Preview vs live: how publishing works

Your changes are visible to you instantly. They're visible to your users when you publish. Here's the difference.

Every OverSkill app has two versions running at once: a preview and a live copy. Knowing which is which keeps you out of trouble.

Preview

This is what you see in the editor. Every change you make shows up in preview within seconds.

• Address: starts with preview- (something like preview-abc123.overskill.app)
• Who sees it: you, plus anyone you share the preview link with
• What changes: everything you do in chat — instantly
• Cost to update: free (no credits to publish to preview)

Preview is where you experiment. Try things. Break things. Roll back. None of it touches your real users.

Live

This is the version your real users see when they visit your app's address.

• Address: your real address (something like myrecipes.overskill.app or your custom domain if you set one up)
• Who sees it: everyone — your users, your customers, the public if your app is public
• What changes: only what you publish, when you publish it
• Cost to update: free, but stays whatever version you last published

The live version doesn't change automatically when you edit. You decide when to push your work out.

How to publish

In the top right of the editor, hit Publish. A modal opens with:

• A summary of what's changing (compared to the live version)
• Optional: a release note (Added recipe ratings)
• Big green Publish button

Hit it. About 5 seconds later, your live version updates. All your existing users see the new version next time they refresh.

Rolling back

Made a release you regret? Open the version history (history icon at the top of the editor). Find the last good version, click Restore, and publish again. Done.

Your users see the rollback within seconds. No drama.

Sharing a preview without publishing

Want a teammate or customer to test something before it goes live?

1. Hit Share in the top toolbar
2. Choose Share preview
3. Copy the link

Anyone with the link sees the preview version. They can interact with it like a real app, but their data lives in preview and won't pollute your live data.

A note on data

Preview and live share the same database by default — so if you add a real customer to preview, they're added to live too. If you'd rather keep them separate (handy for testing), you can isolate them. Ask the AI in chat: Use separate data for preview and live.

What to read next

• Connecting your own domain — replace the default address with one you own
• When things go wrong — what to do if a publish fails