#6.3 Understand content stages
Content stages in Hygraph are not just an editorial workflow feature. They determine what the Content API returns and what your frontend displays. Understanding this now prevents the most common source of confusion when connecting the frontend in lesson 8.
#DRAFT and PUBLISHED
Hygraph provides two system content stages: DRAFT and PUBLISHED.
Every content entry starts in DRAFT. When you click Save & Publish, the entry is promoted to PUBLISHED. At that point, the entry exists in both stages simultaneously. DRAFT always reflects the current state of the entry, and PUBLISHED reflects the last published version.
When you edit a published entry and click Save without publishing, the entry becomes outdated. The DRAFT stage contains changes that have not yet been promoted to PUBLISHED. The published version on the frontend remains unchanged until you publish again.
Table showing content in stages DRAFT, PUBLISHED, and outdated
The API consequence: Hygraph uses a single Content API endpoint. Which stage you read depends on how access is configured via public permissions, a Permanent Auth Token (PAT), or stage headers and query parameters. Unauthenticated public access with default permissions only returns entries that have been published. If an entry has never been published, those requests return no data for that entry.
In lesson 8.2, you will configure a Permanent Auth Token (PAT) that grants the frontend access to draft content for preview purposes. The public storefront uses unauthenticated access configured for the PUBLISHED stage. Understanding the distinction now means that when you see different results in the API Playground versus the frontend, you will know why.
Hygraph also supports custom content stages. For example, a Review stage between DRAFT and PUBLISHED for editorial workflows that require approval before publishing. See Content stages for details.
#Save vs Save & Publish
Every time you create or edit a content entry, you choose between two actions:
- Save stores the changes in the
DRAFTstage only. The published version is not updated. Use this when content needs review before going live. - Save & Publish stores the changes in
DRAFTand promotes them toPUBLISHEDsimultaneously. Use this when content is ready to be consumed by the frontend.
Save and Save & publish buttons
All entries created in lesson 6.1 used Save & Publish, which means they exist in both DRAFT and PUBLISHED. If you used Save only at any point, those entries will not appear in responses configured for the PUBLISHED stage, including in the connected storefront.
If your frontend appears to be missing content after connecting it in lesson 8, check whether the relevant entries have been published. An entry that exists in DRAFT only is not visible when querying for the PUBLISHED stage.
#Content duplication
Hygraph lets you duplicate content entries to save time when creating similar entries.
To duplicate an entry, open it in the edit view and click the duplication icon at the top of the screen. The duplicate loads with the same field values as the original, with (copy) appended to the title field.
If a duplicated entry contains reference fields, some relations are duplicated and others are not. The system notifies you when this is the case. See Duplicating content for details on which relations are preserved.
#What's next
Lesson 7 - Queries and mutationsOr, go to the Tutorial overview for the full lesson list.