Understanding how content moves through different states is key to building reliable integrations with Publive.
State diagram
Valid state transitions
| From | To | Notes |
|---|
Draft | Approval Pending | Submit for review |
Draft | Published | Direct publish (if permissions allow) |
Draft | Scheduled | Requires scheduled_at datetime |
Approval Pending | Published | Approved by checker |
Approval Pending | Draft | Rejected by checker |
Published | Draft | Unpublish content |
Scheduled | Draft | Cancel scheduled publish |
Scheduled | Published | Auto-triggered at scheduled_at time |
Backdated publishing
To retroactively set a publication date for migrated or historical content, override the timestamp using custom_published_at. See Migration Guides for details.
Checking post status
Use the CMS API to check current status:
curl -X GET \
'https://cms.thepublive.com/publisher/<PUBLISHER_ID>/post/<POST_ID>/' \
-H 'Authorization: Basic <BASE64_AUTH_TOKEN>'
{
"id": 50123,
"title": "My Article",
"status": "Published",
"published_at": "2026-02-01T09:00:00Z",
"created_at": "2026-01-28T14:00:00Z",
"updated_at": "2026-02-01T09:00:00Z",
"approver": {"id": 5, "name": "Editor"},
"source": "HeadlessCMS"
}
Access control
The access_type field in meta_data controls content visibility:
| Value | Description |
|---|
Free | Publicly accessible to all readers |
Paid | Behind paywall, requires subscription |
# Set content as paid/premium
curl -X PATCH \
'https://cms.thepublive.com/publisher/<PUBLISHER_ID>/post/<POST_ID>/' \
-H 'Authorization: Basic <BASE64_AUTH_TOKEN>' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"meta_data": {"access_type": "Paid"}}'
Last modified on April 17, 2026
