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🧵 Publishing a Whole Thread

Publishing a whole thread means writing a new topic in draft, from its opening story to its endings, and putting it live together so readers meet it complete. This page will guide you through preparing the thread, publishing it from the Studio in one update, and doing the same in one step with an AI agent.

Why publish a thread together​

A topic is only on the site once its opening story is published, and stories in an unpublished topic stay off the site even if they are published themselves. That means you can work on a whole thread in private, then let readers in when every path is ready. This ensures nobody meets a fork where half the choices are "Coming soon" unless you planned it that way.

Preparing the thread​

  • Create the topic and write the opening story. See Topics.
  • Add choices with "What comes next", and write each story as a draft. See Threads and choices.
  • Link side roads back to the main path if you like. While a topic is unpublished, a crossroad can lead to a draft story in the same topic. See Crossroads.
  • Check "Story structure": nothing should be under "Not connected yet", and each edge of the tree should be an ending you mean. See Maps and story structure.

Planned stories can stay planned. Readers see them as "Coming soon" cards, and a planned ending shows as a locked gem socket.

Publishing from the Studio​

The Studio publishes one story at a time, and the rebuild wait gathers them into one update.

  • Publish each draft in the thread: choose "Published" under "Publishing" and press "Save".
  • Publish the opening story last. Until then, none of the thread is on the site.
  • Let the wait pass. Because the site waits for a quiet moment after the last change, a run of saves becomes one update. See Rebuilds.

Simply check the Dashboard's "Next site update" until it says "Up to date", then open the topic on the public site.

tip

To put a thread live at a set time, schedule every story for the same "Goes live at" time, with the opening story included. See Scheduling.

Publishing with an AI agent​

If you have connected an AI agent over MCP, the publish_thread tool publishes a topic and its draft stories in order, in one step. It needs the publish scope.

  • Ask for a dry run first. The agent reports which stories would be published, and which would stay unpublished, without changing anything.
  • Read the summary, then ask it to run again with the dry run turned off.

Stories that are already published or scheduled, planned stories, and stories not connected to the topic's map are skipped, each with the reason. See Example workflows.

After publishing​

  • Open the topic on the site and follow the main path to an ending.
  • Open "Your map" to check that every story and crossroad is where you expect.
  • Check the belt: its count of paths should match the endings you published. See Endings and gems.
warning

Unpublishing the opening story later takes the whole topic offline at the next site update. Crossroads from other topics that lead into it are hidden from readers until it is published again.