The Doc Lifecycle
Type: ExplanationCreated: Last reviewed: Team: Platform
published
Why we track status
A doc's status tells readers whether to trust it, and tells admins what's awaiting their attention. Every doc has one of four states.
The four states
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
draft | Author still writing. Drafted content not visible to user. |
review | Submitted; awaiting an admin's approval. |
published | Live and current. The canonical version. |
deprecated | Superseded or retired. Kept for history; readers see an "archived" treatment. |
The doc lifecycle
- An Admin create a doc with the
draftstatus. - The author writes in
draft, then promotes toreviewwhen ready. - An admin approves and publishes - or sends it back with change requests.
- A
publisheddoc becomesdeprecatedwhen superseded. Write a new doc, either delete the old or keep for the reference.
Freshness is separate
last_reviewed is independent of status. Every doc should be re-reviewed at least once a year for most of the docs (frequency depends). The freshness indicator shifts color gradually as time passes since the last review — neutral when fresh, drifting toward red as it approaches a year (this timeline is static for now) - but a stale published doc is still published.