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🚀 Publishing and Rebuilds

Publishing makes a story visible to readers, and a rebuild is the step that regenerates the public site so the change shows up. This page will guide you through publishing and scheduling, the rule that every published story needs a topic, and when your changes go live.

Summary

The public site is a static rebuild. It starts one wait after the last public change, by default 5 minutes, and "Rebuild now" starts one straight away.

The publish rule​

A story must belong to a topic before it can be published or scheduled. A story outside any topic has no public page and is on no map. The Studio helps you keep to this:

  • A story that is not in a topic shows a "Needs a topic" badge in the list, and a message in its settings panel.
  • The "Stories" list has a "Needs a home" button for published or scheduled stories without a topic.
  • To fix it, add the story to "What comes next" on a story that is in a topic, or unpublish it.

Publishing a story​

  • Open the story and find "Publishing" in the settings panel.
  • Choose "Published" and press "Save". The story is saved as live.
  • Wait for the site update. The note under the buttons says "Saved changes reach the public site at the next site update."

The status labels you will meet are "Draft", "Scheduled", "Published" and "Planned". A planned story has only a title and teaser, and you choose "Draft" to start writing it.

Scheduling​

Choose "Scheduled" and set "Goes live at" to a date and time. The story stays hidden until then and goes live on its own, followed by a site update.

Unpublishing​

Choose "Draft" again and save. The story goes offline at the next site update. If other stories link to it, the Studio warns you first, because their choices would break.

When changes go live​

The site rebuilds only when something readers can see changes: publishing, unpublishing, scheduling, edits to published stories, tags, writers, Briefs, pages and site settings. Drafts and planned stories never trigger a rebuild. The site waits for a quiet moment after the last change, so a burst of edits becomes one update.

  • Wait time: 5 minutes by default. Change it under "Settings", then "Rebuild". See Site settings.
  • A steady stream of edits cannot hold the update back for ever. It starts after at most four wait periods from the first change not yet built.
  • "Rebuild now" on the Dashboard or under "Settings" builds straight away.

The Dashboard's "Next site update" shows a countdown, then "Updating…" while the site rebuilds, then "Up to date". It also gives a short reason when one is available. After a build you may need to refresh the page to see the change.

Best Practices​

  • Publish in one go: finish a batch of edits, then let the wait pass, so readers get one update.
  • Use "Rebuild now" sparingly: it is meant for urgent fixes.
  • Check the live page after the update, especially for new topics.