respira-press/agent-skills-wordpress/migrate-divi-to-breakdance

Migrate Divi to Breakdance

Version: 2.2.0 Updated: 2026-09-13 Freshly updated: v2.1.0 adds design-token awareness: conversion writes now register the colors and typography they carry as named design tokens in Breakdance's 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 Divi-built WordPress pages to Breakdance Builder. Parses Divi's shortcode-based content from post_content, maps each module 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 Divi to Breakdance, switch builders from Divi to Breakdance, or rebuild Divi pages in Breakdance.

What This Skill Does

Divi and Breakdance take very different approaches to content storage — Divi uses nested shortcodes in post_content, while Breakdance uses a structured format in post meta. This skill bridges that gap by parsing the full Divi shortcode tree, understanding each module's intent, and recreating it as the appropriate Breakdance element. Breakdance was built by the Oxygen team with a focus on clean output and intuitive editing, making it a popular Divi replacement for users who want better performance without a steep learning curve.

Handles:

• et_pb_section → Breakdance Section element
• et_pb_row/et_pb_column → Breakdance Div elements with flex layout
• et_pb_text → Breakdance Text element
• et_pb_blurb → Breakdance Icon Box or container with children
• et_pb_image → Breakdance Image element
• et_pb_button → Breakdance Button element
• et_pb_video → Breakdance Video element
• et_pb_divider → Breakdance Separator element
• et_pb_accordion/et_pb_toggle → Breakdance Accordion element
• et_pb_tabs → Breakdance Tabs element
• et_pb_gallery → Breakdance Gallery element
• et_pb_slider → Breakdance Slider element
• et_pb_pricing_tables → Breakdance Pricing Table element
• et_pb_code → Breakdance Code element
• et_pb_counters → Breakdance Progress Bar element
• et_pb_map → Breakdance Map element
• Custom CSS → Breakdance custom CSS fields
• Column widths → Breakdance flex percentages

Preserves:

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

What This Skill Does NOT Do

• Specialty sections — Divi's specialty layouts need manual setup in Breakdance.
• Global modules — Divi's et_pb_layout global modules are inlined during migration. Breakdance global blocks are separate.
• Third-party Divi modules — Plugins extending Divi are flagged for manual recreation.
• Divi theme customizer — Global design settings from the Divi customizer must be configured in Breakdance's design settings.
• Dynamic content — Divi's dynamic features need Breakdance's dynamic data system.
• Contact forms — et_pb_contact_form must be rebuilt with Breakdance's form element or a forms plugin.
• Divi Library — Layouts in et_pb_layout post type are not migrated automatically.
• Motion effects and animations — Scroll effects differ between builders.
• Theme dependency — If using Divi theme, switching to Breakdance means using a different base theme.

Requirements

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

Trigger Phrase

• "migrate divi to breakdance"

Alternative Triggers

• "convert divi to breakdance"
• "switch from divi to breakdance"
• "rebuild divi pages in breakdance"
• "move from divi to breakdance"
• "divi to breakdance migration"
• "replace divi with breakdance"

Source Builder: Divi

Divi stores content as shortcodes in post_content:

[et_pb_section fb_built="1" _builder_version="4.x"]
  [et_pb_row]
    [et_pb_column type="4_4"]
      [et_pb_text]<p>Content</p>[/et_pb_text]
      [et_pb_image src="photo.jpg" alt="Photo"][/et_pb_image]
    [/et_pb_column]
  [/et_pb_row]
[/et_pb_section]

Key Divi specifics:

• Hierarchy: section → row → column → module (strict nesting)
• Column types: 4_4 (100%), 1_2 (50%), 1_3 (33%), 2_3 (66%), 1_4 (25%), 3_4 (75%)
• Settings as attributes: background_color, custom_margin, custom_padding
• Content encoding: HTML entities, percent-encoding in attribute values
• Global modules: global_module attribute referencing et_pb_layout post
• Section types: regular, fullwidth, specialty

Read Divi content via respira_extract_builder_content with builder=divi.

Target Builder: Breakdance

Breakdance stores content in post meta with a structured element format.

Key Breakdance specifics:

• Elements use types like EssentialElements\\Heading, EssentialElements\\Text, EssentialElements\\Image
• Section and Div elements for layout structure
• Clean CSS output with minimal wrapper markup
• Built-in form builder, WooCommerce support, popup system
• Responsive design through breakpoint-specific settings
• Created by the Oxygen team — combines Oxygen's clean output with friendlier UX

Write Breakdance content via respira_inject_builder_content with builder=breakdance.

