> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.incident.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Write status page updates together

> Write status page updates as a team, and publish only when everyone is happy with them.

The collaborative editor lets your team write a status page update together before anyone outside your organization sees it. Each update starts as a draft that everyone can edit at the same time, comment on, and review before someone publishes it.

Nothing appears on your status page, and no subscriber is notified, until someone publishes the draft.

## Turn on the collaborative editor

Go to your [status pages](https://app.incident.io/~/status-pages) and click **Enable** on the **Try out the new collaborative editor** banner. This turns it on for everyone in your organization. Click **Disable** on the same banner to go back to the [publishing form](https://docs.incident.io/status-pages/publishing-incidents.md).

You need permission to change your organization's settings to turn it on or off. See [user roles and permissions](https://docs.incident.io/admin/user-permissions.md).

## Start a draft

Start a draft from anywhere you publish to your status page:

| Where | Click | You write |
| - | - | - |
| A status page | **Publish incident** | A new incident |
| A status page incident | **Publish update**, or **Draft an update as** a status | Its next update |
| An incident | **Publish status page update** or **Create status page incident**, from the **+** next to **Links** in the sidebar | An update or a new incident, linked to it |
| The status page form in Slack | **Edit this in the dashboard** | Its next update, from what you filled in |

On an incident, **Publish status page update** shows once the incident is on a status page.

![The + menu next to Links on an incident, listing Publish status page update, Create status page incident and Link to existing status page incident](https://mintcdn.com/incidentio-18bb4170/OQNxzno3iKbFU1MV/images/status-pages/collaborative-editor/incident-links-menu.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=OQNxzno3iKbFU1MV\&q=85\&s=a830c0694ace4d7c53677ea57ed47aee)

## Write the update

A draft has the same fields as a published update:

* **Name**: the headline we show on your status page and use as the subject of emails to subscribers. Only a new incident has one.
* **Message**: what your customers read.
* **Status**, **Affected components**, and **Notify subscribers** in the sidebar. Pages with sub-pages also show **Affected sub-pages**.

Every change saves as you make it.

![A new incident draft with Generate in the empty message, and a Template picker, the Monitoring status, Website at
Degraded performance and Notify subscribers in the
sidebar](https://mintcdn.com/incidentio-18bb4170/OQNxzno3iKbFU1MV/images/status-pages/collaborative-editor/draft-editor.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=OQNxzno3iKbFU1MV\&q=85\&s=602390bfd2bea690f821c236db5cdb36)

### Write it together

Everyone with the draft open sees each edit as it happens, and the sidebar shows who is changing which field. Select text in the message to comment on it. We send a direct message to the people you mention, and to everyone already in that comment's thread.

![A draft update with several editors: their avatars in the header, shared text in the message, and another editor's
name on the Status field](https://mintcdn.com/incidentio-18bb4170/OQNxzno3iKbFU1MV/images/status-pages/collaborative-editor/write-together.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=OQNxzno3iKbFU1MV\&q=85\&s=8ff8f5bb66a408f2933f185661687e0f)

Anyone in your organization can read a draft. To change or publish it, you need permission to [publish to your status page](https://docs.incident.io/status-pages/publish-permissions.md). Without it, the draft shows **View only**.

### Start from a template

If your status page uses message templates, the template for the draft's status shows in the empty message. Press **Tab**, or click **Tab to use the template**, to add it. Until you start writing, it follows the status you choose in the sidebar.

If your status page uses pre-defined updates, choose one from **Template** in the sidebar. It fills in the status and message, and the name of a new incident. If the message already has text, we ask before we replace it.

### Let AI write the first version

When a draft is linked to an incident, click **Generate** in the empty message. We write the update from the incident's summary, updates and channel messages, following your template if you use one. Edit it like any other text before you publish.

Generate uses AI, so it needs your organization's AI subprocessors allowed in [AI governance](https://docs.incident.io/admin/ai-governance.md). For a private incident, AI incident access must also include private incidents.

## Review and publish

Click **Review** to check exactly what goes out: the message, the status, each component's change, and whether subscribers are notified. Turn on **Preview email** to see the email your subscribers receive. Then click **Publish incident**, **Publish update**, or **Resolve incident**.

![The review step for the draft, listing the status page, incident name, status, Website at Partial outage and
notifications, with Preview email and Publish incident](https://mintcdn.com/incidentio-18bb4170/OQNxzno3iKbFU1MV/images/status-pages/collaborative-editor/review-draft.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=OQNxzno3iKbFU1MV\&q=85\&s=fe0649aa0daa3fa0ea211b18ea8d7fcb)

> [!TIP]
>
> To publish an incident that's already over, use **Publish retrospective incident** from the **⋯** menu on your status
> page instead. A new incident can't start as resolved.

If someone else publishes or discards the draft while you're reviewing it, we tell you, so it's never published twice. If someone edits the message while you publish, we let you know their edit isn't in the published update.

## Drafts

You can draft a new incident or an update to one that's already published, and keep several drafts open at once:

* Drafts for a new incident show above the incidents on your status page.
* Drafts for an update show under **Draft updates** on the status page incident's page.

![Three draft updates on a status page incident, for Resolved, Monitoring and Identified, each with a preview and
Continue editing](https://mintcdn.com/incidentio-18bb4170/OQNxzno3iKbFU1MV/images/status-pages/collaborative-editor/incident-drafts.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=OQNxzno3iKbFU1MV\&q=85\&s=a1635c155c2628e78dfdef55e67e8f92)

Click a draft to keep editing it. Every draft has its own link, so send it to anyone who should help write it.

To remove a draft, click **Discard** in its sidebar, or **Discard draft** from the **⋯** menu on its card. When you leave a draft with an empty message, we discard it for you, unless it's a new incident you've already named.

## Ask the Agent to write it

Ask the Agent to draft, edit, or publish a status page update, or use the same tools from your own AI assistant through the [remote MCP server](https://docs.incident.io/ai/remote-mcp.md). Either way, it writes into the same draft your team edits, shows you exactly what publishing sends, and publishes only after you approve it.

## FAQs

> [accordion] Do subscribers see a draft?
>
> No. Subscribers hear about an update only when someone publishes it, and only if **Notify subscribers** is on.

> [accordion] What happens to open drafts if we turn the editor off?
>
> We keep them. They show again when you turn the collaborative editor back on.