# Activating

## Installing

- **In the suite**, Pixel comes with the suite's Pro plugin. Activate the
  suite first, then its Pro plugin on the Plugins screen; Pixel then appears
  in the workspace sidebar.
- **The standalone SleekPixel plugin** is installed like any plugin and adds
  **Pixel** to the **SleekWP** menu.

Pixel needs the Imagick PHP extension to render images; see
[Troubleshooting](/docs/pixel/troubleshooting.md).

## The license

The license connects the site to SleekWP's store; the standalone SleekPixel
plugin uses it to receive updates. Pixel's images, rendering and settings work
whether or not a license is active.

### On the License page

Open Pixel's License page: in the suite it sits beside Pixel's Settings in the
workspace sidebar, and in the standalone plugin in Pixel's own navigation.

1. Enter the license key.
2. Activate it.

The page asks the store to activate the key for this site and shows the
result as valid or invalid. Only a valid key is kept; an invalid one is
discarded. Deactivating asks the store to release the key for this site and
removes it, together with its status.

The page is hidden when the standalone plugin is
[white-labelled](/docs/white-label.md).

### With a constant

You can provide the key in PHP instead, for example in `wp-config.php`:

```php
define( 'SLEEK_PIXEL_LICENSE', 'YOUR LICENSE KEY' );
```

While the constant holds a non-empty key, the License page shows that key,
masked, as managed by the constant, and refuses to activate or deactivate a
key entered on the page. The constant does not activate the key with the
store by itself.

## Updating from an earlier SleekPixel

Images, custom fonts, settings, the Google Fonts key and the license stay
where earlier versions stored them. The first request after an update that
changes how rendered files are named deletes the old files once, and every
image renders again on its next request. The [assistant](/docs/pixel/ai/chat.md)
replaces the earlier built-in AI chat; the AI keys that chat kept move to the
AI settings once, for each provider that has no key there yet.

## Uninstalling

Deleting the plugin removes the tables the earlier built-in AI chat used,
Pixel's version markers, the [Agent Sync](/docs/ai/agent-sync.md)
markers on the image designs and the queue of background renders with its
scheduled check, on every site of a network. Deactivating it removes the
scheduled check and keeps the queue. It keeps the image
designs, custom fonts, settings, the Google Fonts key, the license, the design
files Agent Sync wrote to the theme and the rendered files under
`wp-content/uploads/sleek-pixel`, so reinstalling Pixel finds them again.

While another plugin that carries Pixel is still installed, such as the suite's
Pro plugin after you delete the standalone SleekPixel plugin, Pixel's data
stays for it and deleting removes nothing.