website-publisher

# Website Publisher The management layer on top of AuthorClaw's static-site builder. Generates your site, keeps it in sync with your books, drafts blog posts from your project artifacts, and pushes the rendered site to your host. This skill is **deliberately not a CMS**. AuthorClaw is for producing books — shipping a working site is part of that, but maintaining a fully interactive web property isn't. Authors who need comments, forms, ESP integration UIs, or deep analytics should keep using the WordPress / Squarespace / Ghost they already have. ## What it does ### 1. Sites — register, link, manage A "site" is a deployable unit (one author or one pen name typically). Each site has: - A config (slug, name, tagline, base URL, primary color, social links) - A list of linked **projects** (when those projects complete, their books auto-publish to the site's books list) - A list of **blog posts** (drafts + published — drafted by this skill) - A **deploy target** (Netlify / Vercel / Cloudflare Pages / rsync / manual zip / none) ``` POST /api/sites Create a site GET /api/sites List all sites + freshness status PATCH /api/sites/:id Update config / linked projects / deploy target DELETE /api/sites/:id Remove a site POST /api/sites/:id/link-project { projectId } ``` ### 2. Auto-add books on project completion When a `book-production` or `novel-pipeline` project completes AND the project is linked to one or more sites, the book is auto-added to each site's books list. Idempotent on slug — re-completing the project updates the existing entry. The author **still has to render + deploy explicitly** — auto-publishing a brand-new book without review would be too aggressive. The dashboard shows each site's `pendingChanges` count so the author knows when a render is needed. ### 3. Blog post drafter Four post types, each pulling different project artifacts into a focused prompt: | Type | What it produces | |------|------------------| | `release_announcement` | New-release post: 500-700 words, conversational, with buy-link CTAs | | `behind_the_scenes` | Process post: 700-900 words pulling from chapter summaries + user-model + craft-critic flags | | `excerpt` | Excerpt-with-tease post: lead-in → verbatim scene → tease → CTA | | `teaser` | Coming-soon post: 350-500 words building anticipation without overselling | ``` POST /api/blog-posts/draft { "postType": "behind_the_scenes", "projectId": "project-12", "siteId": "my-pen-name-site", // optional — auto-add to site's queue "authorAngle": "I want to talk about how I cut chapter 7 four times" } ``` Drafts go to **pending review**. Author edits in the dashboard, then the post is rendered + deployed with the next publish. ### 4. Render + deploy ``` POST /api/sites/:id/render Re-render the static site files POST /api/sites/:id/deploy Push the rendered files to the host POST /api/sites/:id/publish Combined: render + deploy in one call GET /api/site-deploy/doctor Probe which deploy CLIs are installed ``` Deploy adapters supported (each shells out to the host's CLI; we don't bundle them): - **netlify** — `netlify deploy --prod` (requires `netlify-cli`) - **vercel** — `vercel deploy --prod` (requires `vercel`) - **cloudflare-pages** — `wrangler pages deploy` (requires `wrangler`) - **rsync** — push to your own server via SSH (requires `rsync`) - **manual-zip** — produces a ZIP file at `workspace/exports/website/` that you upload manually via your host's web UI. **The safe default.** Works on every host without auth setup. - **none** — render only, no deploy Tokens are read from `process.env` at deploy time using a configured `tokenEnvVar` name. **Tokens are never stored in AuthorClaw config.** ## What this skill does NOT do - ❌ Not a CMS (no comments, forms, plugins, themes marketplace) - ❌ Not an ESP integration (paste your own ConvertKit / MailerLite / Beehiiv embed code into the site config — already supported) - ❌ Not an SEO settings panel (we already auto-emit sitemap.xml, RSS feed, and OG tags from your config) - ❌ Not multi-tenant (local-first; one author's machine, their sites) - ❌ Not a scheduling system (a future cron handler can do this; it's not built in v1) ## Recommended workflow 1. **Set up** — `POST /api/sites` once. Configure title, baseUrl, social links, deploy target. 2. **Link your projects** — `POST /api/sites/:id/link-project` for each book project you want featured on the site. 3. **Write your books** — when projects complete, books auto-add to the site's books list. Author sees `pendingChanges` increment. 4. **Draft blog posts** as new releases ship — release announcements, behind-the-scenes, excerpts, teasers. 5. **Publish** — `POST /api/sites/:id/publish` renders + deploys in one call. Or render and deploy separately for control. ## When to NOT use this skill If you already have a working WordPress / Squarespace / Ghost / Wix site that fits your workflow, AuthorClaw can still complement it (cover gen, blog post drafts you paste into your CMS, etc.) — but you don't need this skill. Use it when you want a clean static site that auto-syncs with your AuthorClaw projects with minimal hosting cost ($0 on Netlify free tier for most authors).