What Autopilot is

The scheduler and executor that runs the content pipeline for a Project, and the two gates that decide what it may do.

Autopilot runs the pipeline on a cadence you set, so a Project produces articles without anyone opening the workspace.

It is not a separate content engine. It runs the same research, drafting, image and linking work you get from generating a post by hand, on a schedule, within limits, and it stops wherever a gate tells it to.

What a run does#

1. 1
   Decide what to work on

   Select approved Topics according to the Project's topic selection mode, in the shares its Content Directions describe.

2. 2
   Reserve the allowance

   Take the posts and images it is about to use from the Project's allowance, so two runs cannot spend the same quota twice. That allowance is the billing period's on a paid Project, and the one-time lifetime grant on a Free one.

3. 3
   Produce drafts

   Research against the Knowledge Engine, write, place images, propose internal links, and set metadata.

4. 4
   Stop at the gate

   Take each post as far as its Content Direction's approval policy allows, and no further.

5. 5
   Schedule and publish

   In Full mode, and only where the Direction permits, take the post to a publication slot and publish it.

The two gates#

This is the part worth internalising, because it explains every "why did nothing happen" and every "why did that publish".

Activation

Autopilot does nothing for a Project until an owner or admin activates it. Creating a Project does not activate it, and finishing setup does not either. Editors can change most Autopilot settings; activating it, and changing whether it may replenish its own Topics, are limited to owners and admins.

Direction approval policy

Every post has to satisfy its Content Direction's policy, auto or review, in both automation modes. The exception is a consent: setting up Full mode offers to publish flagged posts without waiting for a person, and that box starts off. Only once you tick it, confirm the exact set it names and save does a review lane stop waiting. See Assisted and Full.

Where to go next#