Moving a site from WordPress to EmDash goes smoothly until you reach the plugins. FAQ blocks, [year] shortcodes, lead magnets and contact forms have no EmDash version, so they either break or show up as raw text on the new site.
So I ported 4 of my WordPress plugins and added the email provider EmDash was missing. These EmDash plugins carry your blocks, shortcodes, leads and forms over as they are. All 5 are free and open source, and they already run on core-forms.com and nino.in.
Each one is a native EmDash plugin with its own tests and documentation. They need EmDash 1.1 or later, and Content Blocks and Lead Capture also need Astro 7.
Port of Core Forms for WordPress
You write the form fields as plain HTML, and the plugin turns them into a working form with submissions, spam protection and actions.
Port of the Marketers Delight Lead Capture drop-in
A lead magnet block. A visitor enters an email address and gets your PDF, template pack or spreadsheet through a personal download link.
Port of GT ACF Blocks
10 editorial blocks for the EmDash editor, from FAQs and callouts to product reviews, comparisons and checklists.
<PortableText> renders them with no component wiring<details> FAQs and 44px touch targets[year]Port of Dynamic Month & Year into Posts
36 date shortcodes, including [year], [monthyear] and [age], that resolve every time a page renders. A title like “Best Hosting in [year]” stays current without a republish.
New for EmDash
Without an email provider, EmDash can only show invite links for you to share by hand. This plugin sends EmDash’s invites, magic-link sign-ins, account recovery and plugin email through Emailit.
EMAILIT_API_KEYThe hard part of the move is content that depends on a plugin. A title with [year] in it or a form embedded in a post only works if something on the new site understands it, so each port keeps the WordPress names, attributes and data shapes.
Core Forms for EmDash
cf-* eventscreate_comment actionMarketers Delight Lead Capture
Lead Capture for EmDash
Dynamic Dates for EmDash
<PortableText> for <DynamicPortableText><title> tag, which you resolve yourselfContent Blocks for EmDash
Core Forms and Lead Capture both ship a read-only WP-CLI export script. You run it on the WordPress site and import the JSON file on the EmDash side. Emailit has no WordPress version, because WordPress sends mail on its own.
EmDash shows you the capabilities a plugin declares and asks you to approve them. These 5 are native plugins, because EmDash loads Astro rendering components only from native plugins.
| Plugin | Capabilities | Used For |
|---|---|---|
| Content Blocks | None | Rendering blocks. It registers no hooks, routes or settings. |
| Dynamic Dates | None | Resolving shortcodes during render and in the SEO tags EmDash prints. |
| Emailit | hooks.email-transport:register | Becoming the site’s email provider. |
| Lead Capture | email:send network:request users:read | Delivery and confirmation emails, calls to the newsletter services and Akismet only, and the first admin’s address for new-lead notices. |
| Core Forms | email:send network:request:unrestricted | Email and autoresponder actions, webhooks to the URLs you set and CAPTCHA checks. |
A native plugin runs inside your site’s process like any other npm package, without a sandbox around it. The capability list tells you what a plugin intends to do, and the source on GitHub is where you confirm it. Core Forms is the only one with open network access, because a webhook can point anywhere you choose.
Every plugin installs the same way. You add the package, register it in astro.config.mjs and restart the dev server. The example adds all 5.
Keep only the plugins your site needs.
pnpm add @gatilab/emdash-core-forms \
@gatilab/emdash-lead-capture \
@gatilab/emdash-content-blocks \
@gatilab/emdash-dynamic-dates \
@gatilab/emdash-emailitNative plugins go in plugins, not sandboxed. Lead Capture also adds leadCaptureSite(), a small middleware that answers download and confirmation links, because EmDash plugin routes can’t redirect a visitor to a file on another host.
import { defineConfig } from "astro/config";
import emdash from "emdash/astro";
import { coreForms } from "@gatilab/emdash-core-forms";
import { leadCapture } from "@gatilab/emdash-lead-capture";
import { leadCaptureSite } from "@gatilab/emdash-lead-capture/site";
import { contentBlocks } from "@gatilab/emdash-content-blocks";
import { dynamicDates } from "@gatilab/emdash-dynamic-dates";
import { emailit } from "@gatilab/emdash-emailit";
export default defineConfig({
integrations: [
emdash({
plugins: [
coreForms(),
leadCapture(),
contentBlocks(),
dynamicDates({ timeZone: "Asia/Kolkata" }),
emailit({ from: "Example <noreply@example.com>" }),
],
}),
leadCaptureSite(),
],
});Plugins that keep API keys in the admin store them encrypted, which needs EMDASH_ENCRYPTION_KEY on the site. Keep a copy of the key somewhere safe, because secrets encrypted with a lost key can’t be read.
npx emdash secrets generateRestart the dev server, then approve the capabilities EmDash asks for. A few plugins need one more step:
<DynamicPortableText> in place of <PortableText> in your templates.These plugins are free, and I still take responsibility for them. Bugs and feature requests go to the plugin’s GitHub repository, where the fix stays public for the next person who hits the same thing.
Open an issue with what you expected, what happened and your EmDash and Astro versions. I’ll work through it with you and ship the fix in the repository.
If a feature belongs in the plugin and EmDash can support it, I’ll build it. Tell me the job you need it to do.
Some WordPress behavior can’t move as it is yet, and file uploads in Core Forms are one example. When you hit a limit like that, I’ll explain it and suggest a workable approach.
Cost, compatibility and what happens to your WordPress content.
Have a question that isn’t here? Ask me directly.
EmDash is an open-source CMS written in TypeScript and built on Astro, released under the MIT license as a successor to WordPress. It stores content as Portable Text, a structured JSON format, instead of HTML. That’s why WordPress shortcodes and blocks need a plugin to render on it.
Yes. All 5 are free and licensed GPL-2.0-or-later, the same license as the WordPress plugins they come from. There’s no paid tier and no license key.
No. They work on a new EmDash site too. Content Blocks and Dynamic Dates add editor blocks, Core Forms and Lead Capture add their own admin screens, and Emailit only needs an Emailit account with a verified sending domain.
EmDash 1.1 or later. Content Blocks and Lead Capture also need Astro 7, and Core Forms and Lead Capture need React 19 for their admin screens.
The ones these plugins own will. Dynamic Dates resolves [year], [monthyear] and the rest of its shortcodes, and Core Forms expands [cf_form] embeds inside HTML sections. Shortcodes from other WordPress plugins need their own replacement.
Open an issue on that plugin’s GitHub repository. Include your EmDash and Astro versions and the steps that trigger the problem.
If something your site depends on is missing, tell me what it is.