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Set up approval workflows

Approval workflows define the stages a topic must pass through before it can be published. Use workflows to enforce review gates, editorial sign-off, or compliance checks. A custom workflow replaces the built-in Draft, In review, and Published statuses for the topics it is assigned to.

Before you begin

This feature requires the Team capability tier (the Team or Business ). During the beta, every project is on the free Solo tier, so this feature is locked by default: go to Settings ▸ Billing and request Team access to unlock it.

How workflows work

A workflow is a sequence of named stages with transition rules. Each stage specifies which stages it can advance to and which role is required to advance a topic into it. A topic moves one stage at a time along the transitions the workflow allows.

The default workflow has three stages:

  1. Draft: initial authoring. Anyone can edit. Advances to In review or straight to Published.

  2. In review: content is ready for review. Advancing a topic into this stage requires the Author role or higher. Advances to Draft or Published.

  3. Published: content is approved and locked. Advancing into this stage requires the Admin role. This stage is read-only — the topic content cannot be edited while it is in Published. Advances back to Draft.

Create a custom workflow

  1. Go to Settings and open the Approval workflows section.

  2. Click New workflow and give it a name.

  3. Add stages (at least two). For each stage, configure:

    • Stage name: a descriptive label, for example "Legal review" or "Final approval."

    • Allowed transitions: which stages this stage can advance to.

    • Required role: the minimum role needed to advance a topic into this stage. The options are Anyone, Author+ (author or admin), and Admin.

    • Read-only: when on, the topic content is locked while it sits in this stage.

  4. Drag stages to reorder them, then save the workflow.

Assign a workflow

Workflows are assigned per topic. Open a topic in the editor and use the Workflow panel to click Assign workflow and choose a definition. The topic starts at the workflow's first stage.

To apply a workflow automatically, click Set as default on the workflow definition. New topics created afterward are assigned that workflow when they are created.

Advance a topic through stages

When a topic is on a workflow, the status selector in the editor shows the current workflow stage. Use Move to to advance the topic to an allowed next stage. A transition is only available if your role meets that stage's required role.

Role hierarchy

Workflow role requirements follow a hierarchy: admin > author > reviewer. A user with a higher role can always perform a transition that requires a lower role. Note that stage gating offers only Anyone, Author+, and Admin — a stage cannot be gated to the Reviewer role.

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