The product boundaries

Fernlight is designed so AI assistants can understand a site without taking control away from the owner. Each product has a different job.

• Fernlight theme: describes the site structure. It exposes design intent, tokens, templates, style variations, pattern purpose, and safe usage notes. It does not act.
• Fernlight Companion: reads and recommends. It provides site context, readiness checks, pattern recommendations, validation, exports, and handoff packs. It does not create, edit, or publish content.
• Fernlight Migration: audits and hands off. It inspects supported source-builder content, explains what can move cleanly, exports a migration handoff pack, and can create reviewable draft copies while preserving originals.
• Fernlight Pro: creates reviewable drafts. It prepares owner-directed draft work, guardrails, refactors, refreshes, blueprints, reading paths, and client handoff packs. Publishing remains a human decision.

No Fernlight product needs to call an external AI provider by itself. If you use ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Codex, or another assistant, you choose what to share with that tool.

Before using an AI assistant

1. Start with the site map. Ask the assistant to read the Fernlight manifest first, then the site context, then the abilities or REST catalog.
2. Share only what is useful. Export context, readiness, recommendations, and handoff packs when needed. Do not paste passwords, private customer data, license keys, API keys, or unpublished sensitive copy into an outside AI tool.
3. Keep owner intent first. Ask AI to offer options, questions, risks, and draft structures. Do not let it choose the final business direction for you.
4. Use dry runs where available. In Pro workflows, preview the planned changes before creating drafts.
5. Review before publishing. Treat all AI-assisted output as draft material. Check facts, claims, legal language, pricing, CTAs, links, image rights, and brand voice.

Fernlight theme

The theme is the passive structure layer. It helps AI tools understand the site without turning the theme into an AI product.

Use it for

• Understanding design tokens, color roles, type scale, spacing, and layout rhythm.
• Understanding pattern purpose, pattern families, suggested pairings, and avoid notes.
• Understanding template intent, such as reading pages, archive browsing, search, recovery, and landing pages.
• Choosing which Fernlight patterns fit a page goal before any copy is written.
• Preserving the editorial calm of the site while planning structure.

Do not use it for

• Generating final copy.
• Calling an AI provider.
• Creating, editing, or publishing posts or pages.
• Saving settings or making workflow decisions for the owner.

Helpful owner prompt

Use the Fernlight theme metadata to suggest a page structure for this goal. Preserve my voice, list the pattern options, explain what each section needs from me, and do not write final copy yet.

Fernlight Companion

Companion is the free read-only site intelligence layer. It helps owners and AI tools understand what is already present, what may need attention, and which patterns or workflows are appropriate.

The four Companion buckets

• Site Context: theme version, active style, design tokens, patterns, starter-site structure, navigation, public content shape, and safe AI instructions.
• Recommendations: pattern recommendations, content recommendations, style recommendations, internal-link suggestions, CTA wiring suggestions, and maintenance priorities.
• Validation: page or block preflight checks for pattern references, token use, missing CTAs, and simple accessibility flags.
• Handoff and Exports: Markdown or JSON context exports for AI assistants, readiness data, prompt recipes, and optional public AI guidance when enabled by the owner.

Best first call for AI tools

When an AI assistant or agent connects to a Fernlight site, use this discovery order:

1. /wp-json/fernlight/v1/manifest – one map of active editions, features, REST routes, Abilities equivalents, and Pro write workflow locations.
2. /wp-json/fernlight/v1/capabilities – available blocks, patterns, surfaces, features, and edition identity.
3. fernlight/get-site-context or the matching site-context REST route – the practical context pack for planning.
4. The specific read-only ability or REST route needed for the task.

When using the WordPress Abilities API, calls may need the standard input wrapper, for example {"input":{}} for a no-input ability.

Use Companion for

• Exporting an AI assistant pack before a planning session.
• Finding pages that need excerpts, images, headings, CTAs, links, or freshness review.
• Getting pattern recommendations for a page type, audience, goal, or intent.
• Preflighting block markup before a draft is built elsewhere.
• Preparing a human-readable worklist without changing the site.

Do not use Companion for

• Creating drafts.
• Editing live content.
• Publishing.
• Choosing final brand, pricing, legal, or offer decisions for the owner.

Helpful owner prompt

Read the Fernlight Companion export and turn it into a prioritized maintenance plan. Separate observations from recommendations, flag what needs my judgment, and do not write or publish anything.

Fernlight Migration

Migration is a free switching tool. Its AI value is structured evidence: what the source site contains, what maps cleanly, what needs review, and what Fernlight draft output was created.

Use it for

• Auditing supported builder content before changing themes.
• Exporting a Migration Handoff Pack as Markdown or JSON for review.
• Understanding clean mappings, approximate mappings, gaps, and source-builder constructs.
• Creating explicit Fernlight draft copies from supported content while leaving originals untouched.
• Giving an AI assistant enough structure to help plan human review without exposing full private page content.

