Drafts and scheduled publishing

A download does not have to be public the moment you save it. Authors can save work as a draft, come back later to finish it, or pin a publish date for the download to go live on its own.

Download states

State	Who can see it
Draft	The author and team members. Hidden from category listings, search, and feeds.
Visible	Everyone with category view permission.
Moderated	Awaiting approval. Visible only to moderators and the author.
Deleted	Soft-deleted. Visible only to those with the relevant "View deleted" permission.

A download sits in exactly one state at a time.

Saving a draft

When creating or editing a download, click Save as draft instead of Publish. The download goes to the Drafts tab on your author page (/downloads/authors/<username>.<id>/).

Drafts:

• Do not appear in category listings, latest, popular, search, or RSS.
• Do not fire publish notifications or webhook deliveries.
• Can be edited freely without bumping the "Last updated" timestamp on the public surface.
• Can carry uploaded files and a draft version. The version is not served until the download is published.

Publishing a draft

From the Drafts tab on your author page, open the draft and click Publish. If the category requires approval, the download goes to the moderation queue instead of straight to visible.

Scheduling a publish date

When saving a draft, set Scheduled publish date to a future date and time. The download stays in the draft state but flips to visible automatically at that moment.

A scheduled draft:

• Is still hidden until the scheduled time arrives.
• Shows the scheduled date on the Drafts tab so you can spot it at a glance.
• Can be unscheduled by clearing the date and saving again.
• Can be published early by clicking Publish before the scheduled time.

If the category requires approval, a scheduled draft enters the approval queue at the scheduled time rather than going straight to visible.

Scheduled versions

Scheduling also works at the version level for downloads that already have a published version.

When uploading a new version, set Scheduled publish date on the version form. The version is created in the scheduled state and is not served, listed in the version history, or used in the "Latest version" link until the scheduled time arrives. The current published version keeps serving until the swap happens.

This is the standard pattern for staging a release in advance: upload the file, write the changelog, set the time, and let the system swap versions on its own.

Discarding a draft

From the Drafts tab, click Discard draft on the row. The download is removed along with any uploaded files. Discarding a draft cannot be undone.

Permissions

Permission	Effect
Add download	Required to create a draft in the first place.
Edit own	Required to edit a draft you own.

Co-owners with the Edit team flag can also edit your drafts. See Team members.