Revve uses a draft-based editing workflow to protect your live agent from accidental changes. This guide explains how drafts, publishing, and version history work.
How It Works
Your Chat Agent always has two states:
- Published version — The version currently serving live conversations. Visitors interact with this version.
- Working draft — Your in-progress changes. Only visible to you in the dashboard, never to visitors.
Changes you make in edit mode are saved to the draft. They don’t affect the live agent until you publish.
Editing Workflow
1. Start Editing
From any Chat Agent page, click the Start Editing button in the top-right corner to enter edit mode.
When you start editing:
- A working draft is created based on the current published version.
- An editing lock is acquired so other team members can’t edit simultaneously.
- The top bar turns yellow showing:
Editing: Working draft (based on v1).
- A timer shows how long you have the editing lock.
2. Make Changes
Navigate between tabs (Basic, Appearance, Knowledge, Advanced Settings, etc.) and make your changes. Click Save Changes on each tab to save your edits to the draft.
Saving changes updates your draft, not the live agent. Visitors won’t see any changes until you publish.
3. Stop Editing or Publish
When you’re done, you have two choices:
- Publish — Click the Publish button to create a new version and make your changes live.
- Stop Editing — Click Stop Editing to release the editing lock. Your draft is preserved and you (or a teammate) can resume editing later.
If you navigate away without saving, you’ll see a “Leave without saving?” confirmation dialog.
Publishing a New Version
From the Top Bar
While in edit mode, click the Publish button in the top-right corner. You can add an optional publish note to describe your changes.
From the Versions Tab
Navigate to the Versions tab to see your draft and all published versions.
The Versions tab shows:
Your Draft
- Based on — Which published version the draft was branched from (e.g., “v1”).
- Created — When the draft was created.
- Publish button — Click to publish this draft as a new version.
Published Versions
A table of all previously published versions:
| Column | Description |
|---|
| Version | Version number (v1, v2, v3…) with an “Active” badge on the current live version. |
| Note | The publish note you added when publishing. |
| Published by | The team member who published this version. |
| Published | When the version was published. |
| View | Click to inspect the configuration of a past version (read-only). |
Version History
Every time you publish, a new immutable version is created. This gives you a complete audit trail of your agent’s configuration over time.
Viewing a Past Version
Click View on any published version to inspect its configuration. The page enters read-only mode so you can review settings without accidentally modifying anything.
Active Version
The version with the Active badge is the one currently serving live conversations. When you publish a new version, it automatically becomes the active version.
Draft Lifecycle
| State | What it means |
|---|
| No draft | The agent is using its latest published version. Click “Start Editing” to create a draft. |
| Draft exists, not editing | A draft was created but no one is actively editing. The draft is preserved. Click “Start Editing” to resume. |
| Draft exists, editing | Someone is actively editing. The top bar shows the editor’s name and a lock timer. |
Editing Lock
Only one person can edit a Chat Agent at a time. When you start editing:
- Other team members see “Ready to edit” with the option to start editing (which would release your lock).
- The lock has a time limit shown in the top bar (e.g., “Only you can edit until Mar 19, 1:41 PM”).
- If you stop editing or the lock expires, the draft becomes available for others.
Best Practices
-
Write publish notes — Describe what you changed (e.g., “Updated greeting message and added FAQ about pricing”). This helps your team understand the history.
-
Test before publishing — Use the Preview tab to test your agent with sample conversations before making changes live.
-
Publish incrementally — Make small, focused changes and publish frequently rather than batching many changes into one version. This makes it easier to identify which change caused an issue.
-
Review in Versions — If your agent’s behavior changes unexpectedly, use the Versions tab to compare the current version with a previous one and identify what changed.
Summary
Start Editing → Make Changes → Save Changes (to draft) → Publish (goes live)
→ Stop Editing (draft preserved)
