Agent Starter Foundation and Content Governance

Migration Foundation helps you adapt an Agent Canvas site to a real organization before an agent starts creating its content. It separates two questions that should not be answered at the same time:

1. What should the site look like and how should it be structured?
2. What content may an agent create, and under which rules?

The first pass prepares the site's foundation. The second pass prepares Agent Composer's content-governance configuration. A new snapshot is taken between them so the second pass is based on the foundation that was actually applied, not on an earlier version of the site.

Starter does not call an AI service. It creates a downloadable kit that you can give to a model or another reviewed authoring process. You decide what service to use, what source evidence it may receive, and whether the returned proposal is acceptable.

The Starter interface sometimes calls an uploaded proposal a candidate, and calls its first automated check preflight. These are product labels: the candidate is simply the proposal waiting for your review, and preflight checks whether it is safe and compatible with the current site.

The workflow in one picture​

B0: snapshot before foundation work
  -> F1: proposed site foundation
  -> preview, review, and activate F1
  -> B1: new snapshot of the applied foundation
  -> C1: proposed Composer content-governance configuration
  -> preview and activate C1 in Starter
  -> validate and activate its Config Set in Composer
  -> create governed content drafts

The letters do not all describe the same kind of thing. B0 and B1 are read-only snapshots. F1 and C1 are proposals. B1 is not itself a Composer configuration.

What each stage means​

You can think of B0 as the first survey of a building, F1 as the reviewed renovation plan, B1 as the new survey after the renovation, and C1 as the operating handbook for everyone who will work inside the finished building.

B0: the starting snapshot​

B0 records the destination's effective state before Foundation work. It includes:

• the active Agent Canvas theme and its built-in design capabilities;
• existing site-level Global Styles, such as colors, type and spacing choices;
• templates, template parts, navigation and reusable patterns;
• Custom CSS and shared WP Suite component styling;
• content types and taxonomies already registered by WordPress or active plugins;
• the active Agent Composer configuration, if one already exists and can be exported.

B0 does not edit the theme or WordPress. Starter remembers which starting snapshot an F1 proposal belongs to. If the destination changes before F1 is reviewed or activated, Starter asks for a fresh snapshot and proposal instead of applying an outdated plan.

F1: the Migration Foundation proposal​

F1 is generated from B0 plus reviewed evidence, such as:

• an authorized analysis of the source site;
• decisions about site navigation, content organization and important subjects;
• brand, locale and accessibility requirements;
• required content types and the plugins that supply them;
• media rights and unresolved decisions.

F1 can make the installed Canvas site feel purpose-built without creating a separate theme. After explicit activation, it may update:

• the site's Canvas color, typography, spacing and other supported design choices;
• ordinary WordPress Custom CSS for presentation that Global Styles cannot express;
• shared styling used by WP Suite plugin interfaces, including visually isolated components;
• navigation menus and their logical placement;
• header, footer, template and template-part customizations stored safely by WordPress;
• reusable user patterns owned by this site;
• an optional draft Agent Composer configuration, imported but left inactive.

What F1 cannot do​

F1 cannot rewrite or generate theme/plugin source files. In particular, it cannot:

• change the installed Canvas theme files or theme ZIP;
• replace Canvas's built-in design settings, release information, or built-in patterns;
• install or generate theme/plugin source code or new stylesheet files;
• register a custom post type, taxonomy, custom field or relationship;
• publish ordinary pages, posts, or custom records;
• activate an Agent Composer Config Set.

Site-specific content types, taxonomies, fields and relationships must be registered by an installed, reviewed plugin before the Foundation preview. F1 may describe and use those capabilities, but it cannot create the plugin functionality behind them. Similarly, it may create a site-owned user pattern, but not add a new built-in pattern to the Canvas release.

Check, review, and activate the Foundation​

These are deliberately separate steps:

1. Check the proposal​

Starter checks that the uploaded F1 proposal belongs to the current B0, has the expected format, uses blocks and content types available on the site, and contains no passwords, secret keys or executable code. It also reports unanswered decisions that would make activation unsafe. The proposal is saved for review, but the site's appearance does not change.

