migrate-elementor-to-breakdance

Migrate Elementor to Breakdance

Converts Elementor-built WordPress pages to Breakdance Builder. Reads Elementor's JSON widget tree from post meta, maps each widget to its Breakdance element equivalent, generates a migration plan for approval, and writes Breakdance content to the target pages. Use this skill whenever someone wants to move from Elementor to Breakdance, switch builders from Elementor to Breakdance, or rebuild Elementor pages in Breakdance.

What This Skill Does

Breakdance is a newer builder created by the Oxygen team with a focus on clean output and familiar visual editing. Both Elementor and Breakdance are widget/element-based builders, making this a relatively smooth migration path. The main challenge is mapping Elementor's JSON widget tree (_elementor_data) to Breakdance's post meta format, translating settings names, and handling the structural differences in how each builder handles sections, columns, and responsive design.

Handles:

• Section/Column layouts → Breakdance Section/Div elements
• Text Editor, Heading, Image, Video, Button → native Breakdance equivalents
• Icon, Icon Box, Image Box → Breakdance icon and media elements
• Tabs, Accordion, Toggle → Breakdance interactive elements
• Form widgets → Breakdance form element
• Spacer, Divider → Breakdance spacing and separator elements
• Google Maps → Breakdance map element
• Image Gallery → Breakdance gallery element
• Pricing Table → Breakdance pricing element
• Progress Bar, Counter → Breakdance equivalents
• Custom CSS → Breakdance custom CSS fields
• Responsive visibility → Breakdance breakpoint controls

Preserves:

• All text content, headings, links, and inline formatting
• Image URLs, alt text, captions
• Typography settings (font, size, weight, line-height)
• Color values and gradients
• Spacing (margin, padding)
• Background images and overlays
• Border and shadow settings
• Button styles, links, and targets
• CSS classes and custom attributes

What This Skill Does NOT Do

• Third-party Elementor addons — Widgets from Essential Addons, JetElements, Crocoblock, etc. are flagged for manual migration.
• Elementor Pro dynamic tags — ACF fields, custom loops, and dynamic content need Breakdance's dynamic data system configured separately.
• Theme Builder templates — Elementor headers, footers, archive templates are not page content and require Breakdance's own template system.
• Popup content — Elementor popups need to be rebuilt as Breakdance popups manually.
• WooCommerce widgets — Elementor's WooCommerce elements need Breakdance's WooCommerce builder.
• Motion effects — Parallax, entrance animations, and scroll effects have different implementations in Breakdance.
• Global widgets — Referenced by templateID in Elementor; these are resolved to inline content. Breakdance global blocks must be set up separately.

Requirements

• Respira for WordPress plugin installed and connected
• MCP connection active (desktop or WebMCP)
• Elementor plugin active (to read source content)
• Breakdance plugin installed and active (to write target content)
• Read access to scan Elementor content
• Write access to create duplicates with Breakdance content

Trigger Phrase

• "migrate elementor to breakdance"

Alternative Triggers

• "convert elementor to breakdance"
• "switch from elementor to breakdance"
• "rebuild elementor pages in breakdance"
• "move from elementor to breakdance"
• "elementor to breakdance migration"

Source Builder: Elementor

Elementor stores page content in the _elementor_data post meta field as a JSON string. The structure is a nested tree:

Document
  └─ Section (type: "section")
       ├─ settings: { structure, layout, content_width, ... }
       └─ elements: [
            Column (type: "column")
              ├─ settings: { _column_size, ... }
              └─ elements: [
                   Widget (type: "widget", widgetType: "heading")
                     └─ settings: { title, size, header_size, ... }
                 ]
          ]

Key Elementor specifics:

• Widget types are in the widgetType field (e.g., heading, text-editor, image, button)
• Responsive settings use suffixes: margin, margin_tablet, margin_mobile
• CSS is cached in _elementor_css post meta
• Page settings in _elementor_page_settings
• Global widgets reference a template via templateID

Read Elementor content via wordpress_extract_builder_content with builder=elementor.

Target Builder: Breakdance

Breakdance stores content in post meta. Elements follow a structured format with type, settings, and children.

Key Breakdance specifics:

• Elements have types like EssentialElements\\Heading, EssentialElements\\Text, EssentialElements\\Image
• Section/Div structure for layouts (similar conceptual model to Elementor sections/columns)
• Clean CSS output — Breakdance generates minimal, optimized CSS
• Built-in WooCommerce support, form builder, and popup system
• Responsive design uses breakpoint-specific settings within element properties

Write Breakdance content via wordpress_inject_builder_content with builder=breakdance.

Execution Workflow

Phase 1: Pre-Migration Audit

1. Verify Respira + MCP connection via wordpress_get_site_context. If unavailable, stop and show setup guidance.
2. Confirm Elementor is active via wordpress_list_plugins.
3. Confirm Breakdance is installed and active via wordpress_list_plugins.
4. Scan all content for Elementor usage:
5. wordpress_list_pages and wordpress_list_posts
6. For each, check builder via wordpress_get_builder_info
7. For each Elementor page, extract content via wordpress_extract_builder_content with builder=elementor
8. Build an inventory:
9. Total pages/posts using Elementor
10. Widget types used (frequency count)
11. Third-party addon widgets detected
12. Pro widgets that need Breakdance Pro equivalents
13. Global widgets and dynamic tags
14. Complexity per page (simple/moderate/complex)

Phase 2: Migration Plan

Present a migration plan:

## Elementor → Breakdance Migration Plan

### Site Inventory
- Total Elementor pages: X
- Total widgets to convert: X
- Auto-convertible: X (Y%)
- Manual attention: X (Y%)

### Widget Mapping Summary
| Elementor Widget | Breakdance Element | Status |
|-----------------|-------------------|--------|
| heading         | Heading           | Auto   |
| text-editor     | Text              | Auto   |
| image           | Image             | Auto   |
| button          | Button            | Auto   |
| tabs            | Tabs              | Auto   |
| form            | Form              | Partial|
| [addon widget]  | —                 | Manual |

### Page-by-Page Plan
1. **[Page Title]** — X widgets, [complexity]
   - Auto-convertible: X
   - Needs attention: [details]
2. ...

### Migration Advantages
- Breakdance produces cleaner CSS output
- Better WooCommerce integration (if applicable)
- Similar visual editing workflow — team adjustment is minimal

Ask for confirmation:

Ready to migrate? Your original Elementor pages remain untouched.

1. Migrate all pages

2. Migrate specific pages

3. Start with a test page

4. Just keep this plan

Phase 3: Page-by-Page Migration

For each approved page:

1. Read full Elementor content via wordpress_extract_builder_content with builder=elementor
2. Walk the Elementor JSON tree and map each widget:
3. Convert Section → Breakdance Section
4. Convert Column → Breakdance Div (with flex layout)
5. Convert each widget → appropriate Breakdance element
6. Map typography, color, spacing, background, border settings
7. Convert responsive suffixes to Breakdance breakpoint format
8. Resolve global widgets to inline content
9. Flag unmappable widgets with migration notes
10. Generate valid Breakdance element structure
11. Create a duplicate via wordpress_create_page_duplicate or `wordpress_create_p