Connections & publishing
What Deployment checks before publishing
Deployment uploads only the files meant for visitors, keeps private notes off your site, protects owner pages, and checks the live address.
Published Updated
What does Deployment check before and after it publishes?
It depends on what is being published, but every publish gets the same checks. A publish guard picks only the files meant for visitors and leaves the crew's notes, drafts, data files and keys at home. Owner and admin pages are held back until you choose a login that protects them. After uploading, Deployment checks that private files aren't reachable and opens the real address to confirm it loads. It doesn't change your domain's DNS; that stays with you and your host.
Publish guard: the check that decides, file by file, what Deployment may upload to your hosting.
Before the upload: what goes up and what stays home
The crew keeps its working notes, briefs, drafts and research in a private folder in each project. The publish guard reads the project and lists exactly which files may go up. Deployment uploads that list and nothing else.
| Goes up | Stays home |
|---|---|
| Pages, images, styles and scripts | The private notes folder and anything whose name starts with _ or . |
robots.txt, sitemaps, feeds | Loose notes like README.md and design notes |
llms.txt and the plain-text versions of your pages for AI assistants | Data files (.csv, .db, .sql, .log, .env), keys and backups |
Pages that need a login
Pages where visitors set a password
The guard refuses these outright, even if you say yes. Nobody gets to create an account just by finding the page first.
Owner and admin pages
Pages only you should see, like a results page or a subscriber list, are held back. To publish one, you save a username and password for it in the secure login card, named Owner page. Deployment turns on your host's own password protection for that folder, checks that the address asks for a login, and only then uploads it.
Needs you: choose the owner page loginA tool your team signs in to
For a writing area or members area, Deployment checks your host has what the tool needs, reviews the sign-in code, sets up the first admin, and gives you a set-password link that works once and expires within a day.
Needs you: use the set-password link
After the upload: two checks
- Privacy check. Deployment tries the addresses of files that must stay private and confirms each one is not found or forbidden. If an earlier publish left one up, Deployment moves it to your host's trash, where you can still recover it, or to a
lenexa-removedfolder over SSH. - Live check. Deployment opens your real address in the Computer's browser and reads the page. A publish only counts as done when the real address loads.
If something fails, like a refused login or an address that doesn't load, the card stops and says what is needed. See a publish that's waiting on you.
What Deployment doesn't do
- Change DNS. If your domain doesn't point at your hosting yet, that's a change at your domain registrar or host. Ask Lenexa what to look for.
- Delete your other files. Uploads replace files with the same name. Files the crew didn't make are left alone and named in the report.
- Make accounts or buy things. Beyond the first admin for a tool you approved, Deployment creates no accounts and buys nothing.
Undo by asking
There's no rollback button. Each project keeps a saved version every time a card finishes, so if a change went wrong, ask Lenexa to undo it. The crew brings back the earlier version and Deployment publishes it again, with the same checks. See undo a change. You can also ask Deployment to check your SSL and DNS, or to publish to a staging copy first.