Wix-managed headless projects follow a development workflow that includes local development with hot reloading, a 3-stage deployment process, and built-in support for environment variables and AI-assisted development. This article explains what each stage of the workflow involves, so you know what to expect before diving into the CLI documentation for step-by-step instructions.
During development, you work locally in your preferred IDE and use the CLI's dev command to start a local development environment. This environment:
You write your frontend code in standard Astro files, add extensions for backend logic and dashboard UIs, and call Wix APIs using the JavaScript SDK. The local environment connects to your Wix project's real data, so you can test with actual business data from your dashboard.
For details on starting and using the local dev environment, see Wix CLI Development Overview.
When you're ready to deploy, the CLI provides a 3-stage process:
The build command compiles your project's assets. This is the same build step that runs before preview and release.
The preview command pushes your project to Wix's servers and creates a shareable preview URL. This is useful for sharing work-in-progress with team members or stakeholders. Each preview creates a unique URL that points to a specific snapshot of your project.
Note: The preview command uploads your code but doesn't register all extensions. Some extensions, like embedded scripts and site widgets, only work after a full release.
The release command pushes your project to Wix's servers, registers all extensions, and publishes the site. After releasing, the CLI provides the URL of your published site and preview URLs for the site and dashboard.
For step-by-step deployment instructions, see Build and Deploy a Project in the CLI documentation.
The CLI provides built-in support for environment variables, allowing you to store configuration values and secrets outside your code. You can define variables with different security levels. Public variables are stored locally, while secret variables are stored securely on Wix servers to prevent accidental exposure. For details, see Manage Environment Variables in the CLI documentation.
New CLI projects include Wix Skills by default. Wix Skills are self-contained instructions that AI tools like Claude and Cursor can use to develop, deploy, and manage your project.
Wix Skills follow the Agent Skills specification and are stored in tool-specific directories in your project, such as .claude/ or .cursor/. You can update them to the latest version using wix skills update.
For more details and sample prompts, see About Wix Skills.
The CLI can be integrated into CI/CD pipelines, allowing you to automate tasks like running tests, building, and deploying. For example, you can create a GitHub Actions workflow that runs unit tests on every pull request.
For details on unit testing, see Write Unit Tests for a Wix CLI Project in the CLI documentation.