Publish-candidate gate

Getaway Brief Publish-Candidate Gate

Purpose: keep researched local drafts from being treated as public/affiliate-ready pages before the final factual pass is recorded.

Status definitions

• idea: keyword or article concept only; no rendered article requirement.
• draft: article copy may exist, but demand evidence or factual source notes are incomplete.
• researched: demand evidence exists, factual source notes exist, and the page is safe for local review only.
• publish_candidate: the exact rendered page has passed the checks below and the result is recorded in research/{slug}.md or a dated verification note.
• published: the site owner has approved public deployment and the page is live.

Required checks before `publish_candidate`

1. Demand check: record search-intent evidence separately from factual sources. Competitor/search-result pages may support demand only.
2. Official-source check: verify transit, park, venue, visitor-bureau, climate, safety, and city facts against official or primary sources where possible.
3. Volatile-claim check: remove or caveat exact prices, current hours, live availability, route frequency, seasonal dates, shuttle details, pet-policy specifics, and weather claims unless checked and dated.
4. Map/logistics check: for no-car and lodging-area articles, manually confirm that the recommended zones actually match the promised walkability/shuttle/tour-pickup logic.
5. Affiliate-fit check: every CTA must match the reader's task. Hotels for lodging areas, tours/tickets for activity pages, vacation rentals for cabin/pet trips, flights/cars only where the article explicitly supports them.
6. Disclosure/trust check: the article must display affiliate disclosure language and link to privacy, editorial policy, contact, and affiliate disclosure pages.
7. No-live-link check: live affiliate IDs, tracking parameters, and public deployment remain disabled until the site owner approves applications and implementation.
8. Research-brief update: append the dated verification result, unresolved caveats, and reviewer initials/agent name to the matching research brief.

Recommended first-page verification order

1. weekend-trips-from-nyc-without-a-car — broad no-car hotel/tour intent.
2. where-to-stay-near-zion-without-a-car — lodging/tour intent near a major park.
3. things-to-do-in-gatlinburg-when-it-rains — strong activity-ticket fit.
4. dog-friendly-weekend-trips-from-atlanta — pet-friendly lodging/rental fit.
5. warm-weekend-trips-from-chicago-in-march — hotels/flights/car-rental fit, but needs climate and route-value caution.

Evidence storage rule

Do not mark an article publish_candidate solely because scripts/audit_source_health.py says URLs are reachable. URL reachability is necessary but not sufficient; the final pass must check the actual claim language on the rendered page.