MCP Logs vs Spyglasses – AI Traffic Analytics

AI agents talk to WordPress sites directly now. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and a growing list of MCP clients can connect to your site, read content, place orders, edit posts, or call any custom tool you expose. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the open standard that makes this possible. The problem is that by default you cannot see any of it. Requests arrive, things change, and there is no record of what an agent did, when it did it, or which user it acted as. MCP Logs writes a row for every MCP request the moment it hits your site. You get the route, the ability that was called, the user it acted as, the request body, the response, and whether it succeeded. All of it is browsable in a React admin page built with @wordpress/components, so it looks and behaves like the rest of WordPress. Version 1.1.0 adds the other half: detection rules that watch the traffic as it arrives, email alerts when one trips, and a kill switch that stops all MCP access in one click. A log you can actually search Filter by date range, ability name, and user. Sort any column, set page size between 10 and 500, and run full-text search across stored request and response bodies. Click a row to open the request and response in collapsible panels, copy either to your clipboard, or trace a single agent session end to end. Export the current view to CSV when you need to hand findings to someone else. Detection rules that run on every request Three rules evaluate after each logged request: Request velocity per session. Catches an agent stuck in a loop. Destructive tool use. Watches a list of abilities you nominate. It can populate that list for you by scanning previously seen tool names for delete, remove, and drop. Error storms. Catches an integration that has started failing. Each rule has its own enable toggle, threshold, time window, severity, and auto-disable setting. Detected events land in a Security Events tab with filters, stat cards, CSV export, and a per-event “mark as reviewed” so your queue reflects what you have already handled. Open any event and Session Replay steps through the full request timeline for that MCP session. Alerts arrive as HTML email stating whether the offending request ran or was blocked, with a one-click, nonce-protected link to disable MCP access. A 15-minute cooldown per rule and per session stops an alert storm. There is an optional daily digest, separate recipient lists for alerts and digests, and a test button so you can confirm delivery before you rely on it. A kill switch that keeps the record Turn off all MCP access from the admin screen, or let a detection rule trip it for you. Blocked requests are still logged before they are rejected, so the audit trail stays complete while access is off. Callers get a 503 explaining why access was disabled and when. A site-wide admin notice stays up until you turn it back on. Works with whichever MCP server you run MCP Logs is not an MCP server for your site and does not expose your content to agents. It detects requests by the Mcp-Session-Id header, which is part of the MCP transport spec, so traffic from any compliant server lands in the same table. If your site runs more than one, you get one log instead of several. Built for both halves of the audience If you run the site: install, activate, and open Tools then MCP Logs. There is no setup screen and no configuration. Logging starts the moment an MCP client makes a request. If you build on it: there is a full REST API covering every admin feature, authenticated via WordPress Application Passwords or WooCommerce API keys. The plugin is also MCP-aware itself, registering a server with ten abilities so an agent can introspect its own activity log. Source ships under src/ and builds with npm run build. Why log deletion is not exposed to AI agents The plugin registers ten MCP abilities. The two log-deletion abilities, clear-old-logs and clear-all-logs, are deliberately left out of that set. The same tool set reads log content that an untrusted caller can influence. Pairing that with a one-call wipe would let planted text steer an administrator’s agent into erasing the audit trail. Deletion stays available in the admin screen and over REST, where a human is doing it. Sites that accept the trade-off can re-add the abilities with the alfmcp_mcp_server_abilities filter. REST API Eighteen endpoints under /wp-json/activity-log-for-mcp/v1/: GET /requests for a list with filters, sort, and pagination GET /stats for totals, success rate, and calls per ability GET /sessions/{id} for every request in a session, in order GET /search for full-text search across routes, abilities, and bodies GET /errors for recent failed executions and HTTP errors GET /tool-performance for per-ability call count, error rate, and unique users GET /filters for distinct ability names and users GET /export-csv for a server-side streamed CSV download DELETE /requests to clear all logs DELETE /retention to delete logs older than a given date GET /security-events for detected events with filters and pagination GET /security-events/stats for alert counts, active sessions, and top rule over 7 days GET /security-events/export-csv for a CSV of detected events PUT /security-events/{id}/acknowledge to mark an event reviewed DELETE /security-events/clear-acknowledged to remove reviewed events GET|PUT /security-settings to read or update detection and alerting settings POST /security-settings/test-alert to send a test alert email MCP abilities The plugin registers an MCP server (activity-log-for-mcp-server) with