OpenStation vs Iris AI – AI Homepage, Chatbot & Site Assistant

wp-admin forgets. OpenStation doesn’t. You know the moment. You’re deep in a post and you need one image from the Media Library. You click over, find it, click back, and everything you had going is gone. Your scroll position, your half-typed thought, the three other things you had queued up in your head. That’s not a bug you hit. That’s the design. wp-admin shows you one screen at a time, and every navigation throws the last one away. It has worked this way since 2003, like a fridge that empties itself every time you close the door. WordPress has rebuilt almost everything else. The editor, the site editor, the patterns, the styles. The admin’s one-screen-at-a-time model is the layer nobody touched. OpenStation touches it. Install it and admin screens become draggable, resizable windows. Edit a post while the Media Library sits open next to it. Drag an image from one window straight into the other. Keep comments open in the corner. Reload the browser and your window layout — open pages, positions, sizes, and window states — comes back where you left it. OpenStation itself is free, GPL, and opt-in per user. One click in the admin bar turns it on for you. One click turns it off. Nobody else on your site sees anything change, and deactivating the plugin restores the classic admin exactly. No Core patches and no lock-in. Optional AI providers may charge for their service. Built and maintained by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Jetpack, WooCommerce, and Tumblr. Work on more than one thing at once Admin pages open as windows, including pages added by most other plugins. Drag them, resize them, snap them, tile them, minimize them to a taskbar. The admin menu becomes a dock of icons. Two editors open at once is one click away. Never lose your place Moving between open windows leaves each page in place. Across reloads, OpenStation remembers your open pages, window positions, sizes and states, virtual desktops, and focus. Closing a window with unsaved changes warns you first. A desk you can actually put things on Drop posts, media, and links right onto the wallpaper. Sort them into folders. Trash them to a Trash that actually holds things. The stuff you’re working on this week can just sit out where you can see it. One desktop per job Virtual desktops, the way your operating system does them. One for writing. One for the store. One for comment triage. One for that redesign you keep poking at. Switch between them without closing anything. Find anything with Cmd+K The full WordPress command palette, plus slash commands from your plugins, all under one keystroke. Turn on the optional AI assistant and you can ask it things like “which post had the comment asking for the recipe?” and it searches your own content to answer. (Requires an AI provider configured in Settings → Connectors on WordPress 7.0+. Details under “External services” below.) See how your site fits together The Corkboard is an interactive, zoomable map of how your posts, pages, and products link to each other. Pan around it. Find the orphans. Find the hubs. Running a store? Orders, Products, Coupons, and Customers become browsable folders with stock and sale ribbons. Open a customer to see their lifetime spend and what they buy most. Follow a product to its buyers, or a coupon to who redeemed it. Make it yours Wallpapers, from color presets to animated scenes to your own photo. Live widgets pinned to the desktop: drafts, stats, recent comments, a focus timer. Uploadable desktop themes, including a built-in Legacy theme that brings the old WordPress blue back in one click. And Mio, a soft-body desk companion that drifts across your wallpaper and gets bumped around by your windows. Off by default. You’ll turn it on. For developers Extend OpenStation through documented PHP and JavaScript APIs. Register windows, icons, wallpapers, widgets, commands, and settings tabs through stable openstation_register_* PHP APIs and a typed JavaScript API; customize dock items through documented hooks; add AI tools with the WordPress Abilities API. Copy-paste examples live in the developer docs on GitHub. External services No external service is required for OpenStation’s desktop interface. The optional AI Assistant and two user-initiated enrichment features make the external requests described below. AI Assistant The optional AI Assistant sends data to the AI provider you configure in WordPress’s Settings → Connectors (for example OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google). Generation is routed through WordPress 7.0’s built-in AI Client, which supplies the credentials stored in Connectors. The plugin never handles an API key itself. With no provider configured in Connectors, no external AI requests are made. When the AI Assistant is enabled and a user invokes it (via Cmd+K or the slash-command palette): What is sent: the user’s prompt, the conversation history for the active session, and tool-call metadata. The plugin’s built-in tools (search_posts, search_pages, search_comments) run WordPress’s native keyword search and may include excerpts of the matching posts/pages/comments in tool results, which are then sent back to the provider as part of the agentic loop. When it is sent: on user-initiated AI requests, and (if an administrator enables “Score new comments with AI”) on comment-save hooks for spam analysis. Posts, pages, and taxonomy terms are not sent automatically. Why it is sent: to obtain model completions and tool-call decisions that drive the AI Assistant. Who provides the service: whichever provider you configured in Settings → Connectors. Which provider (and endpoint) receives the data depends entirely on that configuration. Review the chosen provider’s own terms and privacy policy (e.g. OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google). URL shortcut favicons When an