Getting Started
Publish each article on its date, or have every article wait for approval: the three setup options, the To approve queue, and changing it later.
When you set up a Webflow, WordPress or Shopify site, you choose how its articles go live: on their own dates, or only after an owner or admin approves each one. You can change it later. Self Publish sites never publish, so they don't have this choice; see Use HarperFlow without connecting a CMS.
Setup asks at the Review step (step 7), after you choose where articles go:
| Option | Who starts each article | Before it goes live |
|---|---|---|
| Write and publish for me | HarperFlow, on your plan's schedule | It gets a publish date and goes live then, unless you skip it |
| Write for me, I approve each one | HarperFlow, on your plan's schedule | It waits until an owner or admin approves it |
| I'll ask for each article | You, whenever you ask for one | It waits until an owner or admin approves it |
With Write and publish for me, autopilot writes on your plan's schedule and each article publishes on its date. The veto digest lists new articles so you can skip any of them first. See Run your blog on autopilot.
With the other two options, nothing goes live until an owner or admin approves it in HarperFlow. That covers every article: autopilot's, your first article after setup, and every article you ask for, with Write one now, a topic of your own, or a batch.
Sites set up before this choice existed publish each article on its date until you turn approval on.
Articles waiting for approval are under Articles → To approve, newest first. They have no publish date, and they wait as long as you need: nothing expires, and nothing publishes on its own. The draft already exists in your CMS (on WordPress, as a draft post), but it isn't live. When new articles arrive, HarperFlow emails your owners, admins and members, with a button that opens To approve.
For each article, an owner or admin can:
HarperFlow records who approved each article, and when.
Changed your mind about a discarded article? Open Skipped and click Restore. It goes back to To approve, never straight onto the schedule. On WordPress, its draft comes back out of the Trash as a draft. If HarperFlow can't confirm that, the article says so: if the post is in Posts → Trash in WordPress, restore it there before you approve it. WordPress empties its Trash after 30 days by default, so restore a discarded article before then.
Note: Each article uses a credit when it's written, whether or not you approve it. Discarding an article doesn't refund its credit.
See Team members and roles. On WordPress, the plugin's one-click sign-in opens HarperFlow as the workspace's owner, so a WordPress Administrator who uses it can approve articles too; see One-click sign-in from WordPress.
You can open a draft in your CMS to preview it in your theme, but make every change and every decision in HarperFlow. HarperFlow doesn't read changes back from your CMS, so:
The same goes for drafts in Webflow and Shopify.
Owners and admins can change how articles go live at any time, with the switches on the Home page. They're also on Your Site.
Turning approval on moves articles that are already scheduled to To approve, without their dates. Turning it off leaves the articles already waiting in To approve until someone approves or discards them, and new articles get a publish date again.
With both switches off, HarperFlow writes only when you ask, and each article goes live on its date unless you skip it.
