Build an Elementor page

Version: 1.1.0 Updated: 2026-10-04 Category: workflow Status: stable Requires: Respira for WordPress plugin (9.1+) and an MCP connection, on a site running Elementor

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Description

A recipe for building an Elementor page through respira_build_page that looks like the design the first time. Elementor writes every style into the widget that shows it. Nothing cascades from the page the way CSS does, so whatever a widget's settings leave out comes from the theme or the Elementor kit: the theme's body size, the kit's heading colour, a default line height. Most of the distance between a hand-built page and its design comes from those gaps, not from the layout.

Have the finished HTML? Use the html-to-page skill. One respira_convert_html_to_builder call writes the page as native Elementor widgets and carries the file's stylesheet, so it matches the file without restating anything. Build by hand when there is no file, or when the user wants every style in Elementor's own controls.

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When to Use

• A page from a brief, a screenshot or a mockup.
• A design you can read but that has to land as Elementor settings, not a stylesheet.
• A first build looked off: wrong font size, light blue headings, buttons on separate lines, the theme header and title above the page.

Trigger Phrases

• "build this page in elementor"
• "make an elementor landing page"
• "recreate this design in elementor by hand"

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Workflow

1. Read the site

respira_get_site_context, then respira_get_builder_info for the Elementor version and whether containers are on. You write the tree as section > column > widget; Respira writes it in the shape the site uses.

2. Pick the template

A landing page draws its own header and footer, so it should not sit inside the theme's. Pass template to respira_build_page:

• "elementor_canvas": nothing but the page. No theme header, page title or footer.
• "elementor_header_footer": the theme's header and footer, the page full width between them, no page title.
• omitted: the theme's default template, with its title and content width.

An older plugin ignores the option. If the share link (step 8) still shows the theme's header and page title, tell the user to pick the template in the editor's page settings.

3. Read the design's computed values

Write down what the browser shows, not what the stylesheet happens to declare. If you can open the design in a browser, read getComputedStyle for each kind of element. If you work from the CSS, apply these browser defaults yourself:

• A heading with no font-weight is bold (700), not 600.
• A heading or paragraph with no line-height inherits the body's (a body at line-height:1.6 makes a 38px h2 60.8px tall). Elementor's own default for headings is about 1.2, which shrinks every section.
• A <p> has 1em top and bottom margins; an h1 to h3 has margins too unless the CSS removes them.
• letter-spacing in em becomes px against the element's own size: .12em at 13px is 1.56px.
• A colour, font family or size set on body applies to every element that does not set its own. Restate it on every widget.

4. Style every text widget completely

Typography keys only apply when typography_typography is "custom". For every heading, text editor and button, set:

typography_typography: "custom",
typography_font_family: "Inter",
typography_font_size: { unit: "px", size: 16 },
typography_font_weight: "400",
typography_line_height: { unit: "em", size: 1.6 },

plus the colour (title_color on a heading, text_color on a text editor, button_text_color on a button), and typography_letter_spacing and typography_text_transform where the design has them. A widget without a colour shows the kit colour (often light blue headings or grey text).

Text editor paragraphs take the theme's paragraph margins; set paragraph_spacing: { unit: "px", size: 16 } (the gap between paragraphs), or keep one paragraph per widget and space with _margin.

5. Buttons

• Size and shape: text_padding (per side), border_radius, background_color, button_text_color, and the typography keys above. Elementor's button line height is about 1; set the design's (typography_line_height) or the button comes out shorter.
• Outline buttons: border_border: "solid", border_width, border_color, and a background_color of "transparent".
• Hover: button_background_hover_color, hover_color.
• Two buttons side by side: give each _element_width: "auto" so they sit inline in the same column, with _margin for the gap. Without it each button takes the full row.

6. Layout and spacing

• Sections: padding per side, background_background: "classic" with background_color, stretch_section: "section-stretched" for full bleed, content_width for the inner width.
• Columns: _inline_size in percent; column gaps through the section's gap and the columns' own padding.
• Space between widgets: _margin on the widget, as the design's margins, rather than spacer widgets. The kit adds its own widget spacing (20px by default) below every widget but the last in a column, on top of your margin: set each bottom margin to the design's gap minus that spacing (a 24px gap is bottom: "4"), or the page grows by 20px per widget.
• Nesting: on a site without flexbox containers a page is sections > columns > widgets, and an inner section nests one level deep only. A card that holds a row (a table, a flow of steps, a grid of stats) becomes an inner section of its own, or a row of widgets with _element_width: "initial" and a percent width.
• Tables: a <table> in a text editor keeps every cell editable as text and scrolls on a phone if you wrap it in <div style="overflow-x:auto">; rebuilding it as columns stacks the cells on a phone.
• Images: upload first (respira_upload_media with the URL; respira_sideload_image is for stock images), then image: { url, id }, image_size: "full", width: { unit: "%", size: 100 }, image_border_radius for rounded corners.

7. Mobile

Check the phone render as carefully as the desktop one: a hand build drifts most there, because every desktop margin, line height and column that has no _mobile value carries over to a 390px screen.

Every size, padding and margin has _tablet and _mobile variants (typography_font_size_mobile, padding_mobile, _margin_mobile). Set _inline_size_mobile: 100 on columns that stack. Without them the desktop values shrink into the phone width.

8. Build in parts, then check the render

Send the page in one respira_build_page call when it is small; for a long page, build the first sections and add the rest with respira_inject_builder_content and mode: "append" (without it the call replaces the page, and a page with content refuses the replace unless confirm_replace: true), checking the received counts each time. Then mint respira_create_share_link and look at the page at desktop width and at 390px, beside the design. Compare heading sizes, line heights, button sizes and the page height section by section; fix with respira_update_element. Without a browser, pass the share link to respira_check_design as url with rendered: true, which renders the draft and checks it.

Images the user supplied (on their site or any URL they gave) go in with respira_upload_media and the URL; respira_sideload_image takes stock image domains only.

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Hard rules

• Never put the design into one HTML widget. The user asked for an editable page.
• Never leave a text widget without its typography and colour.
• Never call a page done from the write result alone. Check the render.
• Keep the page a draft until the user approves it.