authorized user creates a desktop shortcut to an external URL, OpenStation asks that URL for its page HTML and favicon so the shortcut can display the site’s icon. The request is made from your WordPress server and sends the requested URL, the server’s IP address, an OpenStation user-agent string, and normal HTTP request metadata to the operator of that site. This happens only when a user creates the shortcut. The destination site’s terms and privacy policy apply. WordPress.org plugin information When an authorized user opens or refreshes parts of OpenStation’s Plugins window, OpenStation may request public plugin details, update metadata, and review excerpts from WordPress.org. These requests send plugin slugs, the site’s locale, and normal HTTP request metadata to WordPress.org. This information is used only to display and manage plugins. Review the WordPress.org Privacy Policy. OpenStation’s OAuth relay does not contact a service by itself. Third-party plugins that configure the relay may contact their own providers and are responsible for disclosing those services. Credits OpenStation is brought to you by Automattic. The plugin is open source under GPLv2-or-later; contributions are welcome on GitHub. Third-party libraries The plugin bundles the following third-party JavaScript library, loaded on demand only when a feature that needs it is in use: PixiJS (MIT License) — used by the Corkboard window, built-in canvas wallpapers (e.g. the animated WordPress logo), the Mio desk companion, and the Inkfall typing game. PixiJS is loaded from the plugin’s own assets/vendor/ directory; no CDN requests are made. Data files The Inkfall game’s word list (assets/games/inkfall/words.txt) is generated from the following sources (attribution also ships in the file’s header): FrequencyWords by Hermit Dave (CC-BY-SA 4.0) — English word-frequency ranking derived from the OpenSubtitles corpus. english-words by dwyl (Unlicense) — used as a validity filter. LDNOOBW English list (CC-BY 4.0) — used as an exclusion filter.

IrisAI brings powerful AI chat capabilities to your WordPress site with semantic vector search (RAG) and source citations. Choose between two flexible connection modes and deploy with either a beautiful full-page chat interface or a convenient floating widget. Watch the full setup & demo video: Key Features Dual Interface Options – Full-page chat with hero section and wave animations, or floating chat widget with customizable positioning Vector Search (RAG) – Semantic search of your content using embeddings with automatic source citations Flexible Connection Modes – Proxy Mode (IrisAI hosted service) or BYO Mode (bring your own OpenAI API key) Complete Customization – Custom system prompts, configurable AI models, adjustable token limits, brand colors Privacy & Security – API keys never exposed to frontend, all requests server-side, GDPR compliance features Features – Multi-site support, chat history, auto-inject widget, rate limiting protection Perfect For Customer support automation Website FAQs and knowledge base E-commerce product assistance Educational content interaction Documentation search Internal company wikis How It Works Connect – Choose Proxy or BYO mode and enter credentials Index – Select content types and start vector indexing Deploy – Add shortcode or enable auto-inject widget Customize – Adjust colors, prompts, and behavior to match your brand Privacy First IrisAI respects user privacy and data protection. Keys stored securely in WordPress database, server-side API calls only, optional privacy mode disables query logging, user consent checkbox for AI processing, and GDPR-ready features included. Documentation Complete setup guide and documentation available in the plugin’s Usage tab. Get step-by-step instructions, troubleshooting tips, and best practices. Frontend Dependencies This plugin includes the following open-source libraries: sine-waves.min.js – MIT License – Wave animation effects (https://github.com/isuttell/sine-waves) three.min.js – MIT License – 3D graphics library (https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js) External Services This plugin connects to external APIs to provide AI-powered chat responses and semantic (vector-based) search functionality. The plugin may communicate with the following third-party services, depending on how it is configured by the site administrator. IrisAI Proxy Service (api.irisai.cloud) When using Proxy Mode, this plugin sends requests to the IrisAI proxy service to process AI chat queries and vector search requests. What the service is used for • AI chat responses • Semantic (vector-based) search over your site content • Usage tracking, rate limiting, and billing management What data is sent • User chat messages • Relevant indexed site content (for vector search) • Website domain (for license verification) • API authentication token When data is sent • When a user submits a chat query • When content is indexed for vector search Service provider IrisAI Website: https://irisai.cloud Terms of Service https://irisai.cloud/terms Privacy Policy https://irisai.cloud/privacy OpenAI API (api.openai.com) When using BYO (Bring Your Own API Key) Mode, or when the IrisAI proxy forwards requests, this plugin communicates directly or indirectly with OpenAI’s API. What the service is used for • Generating AI-powered chat responses • Processing embeddings for semantic search What data is sent • User chat messages • Relevant indexed site content (for vector search) When data is sent • When a user submits a chat query • When content is indexed for semantic search Service provider OpenAI, L.L.C. Website: https://openai.com Terms of Service https://openai.com/terms Privacy Policy https://openai.com/privacy Anthropic Claude API (api.anthropic.com) When administrators configure BYO mode with an Anthropic Claude API key, the plugin communicates with Anthropic’s API for chat