Installing the plugin

Three things have to agree before the first export: the Worker URL, the auth key, and which site is the source of truth.

1. Get a Worker auth key

The plugin talks to the Worker over HTTP and authenticates with X-Auth-Key. The Worker reads that value from the AUTH_KEY_SECRET secret.

cd cfpress/worker
npx wrangler secret put AUTH_KEY_SECRET --config wrangler.prod.toml

Pick a long random string. Wrangler asks for the value and stores it; it is not written to a file.

If you skip this step the Worker has no secret to compare against, and every plugin request is rejected with 401.

2. Install the plugin

Download the plugin zip from the repository's Releases page, then in WordPress open Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the zip and activate it.

If the Releases page is still empty, the plugin has not been published yet. The CMS works without it — come back to this page when there is a zip to install.

3. Fill in the settings

In Settings → CF Static Export, enter:

• Worker URL — the site's public address, for example https://example.com. No trailing slash, no /admin.
• Auth key — the exact value you gave AUTH_KEY_SECRET.

Save, then use the Test connection button. A green result means the Worker answered and accepted the key. 401 means the two keys differ — retype both rather than trimming them.

4. First export

Press Export. This is the big one: it walks every post, uploads media to R2, writes posts and taxonomies into D1, and renders each post into a static page.

Expect the first run to take a while on a large site. Later exports only touch what changed.

Two things worth knowing before you press it:

• the first export overwrites anything already in D1 with the same post ID;
• if you set posts to draft inside the CMS, a later export replaces that state with WordPress's own. See Sync rules.

When it finishes, open the site. Lists come live from D1, so they are correct immediately.

5. Keep your theme (optional)

The plugin can capture the WordPress theme you are currently using and store it as a CF Press style pack. The static site then starts out looking like the site you already had, instead of a default skin.

Run it once after the first export, then refine the CSS in the CMS under Templates.

Troubleshooting

Next: Sync rules.