migrate-elementor-to-bricks

Migrate Elementor to Bricks

Version: 2.1.0 Updated: 2026-08-04 Freshly updated: v2.1.0 adds design-token awareness: conversion writes now register the colors and typography they carry as named design tokens in Bricks' own global styles, and converted pages reference those tokens instead of carrying value copies. Reuse registered tokens instead of re-inlining raw values, and report the registration in the migration summary.

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

What This Skill Does

Elementor and Bricks are both visual page builders, but they store content in fundamentally different formats — Elementor uses a nested JSON widget tree in _elementor_data, while Bricks uses a flat-ish JSON array in _bricks_page_content_2. This skill bridges that gap by reading every Elementor widget, understanding its purpose, and recreating it as the appropriate Bricks element. Both Elementor and Bricks are among the 16 page builders Respira reads and writes natively, so the extraction and injection run through the same builder-aware tooling Respira uses everywhere else.

Handles:

• Section/Column layouts → Bricks Section/Container elements
• Text Editor, Heading, Image, Video, Button widgets → native Bricks equivalents
• Icon, Icon Box, Image Box, Star Rating → Bricks icon and media elements
• Tabs, Accordion, Toggle → Bricks interactive elements
• Form widgets → Bricks form elements (where available)
• Spacer, Divider, Google Maps → utility element equivalents
• Custom CSS from Elementor's Advanced tab → Bricks custom CSS fields
• Responsive visibility settings → Bricks breakpoint visibility
• Motion effects and entrance animations → Bricks interaction settings (where supported)
• Inner Section nesting → Bricks nested container structure
• Global widget references → resolved to inline content (Bricks templates noted for manual setup)

Preserves:

• Content text, images, links, and media references
• Typography settings (font family, size, weight, line-height, letter-spacing)
• Color values (hex, rgb, rgba, CSS variables)
• Spacing (margin, padding) and sizing
• Background images, overlays, gradients
• Border and border-radius settings
• Box shadow values
• Link targets and rel attributes
• CSS classes and IDs

What This Skill Does NOT Do

• Third-party Elementor addons — Widgets from Essential Addons, JetElements, Crocoblock, PowerPack, etc. are flagged for manual migration. The skill cannot map proprietary addon widgets to Bricks equivalents automatically.
• Elementor Pro dynamic tags — Dynamic content (ACF fields, custom field displays, loop templates) require Bricks' own dynamic data system, which has different capabilities. These are flagged, not auto-converted.
• Theme Builder templates — Elementor's header/footer/archive/single templates use a different storage mechanism. This skill migrates page content, not theme builder templates.
• Popup/modal content — Elementor popups are stored separately and are not included in page migration.
• WooCommerce widgets — Elementor Pro's product grid, cart, checkout widgets need Bricks' WooCommerce elements configured separately.
• Pixel-perfect recreation — Bricks uses a different rendering engine. Spacing and alignment will be close but may need manual fine-tuning.

Requirements

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

Trigger Phrase

• "migrate elementor to bricks"

Alternative Triggers

• "convert elementor to bricks"
• "switch from elementor to bricks"
• "rebuild elementor pages in bricks"
• "move my site from elementor to bricks"
• "elementor to bricks 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 — not needed for migration but useful for verification
• Page settings in _elementor_page_settings (page layout, hide title, etc.)
• Global widgets reference a template via templateID — must be resolved before mapping

Read Elementor content via respira_extract_builder_content with builder=elementor.

Target Builder: Bricks

Bricks stores content in _bricks_page_content_2 as a JSON array. Each element is a flat object with parent references:

[
  { "id": "abc123", "name": "section", "parent": 0, "settings": {...} },
  { "id": "def456", "name": "container", "parent": "abc123", "settings": {...} },
  { "id": "ghi789", "name": "heading", "parent": "def456", "settings": { "tag": "h2", "text": "..." } }
]

Key Bricks specifics:

• Elements use name (not widgetType): section, container, heading, text-basic, image, button, video, icon
• Parent-child relationships use parent field referencing parent id
• IDs are short alphanumeric strings (6 chars typical)
• Settings keys differ from Elementor (e.g., tag not header_size, text not title)
• Responsive settings use _breakpoints key within settings

Write Bricks content via respira_inject_builder_content with builder=bricks.

Execution Workflow

Phase 1: Pre-Migration Audit

1. Verify Respira + MCP connection via respira_get_site_context. If unavailable, stop and show setup guidance.
2. Confirm Elementor is active via respira_list_plugins.
3. Confirm Bricks theme is installed via respira_get_site_context.
4. Inventory and scope the source pages with respira_find_builder_targets (builder=elementor) — this gives a fast, ranked list of every Elementor-built page/post before you touch anything. Fall back to respira_list_pages / respira_list_posts + respira_get_builder_info to confirm builder per item where needed.
5. For each Elementor page, extract content via respira_extract_builder_content with builder=elementor
6. Build an inventory:
   • Total pages/posts using Elementor
   • Widget types used across the site (frequency count)
   • Third-party addon widgets detected (flagged for manual handling)
   • Global widgets referenced
   • Dynamic tags usage
   • Estimated migration complexity per page (simple/moderate/complex)

Phase 2: Migration Plan

Present a clear migration plan:

## Elementor → Bricks Migration Plan

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

### Widget Mapping Summary
| Elementor Widget | Bricks Element | Status |
|-----------------|----------------|--------|
| heading         | heading        | Auto   |
| text-editor     | text-basic     | Auto   |
| image           | image          | Auto   |
| [addon widget]  | —              | Manual |

### Page-by-Page Plan
1. **[Page Title]** — X widgets, [simple/moderate/complex]
   - Auto-convertible: X widgets
   - Needs attention: [list any flagged widgets]
2. ...

