Set up Flux on your first site.

Requirements

• A Windows PC or Mac (Apple silicon or Intel) with Docker Desktop (or Docker Engine) 28 or newer, running. The first preview downloads the official WordPress, MySQL, WP-CLI and nginx images, so it needs internet access, disk space and Docker memory.
• A supported connection: SSH/SFTP access with shell access and WP-CLI on the host, or an eligible Cloudways app selected through your account. The Cloudways connection uses the app’s hosting access.
• A single-site WordPress install on PHP 7.4 or 8.0 to 8.5. Multisite isn’t supported. Older PHP versions fail with a clear message; Flux never upgrades them silently.
• Free disk space of roughly twice the site’s size plus 2 GB. Flux checks before and during the copy.
• An AI key from Anthropic, OpenAI or OpenRouter, or hosted AI on an eligible paid plan.

The Flux Connector preview is being validated for eligible hosts without shell access. WordPress admin access alone does not establish that a host can capture and publish a full site; we check its file, database and REST permissions first.

Install and sign in

1. 1Apply for the assisted agency pilot.
2. 2Follow the download guide for Windows or Mac to install Python 3.12, the matching engine, and the desktop app. Sign in with the same account.
3. 3Follow the desktop guide: choose the outcome, connect a site, then connect AI. Flux verifies provider access before saving and leaves model selection on Auto.

Connect a site

1. 1Choose Add site, then Cloudways or SSH/SFTP. For Cloudways, add or select a named account using its API access token, then choose an app. For SSH/SFTP, enter the hosting login and password or private key.
2. 2Confirm the SSH server’s key fingerprint on first connection. If the key ever changes, Flux blocks the connection.
3. 3Flux finds WordPress in the chosen Cloudways app or hosting account. If it finds more than one install, choose the site you want to work on.
4. 4Flux reads the site’s theme, plugins and page builder. The connection panel reports each step separately, so a failed step is easy to spot.

Credentials are stored in your operating system’s keychain and held in memory while Flux runs. They’re never copied into the preview.

Flux Connector · preview validation

Flux Connector is a WordPress plugin for connecting over HTTPS without shell access. It is implemented in the app and engine, with host, recovery and security validation still required before customer rollout. Access is arranged through the assisted pilot after checking the host.

1. 1For an approved validation site with the plugin installed, open Tools → Flux Connector in WordPress and generate a one-time pairing code.
2. 2In the desktop app, choose Add site → Flux Connector, enter the site’s HTTPS address and pairing code, and complete pairing before the code expires.
3. 3Review the connection report. It identifies available capture and publication operations, file permissions and any host restrictions before you create a preview.

Pairing requires WordPress 5.6+, enabled application passwords and accessible REST endpoints. Full capture needs PHP access to the WordPress files and database; file publication needs a writable active or parent theme. Hosts with restricted access may need SSH or a host-managed file workflow. Multisite can be inspected in Connector validation, but a full local clone is blocked.

Ask questions before changing anything

Open a conversation on the site and ask what you need to know: where a piece of text comes from, which plugin renders a form, why a page is slow. Before a preview exists, Flux can read the live site but can’t write to it. The engine enforces this, including in auto-approve mode.

If you ask Flux not to change anything, the conversation stays read-only for its whole turn.

Create a local preview

1. 1Choose Create local preview. Flux checks Docker, the PHP version and database access before copying anything.
2. 2It exports the database first, then copies the theme, plugins, uploads and other files. Progress shows files and bytes against the known totals.
3. 3WordPress starts locally on the site’s PHP version, with URLs rewritten safely for the copy, including inside serialized data.

Hosting credentials, configuration secrets, caches and backups are left out of the copy. Every copied file is hashed. You can cancel at any point, and an interrupted copy can be discarded and started again. If the copy finished but startup failed, Retry local startup rebuilds the services without downloading the site again.

The copy isn’t an atomic snapshot of files and database together. The SSH export uses a transaction for transactional tables; older MyISAM tables carry a warning that rows can change during the copy. Connector validation uses a working copy assembled over multiple HTTPS requests, with its own host limits.

Make changes

With the Local preview target selected, describe what you want. Flux can edit theme and plugin files, supported Elementor and WPBakery structures, WooCommerce catalog and workflow data, Slider Revolution slides, Formidable form presentation, WordPress settings and page fields, create pages, and add pages to existing menus. The Elementor Atomic MCP bridge is pilot-only: on a compatible Elementor 4.3 beta and WordPress 6.9+ setup it creates new Atomic pages, but does not edit arbitrary existing Atomic pages. Check the compatibility table before choosing a pilot site.

