Publication: definition and contract

A Publication delivers an approved Rendition or verified contract to a declared destination with stable identity, policy, delivery receipts, freshness, and source lineage. It records what was authorized, what the destination received, and whether that delivered material is still supported by current Journey evidence.

Publication versus upload

Uploading a file proves that bytes were sent somewhere. A Publication retains the delivery contract and lifecycle around those bytes:

• exact Rendition revision or contract version;
• destination and adapter capability;
• approval and publication policy;
• delivery attempts and authenticated receipt;
• stable and immutable URLs;
• active, superseded, rolled-back, revoked, or deleted state;
• freshness and change-impact classification;
• source Journey, Observation, Decision, privacy treatment, and content hash.

Stable and immutable identities

An immutable version URL always resolves to the exact delivered revision. A stable URL resolves according to publication policy and may advance only when the allowed update class is satisfied. Semantic, privacy, branch, accessibility, or material visual changes require Review instead of silently replacing meaning.

Failure and rollback

Partial destination failure does not create a false success. Delivery attempts remain inspectable, and the currently active version stays visible until the replacement transaction validates. Rollback and revocation create explicit lifecycle events rather than deleting history.

Example: help-center step guide

A Publication may deliver an approved step-guide Rendition to a CMS. Its receipt records the remote identifier and content hash. When the owning Journey changes, the system can classify the guide as current, safely refreshable, or requiring editorial Review based on the affected evidence and policy.

Publications become release facts inside a Release Book. Explore Channels or read the Channels documentation.