all-in-one/start-export begins an export of this site into a single .wpress archive.
What comes back is a job_id, not a finished archive. The work runs in the background and the file appears in all-in-one/list-backups only once the job completes.
At a glance
| Ability | all-in-one/start-export |
| Toolset | All-in-One WP Migration — toolset/all-in-one-wp-migration |
| Group | All-in-One WP Migration › Taking exports |
| Requires | All-in-One WP Migration, active on the site |
| Capability | manage_options |
| Safety | Writes data |
| Repeatable | Not idempotent — each call changes the row set, so re-running is not a no-op |
| Ships in | AcrossAI Abilities Manager 0.0.34 and later |
It is not done when this returns
Treating a successful response as “the site is backed up” is the mistake this ability invites. Poll all-in-one/get-export-progress with the job_id until it reports finished. On a quiet site the job can sit waiting for a visitor before WordPress cron advances it at all.
How it works
Narrow the export with files and database when you do not need both. A database-only archive is dramatically smaller, which on this plugin matters more than usual — size is what decides whether the archive can be imported again later.
send_to_remote uploads to configured remote storage. Each destination is a separate paid extension here, so this does nothing unless one has been bought and set up.
Use the label. Archive filenames are timestamps and hashes; “before the theme swap” is what makes the list usable a month later.
Input
| Name | Type | Required | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
files | boolean | No — defaults to true | Include uploads, themes and plugins. |
database | boolean | No — defaults to true | Include the database. |
send_to_remote | boolean | No — defaults to false | Also upload to configured remote storage, where an extension provides one. |
label | string | No | A note stored with the archive — why it was taken. |
What comes back
| Name | Type | What it is |
|---|---|---|
job_id | string | Poll this with all-in-one/get-export-progress. |
started | boolean | Whether the job was accepted. |
includes | object | What the job was asked to include. |
note | string | Anything worth knowing about how it was scheduled. |
success | boolean | Whether the call completed. |
message | string | A one-line summary of what happened, suitable for showing a human. |
error_code | string | Present only on failure — a stable machine-readable reason, such as a missing field, a wrong field type or an unmet confirmation. |
Example
Ask your assistant:
Export this site before the migration, database only, and label it.
It resolves to one call:
{
"ability": "all-in-one/start-export",
"parameters": {
"files": false,
"database": true,
"label": "Pre-migration database snapshot"
}
}Worth knowing
- Not idempotent — each call starts another export and produces another archive.
- Watch the resulting size. An archive larger than the import limit is a file you can create and cannot restore through the plugin.
- A quiet site has no cron traffic. If progress does not move, a single page view often releases it.
Related abilities
- All-in-One Export Progress — the poll that says it finished
- List Archives — where the finished archive appears
- Label an Archive — label it afterwards instead
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