site read its sitemap, follow any nested sitemap indexes, drop URLs that your cache exclusion rules skip, and queue the rest. The call returns once the queue is built; the pages are then fetched in the background, a few per run. For every site at once the agent passes site: "all", and the Hub starts the sites one after another with a one-second pause.
04
Watch the progress
get_preloader_status reports whether a crawl is running, how many URLs it has processed out of the total, the last URL it visited and the most recent errors. It works on one site at a time, so for several sites the agent calls it once per site.
05
Read what failed
A page that answers 403 or 406 usually means a server firewall is blocking the warmer by its user-agent, not that the page is broken. The status message names the user-agent to allow. A crawl that queues no URLs is reported as an error with the reason, not as a success.
06
Stop it if the server struggles
stop_preloader ends a running crawl. It is safe mid-run: pages already warmed stay cached. The agent can stop one site or every site in the workspace.
Reference
| Start and stop | start_preloader and stop_preloader (write) |
|---|---|
| Progress | get_preloader_status (read): running or not, processed out of total, last URL, recent errors |
| What gets crawled | The sitemap (the WordPress one at /wp-sitemap.xml unless you set another), nested indexes followed, excluded URLs skipped |
| Needs | The preloader module switched on (it is off by default) and page caching on |
| Pages per run | 5 by default, 1 to 50, set in the preloader module |
| Schedule setting | manual, hourly, daily or weekly, set in the preloader module |
| Every site at once | start_preloader and stop_preloader accept site: "all"; get_preloader_status does not |
| Fan-out pacing | Sites start one after another with a 1 second pause, one result per site |
| Warmer user-agent | xSpeed-Warmer/1.0, the string a firewall rule would need to allow |
| Stopping | Safe mid-run; warmed pages stay cached |
| Read-only access | A Viewer member's sign-in, or the connection token with Read-only everywhere on: start_preloader and stop_preloader are refused; get_preloader_status works. An OAuth sign-in by anyone else gets the scopes the client asks for. |
| Confirmation | None on the Hub; your client's prompt is the gate |
Rules worth keeping
- Warm after a purge, not instead of one. The Hub tells the agent that starting the preloader after a purge saves the next visitor from paying for the rebuild.
- A crawl requests every page in the sitemap, so it adds load to the origin. Start with one site, and on a small host keep Pages per run low or stop the crawl if the site slows.
- start_preloader and stop_preloader are write tools. The Hub calls the preloader low-risk and only asks the agent to confirm when the target site is unclear or the call covers every site, so your client's approval prompt and read-only access (a Viewer sign-in, or the connection token with Read-only everywhere on) are the gates that matter.
- A fan-out only starts the crawls. Check each site with get_preloader_status afterwards, and treat some sites failing to start as a partial result, not a failure of the whole call.
Good to know with Windsurf
Allow get_preloader_status with a rule and leave start_preloader and stop_preloader on the prompt. Allowing the whole xspeedhub server from the prompt lets both writes through, on any site the agent names. If the server shows Needs auth in the Devin Local MCP list, click Authenticate, or run the login again. Cascade can use at most 100 tools at a time across all your servers, so keep the list short enough that the 29 xSpeed tools are not cut off.
More prompts for this job
They work in any client connected to xSpeed Hub.
Use xSpeed Hub to start the preloader on shop and tell me how many URLs it queued.
Using xSpeed Hub, how far through its crawl is blog? Show processed against total and any errors.
With xSpeed Hub, purge the cache on docs, then warm it again.
Use xSpeed Hub to start the preloader on every site in my workspace and tell me which ones refused.
Use xSpeed Hub to stop the preloader on shop. It is slowing the server down.
The preloader on shop says it is disabled. Use xSpeed Hub to turn the module on, then start the crawl.
Using xSpeed Hub, which of my sites has no running crawl and a low hit ratio?
Frequently asked questions
Keep going
Warm the cache with other agents
More with Windsurf
Documentation
- How to warm your cache ahead of visitors
- How to crawl your sitemap
- How to enable Page Cache
- Managing your fleet with xSpeed Hub
- How to write prompts for xSpeed Hub
- Windsurf + xSpeed
- Every AI agent that works with xSpeed
From the blog