### Flagged Items (Require Manual Work)
- [List of third-party widgets, dynamic tags, etc.]

Ask for confirmation:

Ready to proceed? I'll create Bricks duplicates of each page — your original Elementor pages stay untouched.

1. Migrate all pages
2. Migrate specific pages (pick from list)
3. Start with a test page first
4. Just keep this plan as reference

Phase 3: Page-by-Page Migration

For each approved page:

1. Read full Elementor content via respira_extract_builder_content with builder=elementor
2. Walk the Elementor JSON tree and map each widget:
   • Convert Section → Bricks section
   • Convert Column → Bricks container (assign parent)
   • Convert each widget → appropriate Bricks element
   • Map settings: typography, colors, spacing, backgrounds, borders
   • Convert responsive suffixes (_tablet, _mobile) to Bricks breakpoint format
   • Resolve global widgets to inline content
   • Flag unmappable widgets with <!-- MIGRATION NOTE: ... --> comments
3. Generate valid Bricks JSON array with proper id, name, parent, settings
4. Create a duplicate page via respira_create_page_duplicate or respira_create_post_duplicate
5. Before writing, take a snapshot with respira_get_snapshot so the duplicate's pre-write state can be restored if anything goes wrong
6. Write Bricks content to the duplicate via respira_inject_builder_content with builder=bricks
7. Surgical fix pass — if the injected page has validation issues (collapsed column widths, broken parent refs, a misconverted element), do not re-inject the whole page. Locate the specific element with respira_find_element and correct it with respira_update_element. For repeated fixes across many elements or several pages, batch them with respira_batch_update
8. Report status for this page before moving to next

Phase 4: Post-Migration Verification

1. Summarize all migrations:
   • Design tokens registered in Bricks' global styles (token names and counts)
   • Pages migrated successfully
   • Total widgets converted
   • Items flagged for manual attention
2. For each migrated page, provide:
   • Link to the Bricks duplicate in wp-admin
   • List of any flagged widgets or settings that need manual review
   • Comparison notes (what was preserved vs. what needs adjustment)
3. Provide a post-migration checklist:
   • Open each duplicate in Bricks editor and review layout
   • Check responsive views (tablet, mobile)
   • Verify all images and media load correctly
   • Test all links and buttons
   • Review flagged items and recreate manually
   • Check forms and interactive elements
   • Compare side-by-side with Elementor original

Design Tokens

Conversion writes now register the colors and typography they carry as named design tokens in Bricks' own global styles, and the converted pages reference those tokens instead of carrying value copies. When fixing or extending a migrated page, reuse the registered tokens (respira_list_design_tokens shows them) rather than re-inlining raw hex values or font stacks. And say so when you finish: the migration summary should name the tokens that were registered and note that migrated pages reference them.

Safety Model

• Read-only analysis first — full Elementor content scan before any changes
• Explicit user confirmation required before creating any duplicates
• Original Elementor pages are never modified or deleted
• All migrated content goes to draft duplicates only
• Never auto-publishes migrated pages
• Takes a respira_get_snapshot of each duplicate before any write, so its pre-write state can be restored
• Two explicit rollback paths: restore the snapshot with respira_restore_snapshot, or delete the draft duplicates entirely with respira_delete_page / respira_delete_post
• Surgical fixes (respira_find_element + respira_update_element, or respira_batch_update) replace whole-page re-injection, so corrections stay scoped and reversible

Honest Disclaimer

This skill converts Elementor page content to Bricks Builder format and creates draft duplicates for review.

It cannot:

• Migrate third-party Elementor addon widgets automatically
• Recreate Elementor Pro dynamic tags or loop templates
• Guarantee pixel-perfect visual parity
• Migrate theme builder templates (headers, footers, archives)
• Convert Elementor popups or modal content
• Replace manual QA and visual review

It can:

• Convert 80-90% of standard Elementor widgets to Bricks equivalents
• Preserve text content, images, links, and basic styling
• Save days of manual page rebuilding
• Provide a clear map of what needs manual attention
• Keep your original pages completely safe during the process

Tooling

Core WordPress tools

• respira_get_site_context
• respira_list_plugins
• respira_list_pages
• respira_list_posts
• respira_read_page
• respira_read_post
• respira_get_builder_info
• respira_extract_builder_content
• respira_inject_builder_content
• respira_find_builder_targets
• respira_create_page_duplicate
• respira_create_post_duplicate

Safety and precision tools

• respira_get_snapshot
• respira_restore_snapshot
• respira_find_element
• respira_update_element
• respira_batch_update
• respira_delete_page
• respira_delete_post

Telemetry

After run completion, send fire-and-forget usage tracking to:

• POST https://www.respira.press/api/skills/track-usage

Include:

• skill_slug = migrate-elementor-to-bricks
• site/version context
• duration and success
• pages migrated, widgets converted, widgets flagged counts
• tools used

Never block user flow on telemetry failure.

Related Skills

• WordPress Site DNA (understand site structure before migrating)
• Internal Link Builder (rebuild internal links after migration)
• SEO & AEO Amplifier (verify SEO preservation post-migration)
• Technical Debt Audit (clean up post-migration)

Built by Respira Team https://respira.press/skills/migrate-elementor-to-bricks