See what is waiting for your approval

ContentBeginner~5 min

Before you start

A connection bound to a user who can read private posts of the types you ask about, usually an Editor or Administrator. Listing drafts and pending items is refused for users who cannot.

If you let an agent write for your site, drafts pile up. Some are good, some are thin, and a few are near copies of something you already have. The point of keeping publishing in human hands only works if you actually go through them.

This prompt does the sorting. It reads the drafts and pending items, reports what each one is, and gives you a recommendation you can accept or ignore. You still publish and discard yourself.

The prompt
Brief me on everything waiting for my approval on this site. Read only: do not
publish, edit, trash or restore anything.
Start with a count of posts and pages by status, so I can see the size of the
pile. Then list the drafts and the pending items, for posts and for pages. Work
through at most [20] of each status and tell me how many more there are. If I
use other content types, I will name them.
For each item give me its title, content type, author, when it was last changed, and a rough word count
from its content. If an
item is password protected and has no readable content, say so instead of
guessing a length.
Then recommend what to do with each one: publish as it is, finish first (say
what is missing), or discard (say why, for example empty, a near copy of
another item, or untouched for [90] days). End with the three items I should
open first. I will do the publishing and discarding myself in WordPress.

Why this is safe to run

Every ability here is a read. Counting by status, listing drafts, and listing pending items change nothing, and the agent in this prompt has no step that publishes, edits or deletes. The decision stays with you.

Two limits are worth knowing. The author column shows the WordPress user who owns the item, and agents write as the user you bound them to, so that column is a hint, not proof, of which drafts an agent started. The briefing covers every draft and pending item the connection can see, yours included. The Needs review card is the narrower view, since it lists the drafts and pending posts an agent starts.

If you want every new agent post to arrive here as a draft, turn on Force draft on create in Settings. It holds new posts and requests to publish as drafts. It does not hold edits to posts that are already live, so a published post an agent changes goes out as changed.

Already connected? Skip the paste. Ask your agent for the “what is waiting for my approval” recipe, or just ask what drafts it has left you, and it runs the same reads on your own site.

How it works

  1. Count posts and pages by status to see how much is waiting.
  2. List the drafts, then the pending items, for posts and for pages, with a cap per status.
  3. For each item, collect the title, content type, author, last-changed date and a rough word count from its content.
  4. Sort each one into publish as it is, finish first, or discard, with a reason.
  5. Finish with the three items worth opening first.

Questions

Is this the same as the Needs review card?
No. The Needs review card on the plugin's Dashboard lists the drafts and pending posts an agent starts, and it has the Preview, Open in editor, Publish and Discard buttons. This prompt works through abilities, which cannot tell an agent's draft from a person's, so it briefs you on every draft and pending item the connection can see. Use it to decide, then act from the card or the editor.
Why does the agent say it cannot list drafts?
Listing a non-public status such as draft or pending is only allowed for a user who can read private posts of that type. A Contributor connection gets a refusal for that read, though the count by status still works.
How accurate is the word count?
It is rough. The ability returns the content, not a word count, so the agent counts the words itself. Items protected by a password return no content, and the briefing should say so instead of giving a number.