> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.sageseo.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.sageseo.ai/reference/autopilot.md).

# Autopilot

Autopilot is Sage running the full content program on your behalf — turning topic ideas into published articles on a steady cadence without you having to manually click through every step.

## What autopilot does

Autopilot takes each AI suggestion in your content calendar and runs the complete pipeline:

1. **Builds the content brief** — outline, tone, target audience, suggested word count
2. **Picks the keywords** — primary + secondary keywords pulled from your existing rankings + competitive analysis
3. **Researches the topic** — Sage's writer fetches real sources, statistics, and recent context for the article
4. **Writes the article** — full HTML with skim lines, headings, lists, tables, FAQ section, intentionally structured for AI extraction + featured snippets
5. **Generates a featured image** — editorial illustration in your brand colors
6. **Enriches with assets** — Key Takeaways callout, suggested internal links, optional charts, FAQ schema
7. **Publishes to WordPress** — only if you've turned on auto-publish mode

End to end: about 4–5 minutes per article. You can have multiple articles in flight at once.

## Two modes

**Auto-publish** — articles go straight from "generated" to "live on your WordPress site". For agencies running content at volume on domains where the topic strategy is well-defined.

**Generate + review** — articles complete the full pipeline but land in `ready_for_review`. You preview, optionally edit, and click Publish manually. Slower but adds a human gate before content hits your site.

Toggle per-domain at the top of the Content Calendar.

## What you control

* **What topics get generated** — autopilot only runs against AI suggestions you've explicitly queued. Sage never invents articles out of thin air.
* **Cadence** — autopilot fires on a daily schedule. If you queue 10 articles on Monday, autopilot won't try to generate all 10 at once; it spreads them across days based on your tier.
* **Tier caps** — monthly article cap is set by your subscription. Hit the cap, autopilot pauses until the next billing cycle. Bring your own API key (BYOK) to bypass the cap.
* **Pause anytime** — flip the Autopilot toggle off and Sage stops queueing new generations. Articles already in flight finish.
* **Category** — Sage auto-picks a non-"Uncategorized" category for each article. You can also set a domain default if you want everything to land in one specific category.

## What autopilot does NOT do without your input

* **Add new topics to the calendar** — that's the AI Suggestions step; you choose what gets queued
* **Edit articles after publishing** — once it's on your site, autopilot is hands-off. Edits are manual.
* **Decide your brand voice** — sage-ai uses the tone you've established in your domain's settings. If you've configured a custom style override, autopilot respects it.

## When to use auto-publish vs review-first

| Pick auto-publish when                                                      | Pick review-first when                                 |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| You've built confidence in Sage's output on this domain                     | The domain is new to Sage and you're calibrating       |
| The topics are well-defined (e.g. service pages, comparison content)        | The topics are sensitive or strategically important    |
| You're running content at volume and reviewing every post is the bottleneck | You're publishing fewer, more carefully-crafted pieces |
| You've configured custom enrichment + image style preferences               | You want a final human pass for tone, links, or claims |

Most agencies run review-first on the first batch, auto-publish once they're satisfied.

## What happens when something fails

* The Activity panel shows the stage where the pipeline broke (writing, image, publish, etc.) + a one-click retry button
* The Kanban "Failed" column collects anything that hit a terminal error
* Sage auto-fails any generation stuck mid-pipeline past 30 minutes so the queue keeps flowing — no zombie generations

## Related

* [How Sage Publishes Articles](/reference/publishing-mechanics.md) — what happens in step 7 above
* [Article Enrichment](/reference/article-enrichment.md) — what happens in step 6 above
* [URL Inspection](/reference/url-inspection.md) — how Sage watches what Google does after publishing