This ProcessWire FormBuilder action lets a compatible AI assistant fill a form
with details supplied by a visitor. The visitor can see the prepared answers in
the ordinary form. FormBuilder remains responsible for validation and any
subsequent submission, entries or emails.
The module is alpha. It is best suited to single-page forms at present.
Multi-page forms need further work before they can be recommended. WebMCP
availability also depends on the visitor's browser and assistant; the form
continues to work normally without it.
What is WebMCP?
Imagine a contact form with a hidden spam-check field (often called a
honeypot), Name and Email (required), Phone (optional),
Comments (required) and a Submit button. The visitor tells their
assistant:
My name is Fred. I need some help with my website. Please give me a call on
555 555 555.
The assistant prepares Name as “Fred”, Phone as “555 555 555” and
Comments as “I need some help with my website. Please give me a call.” It
asks Fred for his email address because Email is required and was not
provided; it does not invent one. The hidden spam-check field is left alone.
If Fred had not mentioned a phone number, the optional Phone field would
stay blank. By default, the assistant leaves the prepared form for Fred to
review and press Submit himself.
This is natural-language form filling: the visitor describes what they need,
and their assistant puts the details into the right fields. WebMCP lets the
website tell a compatible assistant which fields it may fill and what each one
expects. That gives the assistant clearer guidance than working out the form
from the page and navigating every control by itself.
The assistant acts for the site visitor. The website offers the guidance but
does not own or control the visitor's assistant. WebMCP adds a convenient way
to prepare the form; if it is unavailable, the ordinary form still works.
For readers who want the technical background, see the
WebMCP draft specification
and Chrome's introduction to WebMCP.
- Install the module in ProcessWire, then open your form in FormBuilder.
- On the Actions tab, select FormBuilder WebMCP preparation and save.
Reopen the form to see the action's settings.
- Check Fields the WebMCP tool may prepare. Supported fields are selected
automatically; untick any that an assistant should leave to the visitor.
- Give the tool a short name and describe what the form is for. If your site
has multiple languages, review the wording for each language.
- Save the form. Visitors can then ask a compatible assistant to prepare it.
Supported fields and technical notes
Using a WebMCP tool can spare an assistant from analysing screenshots, moving
a cursor and reasoning through every control. That can make form preparation
faster and use fewer tokens, which may lower its cost.
Technically, the form exposes a named tool with a description and structured
field information. The assistant can use that information to match a visitor's
request to the right inputs.
The action prepares only fields on the current page. Repeated field types, such
as two text boxes or two date fields, remain separate choices. Common supported
types include text and textarea, email and URL, numbers and dates, checkboxes,
radio buttons, single and multiple choices, Page, Icon, JSON, TextTags and
Toggle. Some special display modes may remain visitor-only. A developer can add
support for a custom input type; third-party types are not included by default.
Password and file uploads, hidden and spam-check fields, and layout or
nested-form controls are never filled by this action. Visitors can still use
the form's ordinary controls themselves.
Review and submission
By default, the tool tells the assistant to stop after preparing the form so
the visitor can review and submit it. For a different workflow, check Omit the
review and submit instruction in the action settings. That checkbox changes
the assistant's wording. It does not make the action submit the form;
submission remains a separate decision for the form owner and visitor.
See CHANGELOG.md for version changes.