Each edit asks for your approval, snapshots what it’s about to change, and reads the result back. Approving an edit only changes the preview. Use the built-in preview with mobile, tablet and desktop widths to check the result.

WooCommerce order edits are limited to status and customer notes. Publishing a status change can trigger the store’s normal emails, webhooks and fulfillment actions. Review those effects before publishing.

Review and publish

1. 1Open Changes and refresh. Select the files and WordPress values you want to ship.
2. 2Prepare a review. Flux freezes that exact selection and shows each diff and its destination.
3. 3Choose Publish reviewed changes. Flux checks every target still matches what it copied, saves private recovery records, writes your selection and reads it back.

If a write fails, Flux attempts a verified rollback and reports anything it couldn’t restore. Editing again, or restarting Flux, expires a prepared review so you never publish something you didn’t see.

Publishing protection depends on the connection and the resource being changed. Coordinate with other editors and hosting deployments before publishing; Flux does not provide live coediting or universal locking across those tools.

Revert a publish

Published file and value changes support Prepare revert review, followed by another explicit publish. Reverts also check for live changes first. New pages, menu items and product categories can’t be reverted automatically; remove them with a separate, reviewed change. Discarding a preview never reverts the live site.

Cloudways staging

Add a named Cloudways account and choose its app when connecting a site. Flux uses that link to find the app’s staging setup. Existing SSH connections can use the default Cloudways token in settings. Flux can then read staging logs and, with your approval, sync code or database tables between staging and production. Platform backup and waiting for completion are enabled by default. Review these options before approving a sync; when waiting is enabled, Flux checks the live site after completion and records the result.

Syncs need a token with staging permissions. A read-only token can inspect but not sync.

Agency workspaces and teams

Agency includes five seats, including the owner. Members share the workspace’s plan, site allowance, billing and hosted-AI balance. The owner manages invitations and monthly hosted-AI spending caps for each member.

1. 1The owner opens Dashboard → Team, names the workspace, and invites a teammate by email. Prepared shared sites can be included with the invitation. Pending invitations reserve a seat and expire after seven days; expired invitations can be resent.
2. 2The teammate opens the named invitation and signs in with the invited email address to accept it. Joining preserves personal sites, other teams, and subscriptions. Choose the team explicitly when you want its plan and hosted-AI balance for new work, then open Flux to find assigned sites.
3. 3The owner reviews hosted-AI usage and sets a monthly cap for each member as needed. These caps apply to Flux-hosted AI; provider accounts used with your own key have their own billing controls.

Previews run locally on each person’s computer. Owners use Share with team in Flux to prepare supported page content and assign site access. Teammates can open assigned content without the owner’s hosting credentials, send a change for review, and have the designated publisher review and publish the exact revision. Private shared packages do not synchronize every local preview or create a live coediting session. The initial shared editing workflow supports a scoped Elementor page; Flux checks compatibility during setup.

Troubleshooting

• SSH authentication failed. The host rejected the saved login. Use Site → Update access to fix the host, port, username or key; leaving the password blank keeps the saved one.
• Cloudways app unavailable. Check that the selected account can access the app and its connection details. Staging syncs require additional staging permissions.
• Connector pairing failed. On an approved validation site, check HTTPS, application passwords and REST access, then generate a new code under Tools → Flux Connector.
• AI connection failed. Open the AI Connection Doctor to test access and identify whether the key, provider billing, model access or network needs attention.
• Docker couldn’t be reached. Start Docker Desktop and retry. Flux looks for the Docker CLI in the usual install locations even when launched from the Dock.
• PHP memory errors. The host’s command-line PHP can have a lower memory limit than the web server. Check the account’s CLI PHP settings and heavy plugins, then reconnect.
• The copy is too large. Flux stops with an explicit error rather than quietly skipping media.

Limits

• SSH capture limits: up to 200,000 files, 8 GB per file, 100 GB of files in total and an 8 GB database. Connector capture has additional PHP, request-size and execution-time limits checked during host validation.
• Publish: up to 200 selected changes, 32 MB per file and 128 MB combined. Connector file publication is limited to the active and parent themes; supported content and plugin operations have their own boundaries.
• Never published through the reviewed site workflow: configuration secrets, preview guards, .htaccess, customer or account changes, payment operations, refunds or a full database replacement. WooCommerce supports only the product, coupon and order fields listed in the compatibility guide.
• Not reproduced in the preview: multisite, custom hosting rewrites, custom PHP extensions, external media or CDNs, and plugin services that depend on production settings.