An archive of 800 posts is a big job to hand an AI, in both senses. Running a frontier model over every post is real money, and a bulk plugin that writes straight to the database on a site with real traffic is real risk. So the cleanup waits. Goose shrinks both halves of that. The open source agent, started at Block and now at the Linux Foundation, runs no model of its own: point it at the Claude or ChatGPT subscription you already pay for, a cheaper model for the mechanical sweeps, or a local one through Ollama that costs nothing per token. And run through Scratch, none of it can touch your live site.
Scratch pulls your posts, pages, and custom types into a folder on your machine. Goose does 99% of the work there, file by file, whatever model is behind it. The last 1% is yours: every change comes back as a word-level diff, you approve post by post, and Scratch writes only the approved ones back over the REST API. The site your readers are on never sees a draft.
How it works
- Scratch pulls your content into files. Posts, pages, and any custom post types land in a folder on your machine, auto-discovered, one file each, with an
AGENTS.mddescribing the layout. - Goose edits the content. Open the folder in Goose Desktop or start a CLI session inside it. Goose reads the
AGENTS.mdbriefing on startup, so it knows your post types before your first prompt. Add a meta description under 158 characters to every post that is missing one. Goose edits the files, never the live site. - You review every diff and publish. Scratch shows each change beside the original, word by word. Approve what ships, and Scratch writes only those posts back over the REST API.
What people use it for
The archive cleanup that never happens because editing posts one at a time is too slow:
- Add a meta description to every post missing one, each under the character limit.
- Fix inconsistent title case and formatting across the whole archive.
- Refresh older posts that still name a product, price, or policy you have moved on from.
- Write alt text across the media library.
- Tidy excerpts, categories, and tags so archives and feeds read cleanly.
Run it on 50 posts with a small model to settle the prompt. Then decide what the other 750 deserve.
Why not an MCP server?
Goose speaks MCP natively, and a WordPress extension would wire it straight to your live database. The publish step rides inside the connection, so an edit that goes wrong is an edit that already went live, and now you are restoring from a backup instead of rejecting a diff.
Scratch keeps the connection but takes the publish step out of the agent's hands. Goose gets full read and write against a local copy of your content, and the write to the live site is separate, manual, and per-post. On a site with real traffic, that gap is the whole point.
What Goose edits in WordPress
- Post and page bodies, with block content preserved
- Titles, slugs, excerpts, and publication status
- Custom post types and taxonomies, auto-discovered
- Advanced Custom Fields and image alt text across the media library
Templates and template parts are excluded, and post meta is hidden by default, so plugin-owned SEO fields stay out of reach unless you expose them. Validators check length caps and any rule you set, and flag failures right next to the diff. For the full picture, see Scratch for WordPress.
Questions people ask
Is this a WordPress MCP extension for Goose?
No. An extension wires Goose to your live database with the publish step bundled in. With Scratch, Goose's built-in file tools edit a local copy, and publishing is a separate step you approve, one post at a time.
What does running this cost in model fees?
That is your dial to turn. Goose brings whatever model you point it at: the subscription you already pay for, a cheap model for mechanical work, or a local model through Ollama at no per-token cost. The Scratch loop is identical regardless, so you can settle the prompt on a small model and finish the archive with a bigger one.
Will it overwrite the SEO fields my plugin owns?
No. Post meta is hidden by default, so fields managed by your SEO plugin are not in scope unless you explicitly expose them. Templates and template parts are excluded entirely.
Can I roll back a post after it publishes?
Yes. Scratch keeps the original beside the rewrite after publishing, per row. You decide which version stays live.
Goose has an autonomous mode. Is a bulk pass safe?
Yes, because the blast radius is a folder. Goose's permission modes control how freely it edits files, but publishing is not a tool it has in any mode. The step that touches your live site sits in Scratch, behind your approval, post by post.
Do I need to be technical?
No. Goose Desktop is a normal app on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Open the Scratch folder, describe the job, review the diffs. The CLI runs the same agent if you prefer a terminal.
See it on your own archive
The fastest way to trust it is to watch it run on your posts. Book a 30-minute demo on your WordPress site →, or try Scratch free and take the first pass yourself.