> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.overflowcms.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.overflowcms.com/editor-guide/publishing-workflow.md).

# Publishing Workflow

## Publishing Workflow

#### Statuses

An item is always in one of three states: **draft**, **published**, or **scheduled**. Only `published` items are ever returned by the public API — the draft `data` you're editing and the live `publishedData` snapshot are stored separately, so half-finished edits to a published item never leak out until you explicitly publish again.

![Content grid with published items and their status badges](https://overflowcms.com/images/docs-screenshots/collection-content.png)

The content table is paginated and every column is sortable — click a header to sort by it, click again to reverse. Use **Rows per page** and the page controls at the bottom to move through the rest; this keeps a large collection (say, right after importing from Webflow) just as fast to browse as a small one, since only one page of rows is ever loaded at a time.

#### Publish

Hitting **Create & publish** (or **Publish** on an existing draft) does three things in one step: copies the current `data` into `publishedData`, flips `status` to `published`, and updates the sort/filter index for any indexed fields. It also bumps a per-site cache marker so the public API stops serving stale cached responses — changes are visible at the edge within seconds, no Webflow republish required.

#### Publishing to Production vs. Staging

Every publish can also say **where** it goes live — the same way Webflow's own Publish button lets you pick which domains to push to. This is entirely opt-in: a site that never sets up a staging URL behaves exactly as before, publishing everywhere on every publish.

**1. Tell OverflowCMS where the site actually lives.** On the site page, set a **Production URL** and, if you use one, a **Staging URL** (your `*.webflow.io` domain) under **Domains**:

![Site page — Domains card with production and staging URL fields](https://overflowcms.com/images/docs-screenshots/site-domains.png)

Nothing else changes on the page itself. The embed script detects which environment it's running on from the page's own URL, automatically, on every load — no extra markup, no separate embed code for staging.

**2. Pick a target when you publish.** Once a staging URL is set, the **Publish** button on an item becomes a split button: the main half publishes with whatever's currently checked, and the chevron opens a dropdown to choose Production, Staging, or both:

![Item editor — the split Publish button with its Production/Staging dropdown open](https://overflowcms.com/images/docs-screenshots/item-publish-target.png)

This is a genuine per-publish choice, not two copies of the same content sitting side by side — an item published to Staging only won't appear in the JSON API or the embed when the request is coming from your production domain, and vice versa. Preview a change on staging, then re-publish to Production once it looks right, without ever taking the item down in between.

{% hint style="info" %}
If a site has no staging URL configured, every item just publishes everywhere, same as before this existed — there's nothing to opt into, and nothing changes for you.
{% endhint %}

#### Editing a published item

Saving changes to an already-published item updates its draft `data` but does **not** touch `publishedData` until you hit **Publish changes** again — so you can safely edit a live post without it going out half-written. The save uses optimistic locking: it sends the timestamp of the version you started editing, and if someone else saved in the meantime, you get a conflict instead of silently overwriting their change.

#### Unpublish

Reverses publish — the item stops being served publicly and drops out of the sort/filter index, but its data isn't deleted.

#### Scheduling

Setting a future publish time marks an item `scheduled` instead of publishing immediately; a background sweep checks for due items and publishes them automatically once their time arrives.


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