Pre-publish checks via Claude

[pento]

Early idea — this will need significant exploration before building. The questions below need answers and the scope may change substantially during investigation.

Add a pre-publish check panel that uses Claude to verify post readiness before publishing — categories/tags are appropriate, excerpt is present and accurate, and other metadata is in order.

Implementation

Use PluginPrePublishPanel from @wordpress/editor to add a panel to the pre-publish flow (the confirmation screen that appears when clicking "Publish").

Panel UI

• "Check with Claude" button — submits a new command type (e.g., prompt: "pre-publish-check") that asks Claude to review the post's metadata and content for publishing readiness
• Status indicator — shows checking/passed/issues-found states
• Results list — displays Claude's findings (e.g., "No excerpt set", "Consider adding tags", "Featured image missing")
• Results should be actionable where possible: links to the relevant settings panel, or a "Fix with Claude" button that submits a follow-up command

New MCP Prompt: pre-publish-check

A new prompt (or extension of the existing review prompt) focused on publishing readiness rather than editorial quality:

• Are categories/tags set and appropriate for the content?
• Is the excerpt present and does it accurately summarize the post?
• Is a featured image set?
• Is the slug reasonable?
• Any other metadata concerns?

Exploration Questions

• Should this run automatically when the pre-publish panel opens, or only on explicit button click?
• Should it block publishing (return warnings/errors), or just be advisory?
• How do we present results inline in the pre-publish panel — as a checklist, as notes, or as free-text feedback?
• Should findings that Claude can fix automatically (e.g., generating an excerpt) have a one-click "Fix" action?

Acceptance Criteria

• Pre-publish panel appears in the publish flow
• "Check with Claude" triggers a metadata review command
• Results displayed clearly in the panel with actionable items
• Panel handles Claude not connected gracefully
• New pre-publish-check prompt added to MCP server
• Reuses the @wordpress/data store and hooks from AI Actions sidebar panel #32

Part of #28.