Content Workflow

ContentForge follows a structured content lifecycle from initial idea to published post with tracked analytics. This guide walks through each stage.

The Content Lifecycle

Idea  -->  Drafting  -->  Review  -->  Ready  -->  Scheduled  -->  Published  -->  Archived

Each piece of content has a status field that tracks its position in this lifecycle. Status transitions can happen manually (via CLI/TUI/Web) or automatically (e.g., publishing changes status to Published).

Stage 1: Idea

Capture an idea before you forget it. Ideas are lightweight -- just a title and optional notes.

contentforge new --title "Why Rust's borrow checker is your friend" --type article

Or capture just a one-liner:

contentforge new --title "Thread about error handling patterns" --type thread

Content Types

Type	Description	Best for
`article`	Long-form content in Markdown	DEV.to, Medium, Substack
`thread`	Multi-part content (e.g., tweet threads)	Twitter/X
`short_post`	Short-form text	LinkedIn, single tweets
`video`	Video content metadata	YouTube
`image_post`	Image with caption	Instagram
`link_share`	URL with commentary	LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit

Stage 2: Drafting

Write the canonical version of your content in Markdown. This is the "source of truth" from which all platform adaptations are derived.

# Open in your configured editor
contentforge edit <content-id>

# Or set the body directly
contentforge edit <content-id> --body "Full markdown content here..."

Add tags for organization:

contentforge tag <content-id> --add rust,error-handling,tutorial

Associate with a project:

contentforge edit <content-id> --project contentforge

Stage 3: Adapt

Generate platform-specific versions of your content. Each adaptation respects the target platform's constraints (character limits, formatting, tag limits).

# Adapt for a specific platform
contentforge adapt <content-id> --platform twitter
contentforge adapt <content-id> --platform devto
contentforge adapt <content-id> --platform linkedin

# Adapt for all configured platforms at once
contentforge adapt <content-id> --all

What Adaptation Does

Source Type	Target Platform	Adaptation
Article	Twitter	Splits into a thread, each tweet under 280 chars
Article	LinkedIn	Extracts key points, trims to 3,000 chars
Article	DEV.to	Keeps Markdown, limits to 4 tags
Article	Medium	Keeps Markdown, limits to 5 tags
Thread	LinkedIn	Combines thread into a single post
Short Post	Twitter	Validates under 280 chars

AI-Powered Adaptation

If an AI agent is configured, adaptations are generated intelligently:

contentforge adapt <content-id> --platform twitter --ai

The AI agent will:

Read the canonical content
Understand the target platform's style and constraints
Generate a platform-native version (not just truncation)
Preserve the core message while adjusting tone

Preview Adaptations

# See the adaptation for a specific platform
contentforge show <content-id> --adaptation twitter

# See all adaptations
contentforge show <content-id> --adaptations

Stage 4: Review (Optional)

Mark content as ready for review:

contentforge status <content-id> --set review

If using AI, request a review:

contentforge review <content-id>

The AI agent checks for:

Grammar and clarity
Platform-specific best practices
Hashtag suggestions
Engagement optimization tips

Stage 5: Schedule

Schedule content for publication at a specific time:

# Schedule for a specific time
contentforge schedule <content-id> --platform twitter --at "2026-03-20T09:00:00Z"

# Schedule for multiple platforms
contentforge schedule <content-id> --platform twitter --at "2026-03-20T09:00:00"
contentforge schedule <content-id> --platform linkedin --at "2026-03-20T09:30:00"

# View the schedule
contentforge schedule list

Recurring Schedules

Set up recurring publication rules:

# Every Friday at 9 AM, publish from the "ready" queue
contentforge schedule recurring \
  --name "weekly-roundup" \
  --cron "0 9 * * FRI" \
  --platforms twitter,linkedin

The Scheduling Engine

The scheduling engine runs as a background process (via contentforge daemon or as part of contentforge serve). It:

Polls the schedule table every 30 seconds (configurable)
Finds entries where scheduled_at <= now and status = pending
Publishes via the appropriate adapter
Updates the schedule entry status to published or failed
Retries failed publishes up to 3 times (configurable) with exponential backoff

Stage 6: Publish

Publish immediately or let the scheduler handle it:

# Publish to a specific platform now
contentforge publish <content-id> --platform devto

# Publish to all adapted platforms
contentforge publish <content-id> --all

After publishing, a Publication record is created with:

The live URL on the platform
The platform-specific post ID
The publication timestamp

Stage 7: Track

After publication, ContentForge can pull engagement metrics:

# View analytics for a content piece
contentforge analytics <content-id>

# View analytics across all published content
contentforge analytics --summary

Metrics tracked (where supported by platform API):

Views / Impressions
Likes / Reactions
Shares / Reposts
Comments / Replies
Link clicks

Bulk Operations

# List all content in a specific status
contentforge list --status drafting

# Publish all ready content to all platforms
contentforge publish --status ready --all

# Archive all content older than 90 days
contentforge archive --older-than 90d

Content Organization

Projects

Group content by project:

contentforge list --project contentforge
contentforge list --project codeilus