WordPress Elementor

Edit Elementor pages and manage templates on existing WordPress sites. Produces updated page content via browser automation (for visual/structural changes) or WP-CLI (for safe text replacements).

Prerequisites

• Working WP-CLI connection or admin access (use wordpress-setup skill)
• Elementor installed and active: wp @site plugin status elementor

Workflow

Step 1: Identify the Page

# List Elementor pages
wp @site post list --post_type=page --meta_key=_elementor_edit_mode --meta_value=builder \
  --fields=ID,post_title,post_name,post_status

# Editor URL format: https://example.com/wp-admin/post.php?post={ID}&action=elementor

Step 2: Choose Editing Method

Change Type	Method	Risk
Text content updates	WP-CLI search-replace	Low (with backup)
Image URL swaps	WP-CLI meta update	Low (with backup)
Widget styling	Browser automation	None
Add/remove sections	Browser automation	None
Layout changes	Browser automation	None
Template application	Browser automation	None

Rule of thumb: If you're only changing text or URLs within existing widgets, WP-CLI is faster. For anything structural, use the visual editor via browser.

Step 3a: Text Updates via WP-CLI

Always back up first:

wp @site post meta get {post_id} _elementor_data > /tmp/elementor-backup-{post_id}.json

Pre-flight checklist:

1. Back up the postmeta (above)
2. Dry run the replacement
3. Verify the dry run matches expectations (correct number of replacements)
4. Execute
5. Flush CSS cache
6. Verify visually

Simple text replacement:

# Dry run
wp @site search-replace "Old Heading Text" "New Heading Text" wp_postmeta \
  --include-columns=meta_value --dry-run --precise