ten abilities: get-activity for paginated log retrieval with filters get-stats for summary metrics with an optional date range get-activity-by-session for a full session trace, with optional body exclusion for lighter payloads search-activity for full-text search across stored requests and responses analyze-errors for recent errors with full details get-tool-performance for per-ability performance metrics get-security-events for detected events with filters get-security-stats for alert counts, active sessions, and top rule over 7 days acknowledge-event to mark a security event reviewed test-alert to send a test alert email Privacy and data handling Everything stays in your WordPress database. Logs live in {prefix}alfmcp_requests and detected events in {prefix}alfmcp_security_events. There is no telemetry, no third-party call, and no external dependency at runtime. Credential-bearing headers including Authorization, Cookie, and X-Api-Key are replaced with [redacted] before anything is written, so the log never becomes a store of replayable credentials. Add your own header names with the alfmcp_sensitive_headers filter. Request and response bodies are stored up to 64 KB each and truncated beyond that, adjustable with alfmcp_max_body_bytes. You control retention and can clear everything from the admin screen or over REST. Disclaimer MCP Logs is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any AI provider or the Model Context Protocol project. “MCP” and “Model Context Protocol” are referenced solely to describe the open protocol that this plugin observes. Privacy Policy MCP Logs records REST API requests that contain the Mcp-Session-Id header. Logged data includes request routes, methods, headers, bodies, response data, user IDs, and timestamps. Credential-bearing headers are redacted before storage. All data is stored in your WordPress database and is never transmitted to external services.

Important: This plugin requires a free account with Spyglasses. Sign up at spyglasses.io to get your API key. By using this plugin, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Spyglasses provides advanced detection for AI agents, bots, and AI referrer traffic that interacts with your WordPress site. Key Features AI Agent Detection: Automatically detect traffic from AI browsing assistants AI Referrer Tracking: Identify human visitors who clicked links from AI-generated content Real-time Monitoring: Track and monitor AI-related traffic to your site Bot Blocking: Selectively block specific AI agents or entire categories of bots AI Model Trainer Protection: Prevent AI systems from scraping your content for model training Dashboard Insights: View detailed analytics on AI traffic via the Spyglasses dashboard Central Management: Configure all blocking settings from your Spyglasses dashboard Lightweight: Minimal impact on site performance and user experience Easy Setup: Simple configuration with just an API key Auto-Updating Patterns: Automatically syncs with latest AI detection patterns daily Smart Filtering: Automatically excludes WordPress internal processes to prevent log pollution Cache-Friendly: Fully compatible with all major caching plugins including LiteSpeed Cache, WP Super Cache, W3TC, WP Rocket, and more Reliable Fallbacks: Local pattern storage ensures detection continues working even during API outages How It Works Spyglasses uses pattern recognition to identify: AI agents and bots visiting your site through user-agent detection Human visitors from AI platforms through referrer detection When AI-related traffic is detected, information about the visit is securely sent to the Spyglasses collector for analysis and reporting. You can also choose to block specific types of bots from accessing your site through your Spyglasses dashboard. Privacy & Transparency Spyglasses only collects information about AI-related traffic, not about your regular human visitors. All code is open source and available for review on GitHub. External Services This plugin connects to external Spyglasses API services to provide AI traffic detection and analytics functionality. A Spyglasses account is required for the plugin to work. Spyglasses Pattern API What it does: Downloads the latest AI agent detection patterns to keep your site’s bot detection up-to-date. API Endpoint: https://www.spyglasses.io/api/patterns Data sent: Your API key for authentication When: Daily automatic sync (if enabled) or manual sync from plugin settings Purpose: Ensures your site can detect the newest AI agents and bots as they emerge Spyglasses Collector API What it does: Receives and processes data about AI agent and other bot visits to your website for analytics and reporting. API Endpoint: https://www.spyglasses.io/api/collect Data sent when an AI agent or bot is detected: * IP Address of the AI agent/bot * User Agent string of the AI agent/bot * URL/web page that was visited * HTTP request headers from the AI agent/bot * Request method (GET, POST, etc.) * Response status code and timing * Referrer information (if available) * Timestamp of the visit When: Only when traffic matching AI agent or bot patterns is detected on your site Purpose: Provides analytics dashboard showing AI traffic patterns, blocked requests, and detailed visitor logs Important: No data about regular human visitors is collected or sent. Only traffic that matches known AI agent patterns triggers data collection. Service Provider Both services are provided by Orchestra AI, Inc.: Website: spyglasses.io Terms of Service: spyglasses.io/legal/terms Privacy Policy: spyglasses.io/legal/privacy-policy