Kanban Content Pipeline
The Kanban Content Pipeline is Sage's visual command center — every article in flight, every stage, every assignee, across every client.
The Kanban Board is Sage's operational view for content in flight. Where the Content Calendar shows you what's scheduled and the Performance Dashboard shows you what's published, the Kanban shows you what's moving through the pipeline right now — and who's responsible for each piece.
It's the page you use when you're actually running the day-to-day work.
Key Takeaways
Visual column-based view of every article's current stage
Drag-and-drop to move articles between stages (queued, generating, ready for review, published)
Filter to one client or view across all domains in your portfolio
Per-card actions: generate, preview, publish, edit — no need to navigate elsewhere
Replaces the messy "spreadsheet + email + Slack" workflow most agencies fall into
What the board shows
Each column represents a stage in the content pipeline. Each card is one article — drag them between columns or use the per-card actions to move them.
The columns
Queued
Scheduled for generation but hasn't started yet
Edit title, generate now, delete
Generating
Sage AI Writer is running through the 7-stage pipeline
Watch progress, view stage timeline
Ready for Review
Generation complete, awaiting your approval before publish
Preview, edit, publish, regenerate
Published
Live on the client's WordPress site
View on site, view stats, edit
Failed
Generation hit a terminal error
Retry, view error, edit + retry
What each card shows at a glance
Title
The article headline
Domain badge
Which client this article belongs to (domain name + favicon)
Status pill
Current stage in the pipeline
Source pill
Sage AI (auto-suggested) vs Manual (custom topic you added)
Owner initials
Who's assigned (writer, editor, reviewer)
Created/Updated time
How long ago this card last moved
Click any card to expand the full article view: preview, edit, full pipeline timeline, publish controls.
Filtering + organizing
The most common views:
One client at a time — pick a domain from the filter to see only that client's pipeline. Useful for daily standups or client check-ins.
All clients — see the full operational picture. Useful when checking overall agency throughput or hunting for stuck work.
Just the failures — filter to the Failed column to triage anything that went wrong. Sage's 30-minute stale-guard catches stuck generations, so the Failed column should be small and actionable.
Typical workflow
In review-first mode: you click Publish on each Ready-for-Review card to push to WordPress.
In autopilot mode: Sage skips the Ready-for-Review stop and pushes directly to Published — cards move Queued → Generating → Published without your involvement.
You can change modes per-domain at any time.
Per-card actions
Click any card to open the per-card actions:
Preview
Opens the assembled article in a preview pane
Confirming an article reads right before publishing
Edit
Opens the article in the TinyMCE editor
Tweaking body, title, or meta before publish
Publish
Pushes the article to WordPress
When Ready for Review and approved
Generate now
Skips the schedule and runs the writer immediately
When you need an article faster than the scheduled date
Regenerate
Re-runs the writer on the same topic
When you don't like the current output
View stages
Shows the per-stage timeline (Brief → Keywords → Research → Writing → Image → Enriching → Publishing)
Diagnosing where generation got stuck
Delete
Removes the article from Sage
When the topic is no longer relevant
Why the Kanban exists
Most content agencies fall into one of two anti-patterns:
The spreadsheet approach — a Google Sheet with article statuses, manually updated, perpetually out of date
The chat-thread approach — Slack DMs and email threads with file attachments, no single source of truth
Both fail when you scale beyond 3-4 clients. The Kanban replaces both with a real-time view that anyone on the team can open and instantly understand: what's happening right now, what's stuck, what needs attention.
It's the difference between an operation that scales and one that doesn't.
When to use the Kanban
Daily morning check — see what moved overnight, what's ready for review, what failed
During team standups — visual overview of the week's pipeline by client
Hunting bottlenecks — articles stuck in Ready-for-Review for >7 days = reviewer is the bottleneck
Batch publishing — work through Ready-for-Review cards one at a time on a scheduled "publish day"
Client transparency — many agencies share read-only Kanban access with clients so they can see their pipeline
Frequently asked questions
Can clients see the Kanban?
Currently no — the Kanban is agency-side only. Client-visible status views are on the roadmap.
What happens if I drag a card to the wrong column?
For most moves: nothing destructive. You can drag back. But: dragging a Queued card to "Published" doesn't actually publish it to WordPress — that requires the explicit Publish action. The drag updates Sage's internal status only.
Can I assign articles to specific team members?
Currently the owner is derived from who queued the article or who generated it. Custom assignee/team-member features are on the roadmap. For now, use the article's title prefix or tags to indicate ownership manually.
What's the difference between Kanban and Content Calendar?
Content Calendar = scheduling view (when articles publish, calendar grid)
Kanban = operational view (current pipeline stage, who's doing what now)
Calendar answers "what's coming up?"; Kanban answers "what's happening right now?"
What's the "Failed" column for?
Articles that hit a terminal error during generation or publishing. Common causes: AI service hiccup, WordPress credentials revoked, source page timed out during research. Each failure surfaces a one-click retry; most resolve themselves on retry.
Related
AI Content Suggestions Engine — where article cards get queued
Sage AI Writer — what happens during the Generating stage
Publishing Articles to WordPress — what happens during the Publish action
Autopilot — when the Kanban auto-moves cards through the pipeline
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