completions and embeddings (when supported). What the service is used for • Generating AI-powered chat responses via Claude • Processing semantic search/embedding data (where available) What data is sent • User chat messages • Relevant indexed site content (for vector search) When data is sent • When a user submits a chat query • When content is indexed for semantic search Service provider Anthropic PBC Website: https://www.anthropic.com Terms of Service https://www.anthropic.com/legal/terms-of-service Privacy Policy https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy Google Gemini API (generativelanguage.googleapis.com) When administrators configure BYO mode with a Google Gemini API key (via Google AI Studio / Vertex AI), the plugin calls Google’s Generative Language API for chat completions or embeddings. What the service is used for • Generating AI-powered chat responses via Gemini • Processing embeddings for semantic/Knowledge Index search What data is sent • User chat messages • Relevant indexed site content (for vector search) When data is sent • When a user submits a chat query • When content is indexed for semantic search Service provider Google LLC Website: https://ai.google.dev Terms of Service https://ai.google.dev/terms Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy Usage Examples Shortcodes Full-Page Chat: [irisai_chat] Creates a beautiful full-page AI chat interface with hero section, animated wave background, large search input, suggestion chips, real-time AI responses, and source citations. Floating Widget: [irisai_widget] [irisai_widget position="bottom-right"] [irisai_widget position="bottom-left"] [irisai_widget position="top-right"] [irisai_widget position="top-left"] Creates a floating chat button that opens a popup window with compact chat interface, persistent chat history, and mobile-friendly fullscreen. Knowledge Index Setup Go to Settings > IrisAI > Knowledge Index Select content types to index (Posts, Pages, Custom Post Types) Configure chunk size (200-2000 characters, default: 900) Configure chunk overlap (0-500 characters, default: 150) Click “Start Indexing” to begin background processing Enable “Auto Re-index” to automatically update on content changes System Prompt Customization Customize the AI’s behavior with system prompts using available variables: {site} – Your website URL {lang} – User language preference Example customizations by business type: E-commerce: “Always mention our 30-day return policy when asked about returns” Service Business: “For pricing questions, invite users to schedule a consultation” Restaurant: “For reservations, direct users to call (555) 123-4567” Best Practices For best results: Use full-width page template for [irisai_chat] Index your most important content first Add 5-8 relevant prompt suggestions Keep system prompt clear and concise Test on mobile devices before launch Enable privacy mode if handling sensitive data Recommended setup: Use [irisai_chat] on dedicated page: “AI Assistant” or “Ask AI” Enable auto-inject widget for site-wide access This gives users both a destination and quick access Token recommendations: 800-1000 tokens: Normal chat (balanced responses) 1500-2000 tokens: Developer mode or detailed explanations 3000-6000 tokens: Long-form content or article generation Troubleshooting Chat not working? Verify API credentials in General tab Check domain is registered in proxy dashboard (Proxy Mode) Ensure sufficient credits (Proxy Mode) Confirm content is indexed (Knowledge Index tab) Check browser console for JavaScript errors Enable WP_DEBUG in wp-config.php for detailed logs Vector search not finding content? Confirm indexing completed successfully Check selected content types are correct Try re-indexing content Clear Knowledge Index cache (General tab) Verify chunk size isn’t too large or small Widget not appearing? Check auto-inject is enabled (Widget tab) Verify no JavaScript conflicts Clear browser and WordPress cache Check theme compatibility Try manual shortcode placement Privacy Policy IrisAI is designed with privacy in mind: API Keys: Stored securely in WordPress database, never exposed to frontend Chat Queries: Optional logging (disabled in privacy mode) Chat History: Stored in user’s browser localStorage (client-side only) Vector Data: Your content chunks stored in WordPress database for search Usage Stats: Available only in Proxy Mode dashboard (irisai.cloud) What data is sent to third parties: OpenAI: User queries and relevant content chunks (when BYO or Proxy mode is used) IrisAI Proxy: Only in Proxy Mode – queries, API authentication, usage tracking No other third parties receive data User rights: Users can clear their chat history via “New Chat” button Site owners can disable query logging (Privacy Mode) Complete data removal via clean uninstall option Recommendations: If you use IrisAI on your site, we recommend adding AI data processing to your privacy policy, implementing user consent (checkbox available in Advanced settings), enabling privacy mode for GDPR compliance if needed, and informing users their questions are processed by AI. Uninstall When you delete IrisAI via the Plugins screen, you can optionally remove all plugin data including settings, Knowledge Index data, cached search results, and database tables. To perform clean uninstall: Go to Settings > IrisAI > Advanced tab Enable “Remove data on uninstall” option Save changes Deactivate the plugin Delete the plugin from Plugins screen All data will be removed automatically Credits This plugin incorporates the following third-party library: *Smalot PDF Parser**: Used for parsing and extracting text from PDF files. This library is developed by Smalot and distributed under the MIT License. For more details, visit the Smalot PDF Parser GitHub repository. sine-waves by Isaac Suttell three.js by three.js authors Plugin by IrisAI Team Website: https://irisai.cloud