# Using Workflows ### About this export | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | **content_type** | course | | **platform** | contentstack-academy | | **source_url** | https://www.contentstack.com/academy/courses/using-workflows | | **language** | en | | **product_area** | cms | | **learning_path** | cms-content-manager-certification | | **course_id** | using-workflows | | **slug** | using-workflows | | **version** | 2026-03-01 | | **last_updated** | 2026-06-08 | | **status** | published | | **keywords** | ["cms","workflows"] | | **summary_one_line** | Content doesn’t publish itself — it moves through a series of reviews, approvals, and updates before it’s ready to go live. In Contentstack, this entire process is managed through workflows . In this course, you’ll learn… | | **total_duration_minutes** | 8 | | **lessons_count** | 3 | | **video_lessons_count** | 3 | | **text_lessons_count** | 0 | | **linked_learning_path** | cms-content-manager-certification | | **linked_assessment_ref** | LMS_UNCONFIGURED_COURSE_ASSESSMENT | | **markdown_file_url** | /academy/md/courses/using-workflows.md | | **generated_at** | 2026-06-08T14:32:19.369Z | | **intended_audience** | [] | | **prerequisites** | [] | | **related_courses** | [] | > **Academy MD v3** — companion `.md` for Ask AI. Quizzes and graded assessments are **LMS-only**; this file never contains answer keys. ## Course Overview | Metadata | Value | | --- | --- | | Catalog duration | 7m 45s | | Released (if known) | 2026-03-01 | | Product area | cms | ### Description Content doesn’t publish itself — it moves through a series of reviews, approvals, and updates before it’s ready to go live. In Contentstack, this entire process is managed through _workflows_. In this course, you’ll learn how workflows keep your content organized, consistent, and collaborative. You’ll see how entries move from draft to review to approval, and how each stage ensures that nothing slips through the cracks. We’ll start by explaining how workflows are set up by your organization’s admins, and what role you play as an author or content manager. Then, you’ll get hands-on with the day-to-day actions you’ll take: * Viewing workflow stages and understanding where your content stands * Moving entries from one stage to another * Requesting and approving edits * Managing tasks and assignments within the workflow * Handling publish and unpublish approvals By the end of this course, you’ll know exactly how to navigate Contentstack’s workflow process—from drafting and reviewing to publishing—so your team stays aligned and your content stays on track. ### Learning objectives 1. Follow each lesson in order. 2. Practice in a training stack using placeholders **YOUR_STACK_API_KEY** and **YOUR_DELIVERY_TOKEN** in local `.env` files only. 3. Validate API responses against the official documentation. ### Topics covered cms; workflows ## Course structure ```text using-workflows/ ├── 01-introduction-to-workflows · video · 93s ├── 02-understanding-workflow-stages · video · 147s ├── 03-working-with-workflow-stages · video · 225s ``` ## Lessons ### Lesson 01 — Introduction to Workflows #### Video details #### At a glance - **Title:** Introduction to Workflows - **Duration:** 1m 33s - **Media link:** https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/5vQaJjtO - **Publish date (unix):** 1760057015 #### Streaming renditions - application/vnd.apple.mpegurl - audio/mp4 · AAC Audio · 114181 kbps - video/mp4 · 180p · 180p · 197136 kbps - video/mp4 · 270p · 270p · 263889 kbps - video/mp4 · 360p · 360p · 321347 kbps - video/mp4 · 406p · 406p · 369151 kbps - video/mp4 · 540p · 540p · 533769 kbps - video/mp4 · 720p · 720p · 811004 kbps - video/mp4 · 1080p · 1080p · 1813951 kbps #### Timed text tracks (delivery) - **thumbnails:** `https://cdn.jwplayer.com/strips/5vQaJjtO-120.vtt` #### Video transcript Content moves through a lot of hands before it's ready to publish. Maybe you draft an article, someone else reviews it, and then another teammate gives the green light before it goes live. In ContentStack, this entire approval journey is managed with something called a workflow. A workflow is simply a structured path that your content follows, from draft to review, to approval, to publish. Think of it as a roadmap for your entry, making sure nothing slips through the cracks. Why does this matter? Well, workflows bring three major benefits. Clarity. You always know what stage your content is in and who's responsible for it next. Consistency. Every piece of content follows the same process, so nothing goes live without the right approvals. Collaboration. Workflows connect authors, editors, and publishers in one seamless process. Instead of emailing drafts back and forth, ContentStack keeps the process right inside the platform. So in this course, we'll walk through how you, as a content manager or author, can use workflows. We'll look at how workflows are set up, how you can move entries through stages, requests, and approve changes, and even manage tasks along the way. By the end, you'll know exactly how to take content from draft to publication while staying in sync with your team. #### Key takeaways - Connect **Introduction to Workflows** back to your stack configuration before moving to the next module. - Capture one concrete artifact (screenshot, Postman call, or code snippet) that proves the step works in your environment. - Re-read the delivery versus management boundary for anything you changed in the entry model. ### Lesson 02 — Understanding Workflow Stages #### Video details #### At a glance - **Title:** Understanding Workflows - **Duration:** 2m 27s - **Media link:** https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/JqC8v5ki - **Publish date (unix):** 1760057020 #### Streaming renditions - application/vnd.apple.mpegurl - audio/mp4 · AAC Audio · 113965 kbps - video/mp4 · 180p · 180p · 196682 kbps - video/mp4 · 270p · 270p · 263186 kbps - video/mp4 · 360p · 360p · 323448 kbps - video/mp4 · 406p · 406p · 370257 kbps - video/mp4 · 540p · 540p · 538495 kbps - video/mp4 · 720p · 720p · 821272 kbps - video/mp4 · 1080p · 1080p · 1844364 kbps #### Timed text tracks (delivery) - **thumbnails:** `https://cdn.jwplayer.com/strips/JqC8v5ki-120.vtt` #### Video transcript Before we jump into how you'll use workflows day-to-day, it's important to understand who sets them up. Here's the short answer. Workflows are configured by your organization's admins. Typically, not by authors like you. Admins decide what the stages are, who has to approve what, and which publishing rules apply. So, they're the ones building the structure. But once a workflow is in place, it's the authors and content managers who use it every day. Think of it like this. The admin is designing the road, but you're the driver. You'll move your content along that road from stage to stage until it's ready to publish. So, in this course, we won't be learning how to build workflows. Instead, we'll focus on how to use them, how to move your entries through the process, request approvals, and collaborate with your team. Now, let's talk about the most common action you'll take in workflows. Moving an entry from one stage to another. For example, once you've finished adding content to an entry, you'll move the entry from draft to review. That hands it over to the reviewer, or approver. Sometimes you'll need to request edit access if someone else owns the entry. In that case, you'll send an approval request. The reviewer can then either approve your edit or reject it with feedback. The goal is to keep the process transparent. Everyone knows who's working on what, and content can't skip important steps. But to understand what a workflow looks like, let's take a look at one that's been configured. To do that, up towards the top, I'll choose Settings. This will move me to the Settings screen, where I can see the workflow's settings on the left. Here, I can see there's an article workflow setup. If I click on it, I can see important details like the name, description, scope, which is the branch this workflow will be applied to, what content types it impacts, then finally the different workflow stages. Here we have Draft, Ready for Review, Legal Approval, Publish, and so on. You can assign a workflow superuser, and if you want the workflow enabled. So that's the workflow configured. Now let's look at how we can move an entry from one workflow stage to the next. #### Key takeaways - Connect **Understanding Workflow Stages** back to your stack configuration before moving to the next module. - Capture one concrete artifact (screenshot, Postman call, or code snippet) that proves the step works in your environment. - Re-read the delivery versus management boundary for anything you changed in the entry model. ### Lesson 03 — Working with Workflow Stages #### Video details #### At a glance - **Title:** Working with Workflows - **Duration:** 3m 45s - **Media link:** https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/y4ICjStE - **Publish date (unix):** 1760057029 #### Streaming renditions - application/vnd.apple.mpegurl - audio/mp4 · AAC Audio · 113620 kbps - video/mp4 · 180p · 180p · 177261 kbps - video/mp4 · 270p · 270p · 226697 kbps - video/mp4 · 360p · 360p · 272141 kbps - video/mp4 · 406p · 406p · 306368 kbps - video/mp4 · 540p · 540p · 427322 kbps - video/mp4 · 720p · 720p · 628378 kbps - video/mp4 · 1080p · 1080p · 1323875 kbps #### Timed text tracks (delivery) - **thumbnails:** `https://cdn.jwplayer.com/strips/y4ICjStE-120.vtt` #### Video transcript When you create or open an entry in Content Stack, you'll notice it's always tied to a workflow stage. An entry might start in Draft then move to In Review and finally to Approved before it's published. These stages make it clear where the content is in the process. To see this, click the status icon on the right to expand the panel. Or in the entries list, choose Manage Filters down towards the bottom and choose Workflow Stages. And click Apply. Now you'll see the Workflow Stages section and you can choose to filter by any of the steps set up in the workflow. Like Ready for Review. By default, every entry begins in an initial stage. Usually Draft. From there, you or your teammates move it forward. And remember, stages aren't fixed. Each organization may use slightly different labels, but the idea is always the same. A step-by-step journey to publishing. Now let's talk about the most common action you'll take in workflows. Moving an entry from one stage to another. For example, once you've finished writing, you'll move your entry from Draft to Review. That hands it over to