Common errors

The errors people hit most, and what each one actually means.

“Application passwords not available or authorization access is missing”

WordPress will not issue the credential Workover needs. Four usual causes: the site is not on HTTPS, a security plugin has disabled application passwords, you are not an administrator, or a filter in the theme or a plugin has turned the feature off.

Full walkthrough: application passwords not available.

“This post was changed in WordPress since your last sync”

Not an error — a guard. The post moved on the other side, and pushing would overwrite whatever changed. Pull first, or override if you know the change does not matter. See sync status and conflicts.

“Pushing would remove content that exists on WordPress”

The post contains something the editor cannot represent — a shortcode, an embed, a third-party block — and pushing the editor’s version would drop it. Workover lists exactly what. If it matters, edit the post as blocks; see custom blocks and ACF fields.

A push fails with a permissions error

Workover can only do what the WordPress user behind the application password can do. An Editor cannot publish other people’s posts; a Contributor cannot publish at all. Check that user’s role. See a push to WordPress failed.

Requests to your site time out or are refused

A firewall, security plugin or WAF is blocking Workover. Allowlisting Workover in your firewall covers it, and Patchstack hardening settings covers that plugin specifically.

“This action is not available to a CLI/MCP token”

An agent connected through the CLI or MCP tried something tokens cannot do. Reads and suggestions are always allowed; publishing needs a token granted the publish scope with workover login --publish; account security and billing are never available to a token. See the CLI and MCP server.

A document will not stop saying WordPress is newer

Something on the site is rewriting the post automatically — an SEO plugin, a cache warmer, a scheduled job touching post meta. Each rewrite genuinely updates the modification time. See “WordPress is newer” won’t clear.

Images are missing on the published page

Almost always the media upload rather than the content. See images are missing after publishing.

Still stuck

Contact support — and what to include so the first reply is useful.