Use this safe rollout to prove one layer at a time: text-only manual Draft, optional research, images, then one scheduled article.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0+ and PHP 7.4+.
• Current file/database backup and administrator access.
• Publisher 3.7.6 ZIP and matching Publisher licence key.
• Customer-owned API key for OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic or xAI text generation.
• Reliable WordPress cron or Action Scheduler processing.

1. Install and verify

Upload the intact ZIP at Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin, install and activate it. Confirm NextlerAI Publisher 3.7.6 on the Plugins screen.

The Publisher menu should expose Dashboard, Topics, Publisher, Articles, Insights, Settings and License. If replacing an older build, use WordPress’s replace-current flow after backup; do not remove plugin data manually.

2. Activate the licence

Open Publisher → License, paste the Publisher key from nextlerai.com → My Account → My Products, select Production/Staging/Development accurately and activate. Refresh status.

Expected result: Active status and enabled Runtime access for the current product/domain/environment. Without runtime access, administration stays readable but generation and automatic publication stop.

3. Configure text generation

Open Settings → AI Providers.

1. Select OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic or xAI.
2. Save the matching API key and supported model.
3. Keep creativity near 0.72 for the first run.
4. Run the text-provider test.

Leaving a saved secret empty preserves it. The text test does not test Serper, Search Console or image generation.

4. Apply safe content defaults

Save and reload Settings to confirm persistence.

5. Build content inventory

Open Dashboard and rebuild inventory. Publisher maps eligible public posts, pages, products and queryable/search-indexable custom post types, their public taxonomy, language and SEO data. These items inform overlap and internal linking; generated output remains a native WordPress post.

Confirm System Status shows a usable licence and text provider. Use the detailed AI Providers screen as the authoritative provider/key view.

6. Approve one focused topic

Open Topics. Add one specific manual topic or generate a small strategy in Review mode. Select the correct language, inspect score and overlap evidence, approve only the intended topic and queue only that one.

7. Generate one manual Draft

Open Publisher → Create articles. Select one article, choose Draft and start. Keep Live Pipeline open and observe Research, Writing, Links, Images and Quality. A temporary provider/worker interruption should retry from a saved checkpoint; cancellation completes the current request and prevents further steps.

Open the resulting post and report.

Verify:

• title, structure and word range;
• author, category, tags, comments and language;
• relevant working internal links and citations;
• requested versus actual links/media;
• no unresolved placeholder or blocker;
• post remains Draft.

8. Enable optional services one at a time

1. Configure OpenAI or Gemini image generation and test a draft.
2. Enable Serper and verify one research report.
3. Connect Search Console and confirm the exact property.
4. Verify SEO metadata hand-off.

Keep each test as Draft so a provider or content problem cannot publish publicly.

9. Test one native scheduled article

Only after several manual Draft jobs succeed:

1. Open Publisher → Schedule.
2. Add one publication time in the WordPress site timezone.
3. Use a 24-hour lead and Draft/Review workflow first.
4. Verify slot history and background generation.
5. When ready to test Auto publish, use a future slot with enough time to inspect the result.

In Publisher 3.7.6, a quality-approved auto-publish article is reserved for exactly one slot and becomes a native WordPress Scheduled post with that exact site-timezone date. WordPress publishes it normally; Publisher keeps an independent watchdog to recover a missed slot. History should progress through planned, queued, generating, ready, scheduled and published as applicable.

Troubleshooting

• Licence locked: verify product, key, domain and environment.
• Provider authentication: verify provider/key/model and provider billing/access.
• Job remains queued: inspect Action Scheduler/WP-Cron and History & Logs.
• Topic conflict: inspect overlap evidence; do not force a near duplicate.
• Quality failure: correct the named blocker before lowering thresholds.
• No image: test image provider separately from text.
• Ready article never becomes Scheduled: confirm Auto publish, active/unpaused schedule, future slot and automation-ready quality state.
• Scheduled post misses its time: inspect WordPress cron and the Publisher watchdog/history message.

Launch checklist

• Manual Draft pipeline is reliable.
• Optional providers are independently tested.
• Site timezone and future post date agree.
• A scheduled article is reserved to one slot only.
• WordPress native publication and Publisher history agree.
• Pause/Review/Draft-only behaviour has been tested before unattended automation.