Launch a digital downloads store with EDD

Selling digital products — ebooks, Notion templates, Lightroom presets, design assets, sample packs — is one of the cleanest businesses you can run on WordPress. No shipping, no inventory, infinite stock. The catch has always been the setup: building out a catalogue, writing a description for every product, setting prices, organizing categories, and wiring the checkout. This guide shows you how to compress that entire build into a conversation with an AI agent, using Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) and NIBWP.

Instead of clicking through the EDD admin for every product, you will describe your catalogue to an agent connected through NIBWP. It reads your store structure, creates the products with prices and categories, drafts the listing copy from your own notes, and stages everything as drafts for you to review — every action typed, validated and logged. By the end you will have a working storefront and a repeatable process for adding products in bulk.

Who this is for

This walkthrough suits solo creators launching a first product, designers turning a folder of assets into a shop, and agencies standing up a downloads store for a client. You do not need to write code — every step is driven by plain-language prompts. You do need to understand what you are selling and have your files ready; the agent handles the structure, not the creativity.

What you will build

• A categorized catalogue of digital products with clean URLs
• A polished, benefit-led description for every product, drafted from your notes
• Logical pricing — single prices, variable pricing tiers, and bundles
• SEO titles and meta descriptions for every product page
• A repeatable bulk-import process for adding dozens of products at once
• A human review gate so nothing goes live until you approve it

Before you start

Three things need to be in place before the agent can do useful work. First, Easy Digital Downloads installed and active — the free core is enough to begin. Second, NIBWP active with an application-password token scoped to write (not publish or admin) so the agent can create drafts but cannot push anything live. Third, an MCP client — Claude Code, Cursor, or Claude Desktop — connected to your NIBWP endpoint. If you have not connected a client yet, follow the overview first.

The stack

Five moving parts, each doing one job:

Step 1 — Connect EDD to your agent

When EDD is active, NIBWP automatically detects it and exposes the download post type, its download_category and download_tag taxonomies, and the EDD price meta as typed tools. You do not configure anything — introspection happens on activation. To confirm the agent can see the store, ask it to describe what it found:

You: What product types and taxonomies can you see on this store?\nnibwp/wp-list-posts { type: download, limit: 1 }\nFound: download (Easy Digital Downloads) - taxonomies: download_category,\ndownload_tag - price meta: edd_price, edd_variable_prices

That single exchange tells you two things: the connection works, and the agent now knows the exact shapes it must produce. From here, every instruction you give is grounded in your real store structure — not a guess.

Step 2 — Plan the catalogue

Good stores are organized before they are filled. Decide your category tree and pricing model first, then let the agent build the scaffold. A preset-shop might use categories like Portrait, Landscape and Film; a template-shop might use Notion, Figma and Spreadsheets. Tell the agent the tree and it creates the terms in one batch:

You: Create download categories: Notion Templates, Figma Kits,\n     Spreadsheet Tools. Add tags: free, premium, bundle.\nnibwp/wp-create-term { taxonomy: download_category, name: ... } x3\nnibwp/wp-create-term { taxonomy: download_tag, name: ... } x3\n3 categories and 3 tags created

Step 3 — Create the products

Now the bulk work. You can create products one at a time, or hand the agent a spreadsheet, a folder listing, or even a paragraph describing your range. It drafts a download for each, sets the category, and applies the price. Crucially, everything lands as a draft — you review before anything is purchasable.

You: Create 8 Notion template products from this list, category\n     Notion Templates, price 19 USD each, status draft.\nnibwp/wp-create-post { type: download, status: draft,\n  tax: { download_category: "Notion Templates" },\n  meta: { edd_price: "19.00" } } x8\n8 download drafts created - all priced and categorized

If your products vary in price, give the agent the data inline or point it at a CSV. Because each call is schema-validated, a malformed price or a missing title is caught before the draft is written — you never end up with a half-broken product.

Step 4 — Write the listing copy

A product with no description does not sell. This is where the agent earns its keep: hand it your rough notes — or just the product name and a few bullet points — and it drafts a benefit-led description, a short excerpt for the catalogue grid, and a feature list. Ask it to match your brand voice and it will keep the tone consistent across the whole catalogue.

You: For each draft product, write a 120-word description and a\n     one-line excerpt from its title and these feature notes. Friendly,\n     concrete, no hype.\nnibwp/wp-update-post { content, excerpt } x8 (force-draft)\n8 products updated with descriptions and excerpts

Step 5 — Set up variable pricing and bundles

Digital products often sell better with tiers. EDD supports variable pricing (multiple price points per product) and bundles (one product that grants several others). The agent can configure both. For a license-tiered template you might ask for Personal, Team and Agency prices; for a launch you might bundle five products at a discount.

{
  "edd_variable_pricing": true,
  "edd_variable_prices": [
    { "name": "Personal", "amount": "19.00" },
    { "name": "Team",     "amount": "49.00" },
    { "name": "Agency",   "amount": "99.00" }
  ]
}

You describe the tiers in plain language; the agent writes the structure above into the product meta. Bundles work the same way — tell it which products belong together and the discount, and it assembles the bundle product for you to review.

Step 6 — Attach files, review and publish

The one thing you keep in your own hands is the files. Upload your deliverables to each product (or have the agent create the download records and you attach the files), then walk the catalogue in the EDD admin. Because everything is still in draft, this review is calm: check a price here, tighten a description there, confirm the right file is attached. When you are happy, bulk-publish.

Step 7 — SEO and launch

Before launch, have the agent generate an SEO title and meta description for every product page, plus alt text for product images, all derived from the descriptions it already wrote. This is the kind of repetitive, high-volume task that is miserable by hand and trivial by prompt:

You: Generate SEO title + meta description for every download,\n     and alt text for each product image.\nnibwp/seo-image-optimize { title, meta, alt } x8\n8 products fully optimized - ready to publish

Going further

Once the core store works, the same connection unlocks a lot more:

• Subscriptions & licensing — with EDD Pro extensions active, ask the agent to set up recurring pricing or software licenses on the products it created.
• Email on launch — pair with the FluentCRM integration and have the agent draft a launch broadcast announcing the new products.
• Landing pages — use a Pro Skill to build a real sales page for your flagship product from a screenshot or brief.
• Catalogue audits — schedule an agent to find products missing images, prices or descriptions and flag them weekly.
• Seasonal pricing — ask it to apply a discount across a category for a sale, then revert it afterwards.

Troubleshooting

The agent cannot see the download type. Confirm EDD is active and your token has at least read scope. NIBWP only exposes plugins that are active at the time of the request.

Prices are not saving. EDD stores single prices in edd_price and tiered prices in edd_variable_prices with edd_variable_pricing set true. If you asked for tiers, make sure variable pricing is enabled on that product.

Products published before I was ready. That only happens with a publish-scoped token. Reissue a write-scoped token and keep force-draft on.

FAQ