Scratch, drafts, and published

Three states

Scratch (this browser)

The editor autosaves here. Until you hit save, nothing goes to GitHub and no build runs. Switch computers or clear site data and it’s gone.

Draft · not public

After “Save to repo”, the post goes into the private data repo content/posts/, with draft: true in frontmatter. A build runs; the theme filters this post out. It is not on the public site, RSS, or nav.

Published

Also committed to the private repo and built. Posts whose date has arrived appear on the public site. Future-dated posts are still excluded at build time. The comparison is a single instant in the world (save records your timezone offset); public pages display in the site timezone.

Console preview

Drafts and posts that are not on the public site yet can be opened with Preview in the posts list or the editor. That page is a signed-in reading view that looks like a site article. It does not run your Astro theme, and strangers cannot open it. When the post is published and the public URL works, the preview bar also offers Open public page.

What happens after you save

1. The admin commits Markdown to your private data repo.
2. That push triggers a GitHub Actions build.
3. The theme only includes posts that are published and whose date has arrived, and writes them into the public site repo.
4. GitHub Pages (or your host) updates the public site.

Scheduled publishing

Off by default. While off, you can’t pick a post date in the future. To schedule, turn on the check under Settings → Scheduled posts. If you can live with a bit more delay, pick a longer interval to save Actions minutes; for most single sites, every 2 hours is a good default. Sites under the same GitHub account share the free quota; if it would get too tight, we’ll ask you to confirm before save.

• Saving a post builds immediately; if the date hasn’t arrived, the public site still won’t show it.
• Once on, GitHub builds again on your interval. The post appears when a run happens after the date has passed.
• This is a check interval, not a timer aimed at the minute on the post. After the time, you wait at most one more interval; GitHub load can add a little more. Settings has a usage chart per interval, and you can estimate remaining minutes from how often you save. Typing doesn’t cost Actions.
• Changing the date only changes the post date; you don’t change settings again.
• Before turning it off, deal with published posts that aren’t due yet (set to now, convert to draft, or wait for them to go live).

Pages have no draft

Standalone pages like About appear on the public site as soon as you save. To write first and publish later, keep it as a post draft, or don’t add it to the menu yet.