the reviewer or approver. Sometimes you'll need to request edit access if someone else owns the entry. In that case, you'll send an approval request. The reviewer can then either approve your edit or reject it with feedback. The goal is to keep the process transparent. Everyone knows who's working on what. And content can't skip important steps. Publishing is the final step. But even here, workflows make sure nothing goes live without the right approvals. When your entry is ready, you don't just hit Publish. Instead, you send it for publish approval. The approver can review the content and either approve or reject the publish request. The same applies to unpublishing content. You can request it, but it needs approval to move forward. This process protects your brand by ensuring only the right content goes live at the right time. Now, beyond approvals, workflows also help assign and manage tasks. Let's bring it all together with a quick example. First, in the Entries screen, I'll perform a search for an article on Mexico City. Once it's open, on the right side of the entry, click Workflow Details. Here, you can click Change to move it to a different stage. We'll move it from Draft to Ready for Review. Set a due date so the reviewer knows when feedback is needed. Under Assign To, choose the specific user you want to handle the review. Turn on Notify by email if you want them to get an email alert and add a short comment with any context they'll need. Click Update. If you haven't saved the entry yet, click Save to make sure everything is recorded. Now, with the magic of editing, I'll switch to a different account where I am logged in as the reviewer I assigned. From the top menu, Open Tasks, you'll see a new task to review the entry. Open the task to go straight to the entry. After reviewing the content, open Workflow Details on the right and click Change. Choose the next stage in the workflow, like Approved or Ready to Publish. Set a due date, if needed, and assign it to the next user or to a role, such as Publisher. Add a brief comment so the next person knows what changed, optionally notify by email, then click Update. If you made edits, click Save as well. The handoff is complete and the task moves to the next person's queue. #### Key takeaways - Connect **Working with Workflow Stages** back to your stack configuration before moving to the next module. - Capture one concrete artifact (screenshot, Postman call, or code snippet) that proves the step works in your environment. - Re-read the delivery versus management boundary for anything you changed in the entry model. ## Resources & references | Page | Companion Markdown | | --- | --- | | /courses/using-workflows/introduction-to-workflows | /academy/md/courses/using-workflows/introduction-to-workflows.md | | /courses/using-workflows/understanding-workflow-stages | /academy/md/courses/using-workflows/understanding-workflow-stages.md | | /courses/using-workflows/working-with-workflow-stages | /academy/md/courses/using-workflows/working-with-workflow-stages.md | ## Supplement for indexing ### Content summary Content doesn’t publish itself — it moves through a series of reviews, approvals, and updates before it’s ready to go live. In Contentstack, this entire process is managed through workflows . In this course, you’ll learn… Content doesn’t publish itself — it moves through a series of reviews, approvals, and updates before it’s ready to go live. In Contentstack, this entire process is managed through workflows . In this course, you’ll learn how workflows keep your content organized, consistent, and collaborative. You’ll see how entries move from draft to review to approval, and how each stage ensures that nothing slips through the cracks. We’ll start by explaining how workflows are set up by your organization’s admins, and what role you play as an author or content manager. Then, you’ll get hands-on with the day- ### Retrieval tags - cms - workflows - using-workflows - Introduction - Understanding - Workflow - Stages - Working - with - using-workflows course - Contentstack Academy ### Indexing notes Chunk at each "### Lesson NN — Title" heading; copy lesson_id and topics from the preceding HTML comment into chunk metadata for RAG filters. Course slug: using-workflows. Union of lesson topic tokens: Introduction, Workflows, Understanding, Workflow, Stages, Working, with. Do not embed or retrieve LMS-only quiz items or mastery exam answer keys from this export. ### Asset references | Label | URL | | --- | --- | | Video thumbnail: Introduction to Workflows | `https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5vQaJjtO/poster.jpg?width=720` | | Video thumbnail: Understanding Workflow Stages | `https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/JqC8v5ki/poster.jpg?width=720` | | Video thumbnail: Working with Workflow Stages | `https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/y4ICjStE/poster.jpg?width=720` | ### External links | Label | URL | | --- | --- | | Contentstack Academy home | `https://www.contentstack.com/academy/` | | Training instance setup | `https://www.contentstack.com/academy/training-instance` | | Academy playground (GitHub) | `https://github.com/contentstack/contentstack-academy-playground` | | Contentstack documentation | `https://www.contentstack.com/docs/` |