Owner workflow

1. Install Fernlight Migration on the current site.
2. Run the read-only audit first.
3. Review detected source builders, confidence levels, gaps, and recommended Fernlight patterns.
4. Export the Migration Handoff Pack if you want outside AI help.
5. Create Fernlight draft copies only when you are ready to review them.
6. Compare draft output against the original before publishing anything.

Helpful owner prompt

Read this Migration Handoff Pack and identify what should be reviewed by a human before publishing. Group the issues by clean mappings, approximate mappings, missing intent, and copy that needs rewriting. Do not invent missing content.

Fernlight Pro

Pro is the gated action layer. It prepares, stores, and reviews draft work from owner-supplied input. It does not replace owner judgment, and it does not publish for you.

Start with guardrails

Before using Pro draft workflows, define the rules an assistant should respect:

• Voice and tone.
• Banned phrases.
• Never-change fields such as legal copy, pricing, product names, guarantees, phone numbers, addresses, and policy language.
• Preferred CTAs and destination URLs.
• Allowed claims and required disclaimers.
• Owner notes about audience, offer, constraints, and review standards.

Use Pro for

• Owner Intent Canvas: collect goals, audience, constraints, proof, CTAs, and owner notes before draft work begins.
• Draft Queue: review, duplicate, dismiss, or trash AI-assisted drafts from one place.
• Page Refactor Draft: create a reviewable duplicate draft from an existing page without changing the live source.
• Content Refresh Draft: prepare refresh drafts for stale, thin, or underlinked content.
• Site Blueprint Builder: turn an owner brief into sitemap, navigation, page recipe, and CTA planning.
• Reading Paths: plan Start Here pages, series hubs, and newsletter paths from existing content.
• Slot Copy Workbench: prepare options and placeholders for named pattern slots.
• CTA, internal-link, validation, and style briefs: create review surfaces based on explicit owner choices.
• Bulk Draft Builder: create multiple reviewable drafts from owner-provided rows, briefs, pattern choices, and CTAs.
• Client Handoff AI Pack: prepare safe-editing guidance, brand rules, maintenance notes, and allowed AI actions for a client.

Safe Pro workflow

1. Open the Pro AI workflow area in WordPress admin.
2. Update guardrails before asking for draft work.
3. Run a dry run or preview when available.
4. Check provenance, changed fields, source hashes, review status, and rollback hints.
5. Create a draft only after the owner understands what will be prepared.
6. Review the draft in WordPress, edit as needed, and publish manually.

Helpful owner prompt

Use Pro as a draft workflow, not as an autopilot. Start from my intent and guardrails, run a dry-run summary first, show changed fields and risks, and create only reviewable drafts. Do not publish.

Common workflows

Plan a new page

1. Use Companion to export site context.
2. Ask AI to recommend Fernlight patterns and list the human inputs needed.
3. Use Pro Owner Intent Canvas if you want a structured draft workflow.
4. Use Pro dry run before creating a draft.
5. Review and publish manually.

Improve an existing page

1. Use Companion content inventory and recommendations.
2. Use Companion validation if you have proposed block markup.
3. Use Pro Page Refactor Draft or Content Refresh Draft to create a review copy.
4. Compare changed fields and rollback hints before publishing.

Migrate an older builder site

1. Run the Migration audit.
2. Export the Migration Handoff Pack.
3. Ask AI to identify review risks and rewrite needs from the handoff.
4. Create Fernlight draft copies only after the audit makes sense.
5. Use Companion and Pro to review, refine, and prepare final drafts.

Prepare a client handoff

1. Use Companion to export the current site context and maintenance status.
2. Use Pro Client Handoff AI Pack for brand rules, safe-editing guidance, maintenance notes, and allowed AI actions.
3. Review the pack with the client before they use outside AI tools.

Rules for AI assistants and agents

• Call the manifest first, then site context, then the specific ability or REST route needed for the task.
• Treat the theme as passive metadata only.
• Treat Companion as read-only. It may recommend, validate, and export. It must not create or publish.
• Treat Migration as audit-first and draft-only for supported migration flows. Originals must remain untouched.
• Treat Pro as draft-first. Use dry-run previews when available and keep provenance attached.
• Never publish, delete live content, change legal copy, change pricing, change contact details, or alter claims without explicit owner approval.
• When uncertain, ask for owner intent instead of filling gaps with invented strategy.

Quick reference

• Stack map: /wp-json/fernlight/v1/manifest
• Capabilities: /wp-json/fernlight/v1/capabilities
• Companion admin area: Appearance → Fernlight AI
• Pro workflow area: Appearance → Fernlight Pro: AI Workflows
• Migration admin area: Tools → Fernlight Migration
• Safest instruction: read first, recommend second, draft only when the owner asks, publish never without human review.