# Export to a plugin

Any selection of snippets exports as an ordinary WordPress plugin that runs
them without Byte, for a site where Byte is not installed or for code that
should ship as its own plugin.

## From the workspace

**Export snippets** in the workspace toolbar opens a two-step dialog:

1. **Snippets**: choose the snippets the plugin contains.
2. **Plugin**: the plugin's name, description, version, author, plugin URI
   and text domain. With one snippet selected, they start from its
   `name`, `description`, `version` and `export` keys in `snippet.json`;
   otherwise from the name SleekByte, version 1.0.0 and the text domain
   `sleek-byte`.

Finishing downloads `<slug>-<version>.zip`, where the slug is the plugin name
lowercased with hyphens. Install it from `Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin`.
The export includes the snippets as they are in the editor, saved or not.

## With WP-CLI

```bash
wp sleek byte export my-snippet --zip --dest=/tmp
```

exports one snippet as saved, with the plugin header taken from its
`snippet.json`, and prints the path it wrote. Without `--zip` it writes the
plugin as a folder. Without `--dest` it writes into `uploads/sleek-byte-exports`.
The [CLI reference](/docs/byte/reference/cli.md#wp-sleek-byte-export) lists the
options.

## What the plugin contains

- `<slug>.php`, the plugin's main file with its header;
- `classes/`, a copy of Byte's snippet runtime under a namespace of its own;
- `snippets/<folder>/`, each exported snippet under the last part of its
  folder name.

The plugin loads its snippets exactly as Byte does: the same `snippet.json`
keys, conditions, assets, runtime error log and
[safe mode](/docs/byte/snippets/errors.md#safe-mode). Its
copies of Byte's filters carry a prefix unique to the export,
`sleekByteExport_<id>/`, so a filter written for Byte does not reach it.

The copied runtime reads only its own `snippets` folder, never
`wp-content/uploads/sleek-byte`, so a site where Byte ran before does not run
the snippets left there twice. It keeps its error log, asset handles and
folders under its own name, `sleek-byte-export-<id>`, and previews drafts
only through Byte.

`Actions_exportSnippet` returns the plugin's files and
`Actions_exportSnippetZip` writes the ZIP on the server, for other tools; see
the [REST reference](/docs/byte/reference/rest.md).