Beaver Builder Reference

This page is the technical reference. For what Respira does on Beaver Builder, how it connects to Claude and ChatGPT, and how every edit lands on a copy first, start with the Beaver Builder MCP server page.

Technical documentation for using Respira with Beaver Builder.

About Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is a reliable, user-friendly WordPress page builder trusted by agencies and developers. It stores layouts as serialized data and features over 30 content modules with a focus on stability and clean code.

Beaver Builder is full read and write. Respira builds, duplicates, batch-updates and renders native Beaver layouts, and mirrors every write to both the draft (_fl_builder_data) and published (_fl_builder_data_published) meta so the editor and the front end stay in lockstep.

Data Structure

Beaver Builder stores layouts as serialized PHP arrays in post meta (_fl_builder_data). The structure consists of rows, columns, and modules:

{
  "node-abc123": {
    "node": "abc123",
    "type": "row",
    "settings": { "width": "fixed" }
  },
  "node-def456": {
    "node": "def456",
    "type": "column",
    "parent": "abc123",
    "settings": { "size": "100" }
  },
  "node-ghi789": {
    "node": "ghi789",
    "type": "module",
    "parent": "def456",
    "settings": {
      "type": "heading",
      "heading": "Welcome to Our Site",
      "tag": "h1"
    }
  }
}

Module Identification

By Node Label (Recommended)

Set a custom label in Beaver Builder: Module Settings → Advanced → Label:

{ "admin_label": "Hero Heading" }

By CSS ID

Set in Module Settings → Advanced → ID:

{ "admin_label": "hero-cta" }

By Path

{ "path": "rows[0].columns[0].modules[0]" }

By Type and Content

{ "type": "heading", "match_content": "Welcome" }

Common Modules

Example Prompts for Beaver Builder

Content Updates:

• "Update the module labeled 'Hero Button' to say 'Contact Us'"
• "Change the heading with ID 'hero-heading' to 'Welcome Home'"
• "Replace the CTA button link with /get-started"

Structure Queries:

• "Extract Beaver Builder structure for page 42"
• "List all button modules on the homepage"
• "Show me all rows and their modules"

Bulk Updates:

• "Find all buttons with 'Learn More' and change to 'Get Started'"
• "Update the phone number in all text editor modules"
• "Change all H3 headings to H2"

Saved Modules & Templates

Beaver Builder saved modules and templates are editable:

• "List all saved modules" → Shows saved module library
• "Update the saved 'Contact Section' phone number"

Themer Layouts

Beaver Themer layouts (headers, footers, archives) are fully supported:

• "Update the header template button to link to /contact"
• "Change the footer copyright year to 2025"

Limitations

• Advanced tab settings: Margins, padding, and responsive settings may need the visual editor
• Animations: Animation and visibility settings are preserved but need the builder
• Field connections: Beaver Themer field connections are preserved but not directly editable
• Third-party modules: Support varies by add-on; core modules have full support

When to Use This Tool

• Content updates - Change text, links, and images without opening the builder
• Template maintenance - Update Themer layouts across the site
• Bulk editing - Fix repeated content across multiple pages
• Post-launch changes - Make quick edits after client handoff

See Also

• wordpress_extract_builder_content - View page structure
• wordpress_update_module - Update specific modules
• wordpress_inject_builder_content - Replace entire structure
• Page Builder Overview - Compare all supported builders

v5.2.0 Elemental — New Capabilities

HTML-to-Beaver Conversion

The convert_html_to_builder tool now fully supports Beaver Builder with:

Type Mapping:

• heading → heading module
• text/paragraph → rich-text module
• image → photo module
• button/link → button module
• video → video module
• divider → separator module
• tables, forms, unknown → html module (fallback)

Multi-Column Layout: Flex-row and grid layouts in source HTML are converted to Beaver Builder's column-group > column structure.

Content Merging: HTML content is mapped to BB-native settings keys:

• Headings → settings.heading + settings.tag
• Rich text → settings.text (HTML preserved)
• Photos → settings.photo_src + settings.photo_source
• Buttons → settings.text + settings.link

Support Level

Beaver Builder has Smart Defaults support — element operations work via the generic tree utility with builder-specific content merging.

Recent capabilities (7.4.x)

• Compound settings no longer fatal on write. Beaver reads compound settings (border, place_content, typography, dimension and friends) with array syntax, so Respira now coerces every compound setting value to a PHP array on the write path. That fixes duplicate, batch-update and page render in one place, where they previously could fatal with "Cannot use object of type stdClass as array."
• HTML-to-builder preserves section order on nested layouts. Sections wrapping nested <div>s used to reorder because the converter produced invalid row-in-row structures. The Beaver hierarchy pass now emits valid row > column-group > column > module in source order, keeping multi-column grids intact.
• inject-builder-content accepts raw HTML (a string, or { html: "..." }), running it through the same converter convert_html_to_builder uses, so the two tools take the same input.