2. Review the proposed changes​

Starter reads the destination again and produces a human-readable list of proposed changes. It also checks whether each item is safe for Starter to update and whether the required plugins and content types still exist. Preview does not apply the proposed design. It records exactly what you reviewed.

This is a preview of the proposed changes, not a picture of the finished website. Review the result visually after activation on a safe test or staging site.

3. Starter activation​

Starter checks the proposal one final time and activates it only if the site and the proposed changes still match what you reviewed. It applies changes in a controlled order and records how to undo them. If part of activation fails, it attempts to restore items already changed.

If someone edits the destination after preview, the plan changes and activation stops. Build and review a new preview instead of forcing the old one.

B1: the post-Foundation snapshot​

After F1 is activated, download a new content-governance kit. The base snapshot inside this kit is B1.

B1 is important because it now sees the real destination:

• the applied site-level design;
• the actual header, footer and templates;
• the actual navigation and user patterns;
• every content type and taxonomy currently supplied by active plugins;
• the pattern and block choices that Composer can safely allow.

This prevents the content-governance proposal from referring to a template, plugin feature, pattern or content type that existed only in an earlier plan.

Important Composer detail​

B1 includes the currently active Composer Config Set when one exists. A draft Composer configuration imported by F1 is not automatically included in B1 simply because it is saved in Composer.

If that F1 draft must guide the second pass, include the reviewed draft when preparing C1, or deliberately validate and activate it in Composer before taking a later snapshot. Do not reuse the same Config Set identifier for different configurations: Starter reports the conflict instead of silently replacing an existing configuration.

C1: the content-governance proposal​

C1 is created from B1, the reviewed content strategy, representative source material and your editorial decisions. It should normally preserve the foundation and focus on the rules Agent Composer needs.

A complete C1 proposal can define:

• the Config Set that groups the proposal;
• the Site Contract, including language, available content types, fields, templates, media rules and which plugins may provide features;
• one or more Blueprints, each describing a page or content type the agent may work with;
• whether each Blueprint uses a Gutenberg document or a structured record made primarily from registered fields;
• allowed patterns, blocks, templates and required section order;
• relationships, editorial and SEO rules;
• which installed plugins, design components and content sources Composer may use.

The C1 pass does not create the site's articles, landing pages or custom content entries. It creates the rules under which those drafts may later be generated.

There are two different activations​

This is the most important operational distinction:

1. Starter proposal activation applies the reviewed migration changes and may import a draft Composer configuration. That configuration remains inactive.
2. Composer Config Set activation happens later in Agent Composer, after the imported configuration passes Composer's complete validation.

The normal second-pass sequence is:

1. Upload C1 to Starter and run its checks.
2. Review the complete list of proposed changes.
3. Activate the reviewed C1 proposal in Starter. This imports the draft Composer configuration.
4. Open SmartCloud > Agent Composer.
5. Inspect the Site Contract, Blueprints, fields, patterns, installed plugin requirements and language rules.
6. Run Composer validation.
7. Activate the validated Config Set explicitly.
8. Generate one representative document draft and one structured-record draft, where applicable, before generating content at scale.

End-to-end operator workflow​

1. Install and activate Canvas, Starter, and all plugins that supply required blocks or content types.
2. Register site-specific content types, taxonomies, fields and relationships through the plugin responsible for them.
3. Download the Migration Foundation kit. This creates B0 without changing the site.
4. Provide the kit, authorized source material and your site decisions to the chosen AI model or reviewed authoring process.
5. Upload the returned F1 proposal and run Starter's checks.
6. Review the complete list of Foundation changes.
7. Activate the exact reviewed F1 plan.
8. Inspect the site visually and verify navigation, templates and responsive behavior.
9. Download a fresh content-governance kit. This creates B1.
10. Generate C1 from B1 and the reviewed content strategy.
11. Upload, check, preview and activate C1 in Starter.
12. Validate and activate its imported Config Set separately in Composer.
13. Generate and review representative drafts before broader content production.

Create a fresh proposal whenever its contents change. Never reuse B0 for C1 after F1 has changed the destination.

Common misunderstandings​

If checking, preview, activation, or rollback stops, see Agent Starter troubleshooting.