# Check Before I Publish > Run the 10 blocking preflight gates before a page ships, and the 8 postflight gates on their own verification windows after. Never overrides a failing gate; a fail always names the specific fix. Use this skill whenever the user asks to: - Check if a page is ready to publish - Run a preflight or postflight check - Confirm whether something shipped actually worked Trigger even for casual requests like "ready to publish?", "check before I ship this", "preflight this page", "did it work", "postflight check". - Skill: `vcxcvii/check-before-i-publish` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add vcxcvii/check-before-i-publish` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/vcxcvii/check-before-i-publish/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: vcxcvii (https://skillmd.com/u/vcxcvii) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/vcxcvii/check-before-i-publish --- # check-before-i-publish ## Context load Run `rainmaker context --check` first. It prints what exists, what is stale, and exits 1 if anything this skill requires is missing. Then read, in this order: 1. `context/business.md` in full. If absent, stop: "No business context. Run `rainmaker audit`, then the `know-my-buyer` skill." 2. `context/voice.md` if this skill writes prose. If absent, stop and say so. 3. `context/glossary.md` if this skill names products, features or competitors. 4. `data/strategy.json` if this skill reads or writes strategy. 5. Only the `data/` files listed in this skill's Consumes table. Never crawl or call an API the core already covers. If `strategy.json.context_hash` does not match the current hash of `context/business.md`, say exactly: "Business context was edited after the strategy was written. Re-run `know-my-buyer`, or run `rainmaker context --sync` to accept the prose as authoritative." Then stop. If `context/business.md` carries `confidence: stub`, continue, and stamp every output with: "Built on a stub context. Nothing in it came from a buyer. Run `know-my-buyer` to replace it." ## Consumes | File | Why | If missing | |---|---|---| | the brief and draft | preflight input | ask for the slug | | `data/ledger.jsonl` | shipped timestamps, for postflight windows | run `rainmaker ledger --rebuild` | | `data/snapshots//*` | current measured values for postflight gates | run `rainmaker audit` | ## Produces Nothing persisted; a pass/fail report. ## Procedure 1. **Preflight**, before anything ships. Call `src/gates/preflight.ts runPreflight(brief)`, which runs all 10 gates: pain point provenance, cluster slot, cannibalisation, intent match against the SERP verdict, 3+ internal link sources, schema planned, E-E-A-T signals, extractability, the slop check, and the revenue argument. Print the full pass/fail table, not just the failures; a reader needs to see what already passed to trust what didn't. 2. **Never auto-override a failing gate.** Every failure states the specific fix from the gate's own reason string. 3. **Postflight**, on a schedule after shipping. Call `src/gates/postflight.ts postflightStatus(shippedAt, now, measured)` per finding, which reports `pass`, `fail`, `not_yet_due`, or `unmeasured` per gate against its own window (indexed 14 days, canonical and internal links immediate, CWV 7 days, impressions 28 days, position trend, AI citation and conversion contribution 90 days). 4. A `not_yet_due` gate is not a failure; report it as pending with the date it becomes due. ## Decision rules - No gate is ever skipped or overridden. A user asking to publish anyway gets the fail table and is told this skill does not have an override; the decision to ship over a failing gate belongs to the human, not to a bypass built into the tool. - Postflight never reports pass or fail before its window elapses. Judging a metric before it has had time to move manufactures both false confidence and false alarm. ## Output ``` ## Preflight: pain_point_provenance PASS cluster_slot PASS cannibalisation FAIL: an existing URL already targets this intent: /old-page intent_match PASS internal_links FAIL: only 1 inbound link source identified, needs 3 schema_planned PASS eeat_signals PASS extractability PASS slop_check PASS revenue_argument PASS 2 of 10 gates failing. Not ready to publish. ## Postflight: indexed not_yet_due (due 2026-08-15) canonical_correct PASS cwv_not_regressed PASS internal_links_live PASS impressions_appearing not_yet_due (due 2026-08-29) position_trend not_yet_due (due 2026-10-30) ai_citation not_yet_due (due 2026-10-30) conversion_contribution not_yet_due (due 2026-10-30) ``` ## Done when Every gate reports pass, fail, or not-yet-due with its due date, and every failure names its specific remedy.