Simply Static exports the site as static HTML and delivers it to a ZIP, a folder, GitHub, Netlify or S3. The agent reads the export state and history, runs a check before an export, starts and cancels exports through Simply Static’s own REST API, and lists the URLs an export missed. Settings and deploy credentials stay on Simply Static’s screen.
What the copy keeps
Every page, template, loop, loop item, menu, taxonomy button, Font Manager font and image size. Links are relative, and Soft Navigation works without a server. Delta’s 404 template is in the copy when you switch 404 page on in Simply Static. Delta pages are light, so the export is small; most of a ZIP’s weight is WordPress itself, which you trim in Simply Static’s settings.
What the copy loses
Anything that needs WordPress at request time: forms, search, pages behind a login, comments, cart and checkout. A form plugin posts to the server, which the static host does not have, so visitors see an error inside the form. Simply Static Pro adds form handling and a client-side search; otherwise a form posts to an external endpoint. The agent tells you before it builds one of these for a site that is exported.
Coming Soon
A static export gets the Coming Soon gate like any visitor. While the gate is on, the agent cannot start an export: it refuses and says why. An export started from Simply Static’s own screen holds none of the site’s pages, and Simply Static’s screens show a notice.
The setting Let static exports through, on the Coming Soon card, lets the export see the real pages. It is off by default. Delivering such an export to a push destination publishes the unlaunched site, so switching it on is your decision: when the agent asks to switch it on, the request waits for your approval on Delta → Approvals. It never goes through on the agent’s word alone. The Coming Soon page itself is left out of the copy.
Delta’s private files
Delta’s snapshots, jobs and seed records are kept out of the crawl, so a public export does not carry the site’s settings, rules and skills. Nothing to set up.
Running an export
- The agent runs a check first: Coming Soon on, a form or a search box the copy cannot serve, the 404 page off, an export already running, Simply Static’s own diagnostics failing. It tells you what it found.
- With your word it starts the export. A push destination is live the moment the run ends, so the agent asks first.
- It reads the status until the run ends. Do not change pages meanwhile, or the copy mixes old and new.
- It lists the URLs the copy is missing, with the reason: a 503 is a gate, a 404 a dead link, no code a fetch that never answered. The counts in Simply Static’s log cover only what was delivered, so they do not show what is missing.
- When Memory is on and an export had failures, Delta writes one open Memory entry with the first failed URLs. Close it when they are dealt with.
“Check whether the site is ready for a static export and tell me what would be missing.”
Delta can install Simply Static. Needs version 3.8.18 or newer.
For developers
Abilities, category delta-simply-static: delta/simply-static-check, simply-static-export (type: export or update), simply-static-get-status, simply-static-list-exports, simply-static-list-export-urls (status: failed for the misses) and simply-static-cancel-export. simply_static_export_running means wait and poll, not retry; simply_static_coming_soon_blocks means the gate is on without the pass.
The Coming Soon setting is coming_soon_allow_crawlers; the filter 21press_delta_coming_soon_request_allowed lets other requests through the gate. get-design-context.staticExport reports active, comingSoon (off, blocked or passes), privateFilesExcluded, lastExport and running.