Install the NORG Edge Router WordPress plugin

What the plugin does

A person in a browser	Your site, unchanged
Googlebot, Bingbot and other search crawlers	Your site, unchanged (always; there is no setting for this)
A verified AI agent, page already rendered by NORG	The NORG render, at your own URL, with no redirect
A verified AI agent, page not rendered yet	Your page stripped to its text, while NORG renders it

AI agents are verified by their IP address against the ranges their operators publish. It never breaks your site: if anything fails, or NORG cannot be reached, visitors get your normal page. How much latency it adds, measured on our own test site, is on the performance results page.

Install the plugin

In NORG, open Publishing › CDN & Edge, choose WordPress plugin and click Create WordPress install. You get the plugin download, a Site ID and a Site Key. The key is shown once, so copy it straight away.

In WordPress, go to Plugins › Add New › Upload Plugin, upload the zip and activate it. WordPress 6.0 or newer and PHP 7.4 or newer are needed.

Connect it to NORG

Open Settings › NORG Edge Router, paste the Site ID and Site Key, and save. Hosts and agencies can set them in wp-config.php instead, which keeps the key out of the database:

// wp-config.php, above "That's all, stop editing!"
define( 'NORG_SITE_ID',  'your-site-id-from-norg' );
define( 'NORG_SITE_KEY', 'nek_live_your_site_key' );

Or with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install <plugin-zip-url> --activate
wp norg-edge configure --site-id=<site-id> --site-key=<site-key>
wp norg-edge check

Or let NORG do the pasting — it cannot install the plugin (WordPress installs only from wordpress.org), so upload and activate the zip first: on the NORG page, open Let NORG connect the plugin for you and enter a WordPress administrator username and an Application Password (WordPress: Users › Profile › Application Passwords). NORG sets the Site ID and Site Key, runs the self-check and activates the already-uploaded plugin. If your site blocks its REST API or Application Passwords, NORG says so and the steps above still work.

If your site sits behind a proxy such as Cloudflare (without the NORG worker), set Visitor IP comes from to match, or no agent can be verified.

Verify

Click Run checks on the plugin's settings page. It sends real requests to your own site as a person, as Googlebot and as a verified AI agent, and every row should be green. The same results appear in Tools › Site Health. Within seconds the install shows as active in NORG.

From anywhere, with your Site Key:

curl -s -H "x-norg-edge-check: <your-site-key>" https://your-site.example/ | head -c 200
# {"site_id":"…","version":"0.1.1","platform":"wordpress","entitled":true,…}

curl -sI https://your-site.example/some-page/ | grep -i x-norg-edge
# no output: people get your site unchanged

Page caches

Most cache plugins answer from a saved copy before WordPress runs, so an AI agent could get the cached human page and the plugin would never see it. The plugin fixes this for you, and Run checks proves it: the row "AI agents reach plugin" turns green only when an agent's request really reaches WordPress.

WP Rocket	Adds the AI agents to its rejected user agents and regenerates its config and .htaccess.
LiteSpeed Cache	Adds them to "Do Not Cache User Agents"; LiteSpeed writes the server rule.
WP Super Cache	Adds them to rejected user agents and installs a small extension so cached pages are never served to them.
WP Fastest Cache	Adds user-agent exclude rules; it writes the matching .htaccess conditions.
W3 Total Cache	Adds them to its rejected user agents.
FlyingPress	Stops it caching agent requests; turn on the .htaccess bypass block in the plugin settings (Apache/LiteSpeed).
Cache Enabler	Cannot be bypassed from a plugin. Ask your host for a rule, or use another cache plugin.

Managed hosts such as Kinsta, WP Engine, Flywheel, SiteGround or Cloudways cache in front of WordPress itself. The plugin detects them and lists the exact user agents to send your host; nginx hosts can use a rule like this:

# For your host (nginx FastCGI cache): never serve a cached page to these agents
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(gptbot|claudebot|perplexitybot)") { set $skip_cache 1; }

On WP Engine no support ticket is needed: one Internal rewrite Web Rule in the User Portal marks agent requests so the cache never answers them; that guide gives the rule, the check and the undo. Every setting and header the plugin has is in the technical reference.

Updates and switching off

The plugin updates itself from NORG like any other plugin, automatically by default. Each update is checked against its published checksum before it is installed. To switch it off instantly, tick Disable in its settings, deactivate it, or add this line:

// wp-config.php: switch the plugin off without logging in
define( 'NORG_EDGE_DISABLED', true );

Using Cloudflare after all? The Cloudflare Worker install runs before any cache and needs no plugin.