Shell access is a smell
The old “AI helper” pattern was: give the model SSH and hope. That’s not a CMS integration — that’s a liability.
A better pattern: scoped tokens, HTTPS only, no shell, content endpoints that match how humans edit.
What an agent should do
- Rewrite a homepage hero
- Fix SEO titles and descriptions
- Upload an OG image
- Publish a blog post
- Export a backup package
What it shouldn’t do: rm -rf, edit PHP on the server, or hold a god-mode password in a chat log forever.
Forma’s Agent API
Create a token in Settings → Agents. Start with:
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer fx_…" \
https://your-site.com/api/v1/help
Scopes carve the blast radius: content:read/write, media:write, settings:write, backup:read. Pair that with Cursor MCP and you get a workflow that feels like pair-programming the site, not the server.
The leash
- Prefer HTTPS (Forma can require it)
- Rotate tokens when they leak into chat (yes, including this one later)
- Keep backups — agents move fast; so do mistakes
AI doesn’t replace judgment. It replaces the boring FTP round-trip.