How it works — the short version
Site Converter renders your source (a URL, or an uploaded HTML/Stitch export), reads its live DOM + computed CSS, and rebuilds it as a native UnysonPlus site — a child theme plus page‑builder pages, real menus, footer widget areas, and a populated Media Library. Nothing is hand‑coded; every page stays editable in the builder.
Two engines, plus optional AI
| Engine | When it runs | Trade‑off |
|---|---|---|
| Deterministic (offline) | A file upload with the capture service off — pure PHP, no browser, no AI | Fast and fully repeatable (same input → same output), zero setup. Lower fidelity on JavaScript‑rendered pages. |
| Capture service | From a URL, or a file upload while the service is running — real Google Chrome reads the computed CSS + DOM | Highest fidelity, even for JS‑heavy pages. Needs the one‑time service install. Still deterministic — no AI unless you turn it on. |
| AI assist (optional) | "Use AI" checked — Claude corrects the mapping only | Smarter element identification without touching the faithful CSS/chrome output. See AI assist. |
Everything runs entirely on your machine — nothing is sent to a third party.
Which do I use? Need an identical result every time (a template you re‑import)? Use the deterministic/offline path. Need maximum fidelity from a live or JS‑heavy page? Use the capture service. Reach for AI only to clean up element roles after the fact.
The full architecture & algorithm
The complete pipeline — capture → extract → apply → review → build, section detection, chrome‑vs‑content, the role→shortcode map, the navigation and footer‑widget mappers, design‑token extraction, the two kept‑in‑sync implementations, and exactly where AI fits — is documented once, canonically, in the AI Dev Kit:
→ Conversion Architecture — pipeline & algorithm
That same engine powers both this plugin and the AI Dev Kit's agent‑driven builds, so the deep
reference lives in one place. This page and the other Site Converter pages
(Convert from a URL, Convert from a file,
the capture service, AI assist,
Manual tools) are the task guides for using the extension in wp-admin.