bricks-sidebars

name	bricks-sidebars
description	Use when registering or managing custom WordPress sidebars through Bricks: "add a Shop sidebar", "rename the footer widget area". Covers `bricks_sidebars` option shape and how Bricks sidebars surface in WP's widget admin.

Requires: Bricks 2.4+ with the Abilities API enabled

Update check

Run first when filesystem tools are available:

_BS_UPDATE_CHECK=""
for _CAND in "$HOME/.bricks/skills/bricks-skills/scripts/bricks-skills-update-check" "$PWD/scripts/bricks-skills-update-check" "$HOME/.claude/skills/bricks-skills/scripts/bricks-skills-update-check" "$HOME/.codex/skills/bricks-skills/scripts/bricks-skills-update-check"; do
  [ -f "$_CAND" ] && _BS_UPDATE_CHECK="$_CAND" && break
done
[ -n "$_BS_UPDATE_CHECK" ] && sh "$_BS_UPDATE_CHECK" || true

If it prints BRICKS_SKILLS_UPDATE_AVAILABLE <old> <new> <tag>, load bricks-skills-update before continuing. If it prints BRICKS_SKILLS_JUST_UPDATED <old> <new>, mention the new version and continue.

Bricks: sidebars (via MCP)

Bricks registers its own sidebars (widget areas) on top of theme-provided sidebars. They appear in Appearance > Widgets and in the Bricks Sidebar element picker.

Storage: bricks_sidebars option, as an ordered array of { id, name, description } rows (includes/abilities/sidebars.php).

Abilities

• bricks/list-sidebars: returns { sidebars, total }.
• bricks/create-sidebar: body { name, description? }. The ID is derived from the name.
• bricks/update-sidebar: body { sidebarId, name?, description? }. ID is immutable.
• bricks/delete-sidebar: body { sidebarId }. Deletes the Bricks sidebar row and removes the same key from WP core sidebars_widgets.

ID generation

You do not send an ID on create. Bricks derives it:

1. Lowercase the name.
2. Replace spaces with underscores.
3. Strip every character except a-z, 0-9, and _.

Example:

bricks/create-sidebar { name: "Shop Sidebar", description: "Product filters" }
  -> { sidebar: { id: "shop_sidebar", name: "Shop Sidebar", description: "Product filters" } }

Avoid names that collapse to the same ID, such as Shop Sidebar and Shop-Sidebar.

What Bricks does automatically

• Calls register_sidebar() for every Bricks sidebar during widgets_init.
• Supplies default before_widget, after_widget, before_title, and after_title wrappers.
• Surfaces the sidebar in the Sidebar element picker.

The duplicate check compares Bricks sidebar IDs and names. It does not prove the ID is unique against every theme-registered sidebar. Avoid common theme IDs such as sidebar-1, footer-1, and shop_sidebar.

Tool availability

If a bricks/* ability is not available as a direct tool: first check whether it is outside the fast path and call it through mcp-adapter-execute-ability with ability_name: "bricks/<name>". If the dispatcher also rejects it, call bricks-list-ability-status to check whether a site admin disabled it under Bricks > AI.

Typical flow: add a Shop sidebar, assign widgets

bricks/create-sidebar { name: "Shop Sidebar", description: "Product filters" }
  -> { sidebar: { id: "shop_sidebar", name: "Shop Sidebar", description: "Product filters" } }

# Widgets are still WordPress core. Assign them via Appearance > Widgets or the widgets REST API.

bricks/add-element
  postId: 99
  parentId: "main-content"
  element:
    name: "sidebar"
    settings:
      sidebarId: "shop_sidebar"

Don't

• Don't send { id, name } to create-sidebar; current schema accepts name and optional description.
• Don't assume deleted sidebar widgets move to inactive widgets. The delete ability removes the sidebar key from sidebars_widgets.
• Don't rename a sidebar by deleting and recreating it. Use update-sidebar to keep the ID stable.