Convert an HTML site into a WordPress theme with AI

Hand your static HTML and CSS to AI and get back a real classic theme you can preview and publish.

Difficulty Intermediate

Time ~20 min

Tools create_classic_theme, write_file, get_preview_url, publish_draft_theme

Prerequisites

A connected site and your HTML and CSS files (or a link to the static site).

The prompt

Convert my static HTML site into a classic WordPress theme on [your site]. My files are [attach the HTML and CSS, or point to the folder or URL].

Build it as a draft theme so my live site stays untouched:
1. Scaffold a classic theme and move my CSS into its stylesheet.
2. Split the repeated header and footer into header.php and footer.php, and add the required WordPress hooks (wp_head, wp_footer, body_class, and a registered nav menu).
3. Turn each HTML page into a template, and create the main pages as real WordPress pages so I can edit their content later.

Then give me a preview link and list every page and template you created so I can click through each one. Do not publish. After I review the preview and tell you to go live, publish it and confirm my previous theme was backed up first.

Already connected to WPVibe?

Skip the copy-paste. Just ask your AI for the “Convert an HTML site into a WordPress theme with AI” recipe, or describe the task, and WPVibe runs these steps on your own site.

You have a static site, maybe hand-coded, maybe generated by an AI as raw HTML and CSS, and it looks exactly how you want it. Getting it into WordPress is where the project stalls. Pasting the HTML into a page loses the header, footer, and menus, and the markup starts fighting whatever theme is already active. Rebuilding it block by block in the editor means throwing away the design you already finished. So the folder of files just sits there.

Your connected AI scaffolds a real classic theme out of your files. It pulls the shared chrome into header.php and footer.php, wires the WordPress hooks that menus, plugins, and the admin bar rely on, moves your CSS into the theme’s stylesheet, and turns each page into a template. Everything lands in a draft theme, so your live site never changes while you build. You get a preview link to click through, and the theme goes live only when you say so.

Paste the prompt, point it at your HTML by attaching the files or giving it the folder, and open the preview it hands back. Walk through every page and test the menus, because a static file has no idea what a WordPress nav menu is until the theme wires one up. When it looks right, tell it to publish. It keeps a backup of your previous theme automatically, and it will not go live until you give the word.

Outcome

A working WordPress theme built from your HTML, previewed on your site and published only when you approve.