Every NookDocs project has a published state. Your site goes live automatically on its first successful deploy — push your docs (or edit in the browser) and once the first deploy finishes, {slug}.nookdocs.site is public. No extra publish step for a normal launch.
You stay in control after that: Unpublish anytime to take the site offline (it returns to "Site not found"), then Publish again when you're ready. Once you've unpublished, later deploys won't silently re-publish — your choice sticks.
Draft vs. live
| Draft | Published | |
Public visits {slug}.nookdocs.site | Sees "Site not found" | Sees your docs |
| Appears in search / AI crawlers | No | Yes |
sitemap.xml, llms.txt, robots.txt | Not served | Served |
| You can edit & deploy | Yes | Yes |
| You can preview it | Yes (private preview) | Yes (it's just live) |
A draft is indistinguishable from a nonexistent site to anyone without a preview link — there's no "coming soon" page that reveals the site exists.
Publish state is separate from deploy status. A project can be deployed and building fine, yet still be a draft. And it's separate from password protection (access control if configured) — that gates an already-public site behind a password; a draft isn't public at all.
Preview a draft
While a site is a draft, open Preview draft from the project overview (or Settings → General → Visibility). It opens your site in a new tab and starts a private preview session that only works in your browser — the public still sees "Site not found".
The preview link opens the site once, then your browser holds the session for about an hour — so you can click around and refresh normally without the URL carrying anything special. After it expires, open Preview draft again for a fresh session. It's tied to your browser, not a shareable link.
If your project has a verified custom domain, both addresses stay reachable — {slug}.nookdocs.site and your custom domain. Preview draft then asks which address to preview; each one opens its own session, so you can check the draft on the exact host you'll ship on.
Publish (after unpublishing)
The first deploy publishes for you. You only press Publish to bring a site back after you've unpublished it: on the project overview or Settings → General → Visibility, press Publish — the badge flips to Live and {slug}.nookdocs.site is public again. (Publishing needs at least one successful deploy; if the button is disabled, deploy first.)
Unpublish
Need to take the site offline? Press Unpublish on the overview or Settings → General → Visibility. The public site immediately returns "Site not found" again — your content and deploys are untouched, they're just no longer served publicly. Later deploys won't re-publish it; press Publish when you're ready.
Related
Custom domains — the publish gate applies to custom domains too.
Access control — password-protect an already-published site.