Wix Headless

Wix Headless

Run flow is owned by the conductor, split at the approval gate: references/PLAN.md (pre-approval — mode routing, the Discovery questions, the plan + approval gate, the latency-hiding background dispatches) then references/BUILD.md (post-approval — Setup → Seed → Components → Pages → Build → Release). The domain/step files (DISCOVERY.md, SETUP.md, SEED.md, DESIGN_SYSTEM.md, COMPOSE.md, the per-vertical references) describe only what each step does; they do not name the sequence. Start a run by opening PLAN.md; open BUILD.md when the user approves the plan. All site operations use npx @wix/cli@latest token + curl — no MCP.

Explicit invocation only. Do not auto-route on generic "build me a site" prompts; production wix-headless should win those unless the user names this skill.

Path resolution — read this first

Your CWD at runtime is the project directory (scaffold subdir after setup), not the skill root. Compute <SKILL_ROOT> from this file: <SKILL_ROOT>/SKILL.md — strip /SKILL.md. Hold the absolute path in session scratch. Also hold <site-root> (eval run dir where .wix/site.json lives — parent of scaffold) from SETUP.md Step 1.

Do NOT Read subagent role/instruction docs in the orchestrator — pass the absolute path; the subagent opens it. This covers every doc whose body is written for a subagent to follow, not just files literally named INSTRUCTIONS.md: DESIGN_SYSTEM.md (Designer), astro/COMPOSE.md (Composer), astro/designer/INSTRUCTIONS.md (page designers), the per-vertical INSTRUCTIONS.md routers, and the per-vertical guides under references/astro/. The orchestrator only needs to know which inputs to inline for each dispatch — and that list lives in BUILD.md's dispatch steps, not in the role doc. Reading a role doc to "prepare a dispatch" pulls 5–14 KB of subagent-only how-to into the orchestrator's context, which it then has to reason over on the dispatch turn — measurably inflating bridge turns. The orchestrator's own reading set is the conductor/domain docs only: PLAN.md, BUILD.md, DISCOVERY.md, SETUP.md, SEED.md, and references/verticals/*.md.

When and how each subagent is dispatched (Designer, Composer, seeders, image phases, vertical Components/Pages) is owned by the conductor (references/PLAN.md pre-approval, references/BUILD.md post-approval), not listed here.

Authentication

Every Wix API call uses @wix/cli + curl:

Authorization: Bearer $(npx @wix/cli@latest token --site "$SITE_ID")
wix-site-id: $SITE_ID

wix login is safe from non-interactive agents (URL + user code written to stderr, exits non-zero once the browser flow concludes). Full recovery ladder: <SKILL_ROOT>/references/shared/AUTHENTICATION.md.

Subagent model tier

Match each subagent's task to one of two tiers; dispatch with the model your environment provides for that tier. Apply by lookup, not deliberation.

Fast tier — recipe-following work whose return is JSON of IDs/URLs. No source-code authoring, no creative judgment.

• All Seeder subagents (stores, cms, blog, forms, future verticals)
• Image-generation subagents (while still dispatched as subagents)

Default tier — everything else.

• Design System / Designer (brand-voice CSS, type, layout)
• Phase 3 Components (SDK composition, hooks, JSX)
• Phase 4 Pages (cross-file dependencies, brand-voice content)
• Any subagent that authors files the build will consume

If unsure, pick default. Do not weigh alternatives per dispatch — the choice is determined by the task type, not by the subject matter of the run.

When this skill triggers

Explicit invocation only. Two entry paths — decide before doing anything else.

Path A — New site from a prompt (default)

Infer vertical(s) from the opening message and load the full resolved pack set (top-level + requires: transitives + always-on cms) in one read batch — routing examples: stores → stores+cms+ecom+gift-cards; blog → blog+cms; etc. If the prompt is too vague, ask one conversational clarifier (NOT AskUserQuestion): "What do you want your site to do — sell things, publish content, take bookings?"

Do NOT call WixSiteBuilder MCP for new-site requests — same intent, different flow; calling both produces a duplicated, conflicting build. This skill is the sole entry point.

Path B — Existing project → custom frontend (not available yet)

Triggers: "connect this to Wix Headless", "add Wix Headless to this project", "host this on Wix", "deploy this to Wix", "implement the features … using Wix Headless", or any "Wix Headless" prompt against a non-empty working directory. Decide by working-directory contents:

Custom (non-astro) frontends route to the stub. When the working directory holds a non-astro project, the run does not author anything — it opens <SKILL_ROOT>/references/custom/INSTRUCTIONS.md, surfaces the not-available message, and stops (DISCOVERY.md § "Custom (non-astro) — not available yet"; PLAN.md § "Custom (non-astro) frontends — not available yet"). The retired Integrate flow (SETUP.md § "Existing project flow" E1–E6, especially the E4 SDK-wiring recipe) is kept as a historical reference for the eventual custom authoring track — it is no longer dispatched.

Frontend modes (the .wix/site.json.frontend axis)

Path A vs Path B is the routing question. The frontend value is the downstream branching axis — the orchestrator holds it in session scratch and either branches on it directly or passes it to scripts as a --frontend flag. (It is also persisted to .wix/site.json as a resume fallback, but the live run reads scratch, not the file.) The axis is binary:

DISCOVERY.md § "Wave 0 — Mode detection" decides which value to set and records it via init-site-json.mjs --frontend <value> (on the astro path only). Which flow each value runs is owned by PLAN.md § "Frontend-mode routing".

Two tracks (business vs frontend)

The skill runs two semi-independent tracks (business = frontend-blind site/app/seed work; frontend = scaffold/design/components/pages/build) that the orchestrator interleaves for wall-time. The track model and interleaving are owned by PLAN.md § "Two tracks".

When NOT to use this skill

Read individual .md files under references/verticals/; Read on the directory returns EISDIR.

The run

The whole run — Discovery → Setup → design-system bridge → Seed → Components → Pages → Build → Release, with every dispatch, handle, wait, and transition — is owned by the conductor: references/PLAN.md (pre-approval) then references/BUILD.md (post-approval). Open PLAN.md to start a run. This file does not duplicate the sequence.

Wall-time targets: discovery ≤ 80 s (excl. user think-time); setup foreground ≤ 25 s; seed longest pole ≤ 120 s. Full-build target: ≤ 600 s prompt-to-live-URL when all phases run.

Verticals

Pack frontmatter in references/verticals/ is discovery-only. Post-seed work uses INSTRUCTIONS.md + templates under each vertical directory.

Upstream: @skills/wix-manage (seed + app install recipes).

Current packs: stores, ecom, gift-cards, cms, blog, forms. Schema: references/verticals/_schema.md + _schema.json.