What happens to my unpublished or draft pages when I move?
Short answer: they stay put, and they stay private. bernard doesn't get into your WordPress dashboard, so anything you haven't published — half-written drafts, private pages, work you're not ready to show — simply doesn't come across. Here's exactly why, and what to do if you actually did want one of those pages moved.
What comes across, and what doesn't
bernard copies your live, public site — nothing more. It visits your site the way any visitor would: it reads your public sitemap and follows the links on your public pages, and it copies what it finds. So:
- Published, public pages — these come across.
- Drafts, private pages, password-protected pages, anything unpublished — these don't. They were never visible to a visitor, so they were never visible to bernard.
Why it works this way
bernard never logs in to your site. It doesn't touch wp-admin, it doesn't use your password, and it can't reach any draft-preview link. It only ever sees what a logged-out person with a web browser sees. A WordPress draft isn't in your public sitemap and isn't linked from any public page, so there's no trail for bernard to follow to it — which is exactly why your unfinished work can't accidentally end up on your new site.
Your old site is left completely alone
Moving is copying, not cutting. bernard reads your WordPress site and builds its own copy on your new home; it never writes to, changes, or deletes anything on the original. Your WordPress site — drafts and all — stays exactly as it was, and you can keep getting to those drafts there until you decide you no longer need the old site.
If you did want one of those pages
You've got two simple options:
- Publish it first. If a page is currently a draft but you do want it on your new site, publish it on WordPress before the move so it's public when bernard looks.
- Add it fresh on bernard. Or skip WordPress entirely and just ask your AI to build the page on your new site. It arrives as a draft for you to check, and only goes live once you approve it — so you can rebuild that unfinished idea properly, whenever you're ready.
One last thing worth knowing: a single move also has a limit on how many pages it copies, so on a very large site some published pages might need adding afterwards too — but that's about size, not about whether a page was published.
The prompt
“I'm about to move my WordPress site to bernard. List the pages that are currently published and public so I know exactly what will come across — and remind me that any drafts or private pages won't.”
The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Connect bernard to your AI over MCP — a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI — then paste the prompt above.
Questions people ask
- Do my draft or unpublished WordPress pages get moved to bernard?
- No. bernard copies your site by visiting it as an ordinary member of the public would — reading your public pages and following public links. A draft or private page isn't visible to the public, so bernard never sees it and never copies it. Only the pages that are live and public come across.
- Are my drafts lost when I move?
- No — nothing is lost. bernard only reads your existing site and makes its own copy; it never changes or deletes anything on your WordPress. Your drafts stay exactly where they are, in your WordPress dashboard, for as long as you keep that site.
- I wanted one of those pages on my new site — how do I get it across?
- Two easy ways. Either publish it on WordPress before you move, so it's public when bernard looks — or just build it fresh on bernard afterwards by asking your AI. Either way it lands as a draft first, and only goes live when you press Approve.
- What about password-protected or private pages?
- Same as drafts — if a page is hidden behind a password or marked private, an ordinary visitor can't open it, so bernard can't either. It won't be copied across. Anything you want moved needs to be publicly visible at the time of the move.