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 Divi is active via respira_list_plugins and respira_get_site_context.
3. Confirm Breakdance is installed and active via respira_list_plugins.
4. Important: If using Divi theme, note the user needs a compatible base theme for Breakdance.
5. Scan and scope all Divi content:

• respira_list_pages and respira_list_posts — identify all content
• respira_find_builder_targets with builder=divi — inventory the Divi-managed pages to scope the migration
• Confirm the builder per page via respira_get_builder_info

1. Extract Divi content via respira_extract_builder_content with builder=divi
2. Build inventory:

• Total Divi pages/posts
• Module types (frequency count)
• Specialty sections detected
• Global modules referenced
• Third-party modules
• Content encoding issues
• Complexity per page

Phase 2: Migration Plan

## Divi → Breakdance Migration Plan
 
### Theme Note
[If Divi theme]: Switching from Divi theme. Breakdance works with most
themes — you'll need a lightweight base theme (Astra, GeneratePress, etc.)
or Breakdance can handle full site rendering.
 
### Why Breakdance
Breakdance produces significantly cleaner CSS and HTML output compared to
Divi. Built by the Oxygen team, it offers similar power with a more
intuitive interface. Most Divi modules have direct Breakdance equivalents.
 
### Site Inventory
- Total Divi pages: X
- Total modules to convert: X
- Auto-convertible: X (Y%)
- Manual attention: X (Y%)
 
### Module → Element Mapping
| Divi Module        | Breakdance Element | Status |
|-------------------|-------------------|--------|
| et_pb_text        | Text              | Auto   |
| et_pb_image       | Image             | Auto   |
| et_pb_blurb       | Icon Box          | Auto   |
| et_pb_button      | Button            | Auto   |
| et_pb_slider      | Slider            | Auto   |
| et_pb_accordion   | Accordion         | Auto   |
| et_pb_pricing     | Pricing Table     | Auto   |
| et_pb_contact     | Form              | Partial|
| [divi addon]      | —                 | Manual |
 
### Page-by-Page Plan
1. **[Page Title]** — X modules, [complexity]
2. ...

Ask for confirmation:

Ready to migrate? Your original Divi pages remain completely untouched.

1. Migrate all pages

2. Migrate specific pages

3. Start with a test page (recommended)

4. Just keep this plan

Phase 3: Page-by-Page Migration

For each approved page:

1. Read Divi content via respira_extract_builder_content with builder=divi
2. Parse the shortcode tree:

• Build section → row → column → module hierarchy
• Decode encoded content
• Resolve global module references
• Calculate column widths from type attributes

1. Generate Breakdance element structure:

• et_pb_section → Breakdance Section
• et_pb_row + et_pb_column → Breakdance Div elements with flex layout and percentage widths
• Map each module to Breakdance element:
• et_pb_text → Text element (preserve HTML content)
• et_pb_blurb → Icon Box element (map icon, title, body)
• et_pb_image → Image element (map src, alt)
• et_pb_button → Button element (map text, URL, style)
• et_pb_accordion → Accordion element (map items)
• et_pb_tabs → Tabs element (map tab titles and content)
• Map colors, spacing, typography to Breakdance settings
• Flag unmappable modules

1. Take a respira_get_snapshot checkpoint of the target before any write, so the page can be restored exactly if the conversion needs unwinding
2. Create duplicate via respira_create_page_duplicate or respira_create_post_duplicate
3. Write Breakdance content to the duplicate via respira_inject_builder_content with builder=breakdance
4. Surgical fixes (not a re-inject): when a single element lands wrong — a heading, a button label, a spacing value — locate it with respira_find_element and correct it in place with respira_update_element. For repeated corrections across many elements or several migrated pages, batch them with respira_batch_update rather than re-injecting whole pages.
5. Report status

Phase 4: Post-Migration Verification

1. Summarize migrations:

• Design tokens registered in Breakdance's global styles (token names and counts)
• Pages migrated, elements created, items flagged

1. For each migrated page:

• Link to Breakdance editor
• Flagged items list
• Layout and encoding notes

1. Post-migration checklist:

• [ ] Open each duplicate in Breakdance editor
• [ ] Verify section and layout structure
• [ ] Check responsive views
• [ ] Verify images and media
• [ ] Test links and buttons
• [ ] Recreate flagged modules
• [ ] Rebuild forms with Breakdance form element
• [ ] Set up global templates (header/footer) in Breakdance
• [ ] Review Breakdance's clean CSS output
• [ ] Compare with Divi original
• [ ] Check for Divi shortcode remnants

Phase 5: Hand off for review, then go live