Publishing and Rollback for Theme Changes

Publish criteria

A Theme Assistant change should not be published just because the preview looks good once. Confirm the target URL, selector scope, visual intent, affected breakpoints, accessibility checks, and reviewer before publishing. Use responsive accessibility review for the verification path.

Cache and theme behavior

After publishing, review cache layers, minification, theme customizer output, child theme overrides, and WooCommerce template behavior. A change may appear correct in the admin preview but fail after cache, device, or logged-out visitor state changes.

Rollback notes

Every approved CSS change should include a short rollback note: what to remove, which page or component it affects, and who can verify recovery. Pair rollback notes with audit log review so visual changes remain explainable later.

Quick reference

• Use this page when planning, reviewing, presenting, publishing, or rolling back Theme Assistant visual work.
• Do not treat generated CSS, external references, or polished previews as production-ready until responsive, accessibility, cache, and rollback checks pass.
• Key decision: whether the visual change is scoped, reversible, accessible, and safe on revenue-critical templates.

Scope limits

• Do not use this page to approve copying protected assets, broad selectors, or design changes that bypass accessibility and checkout/account review.
• This page does not replace development review for PHP templates, checkout logic, plugin behavior, or structural theme changes.
• Use it for scoped visual review, presentation, and rollback discipline before production CSS changes.

Owner and cadence

• Primary owner: designer or developer, with site-owner approval for production visual impact.
• Review cadence: before publishing, after theme updates, and after cache or WooCommerce template changes.
• Escalate when a visual change affects checkout, account, navigation, accessibility, logged-out behavior, or cannot be rolled back cleanly.

Access and data boundary

• Visual-review evidence should name the target URL, selector or component family, viewport, accessibility finding, and rollback label without exposing unrelated admin data.
• Use public URLs, safe screenshots, component selectors, breakpoints, and design notes that can be reviewed without exposing private admin or customer context.
• Keep checkout payment details, account data, private staging URLs, and client-only design files out of prompts, fetched references, and presentation notes.

Production checklist

• Record target URL, selector scope, intended result, cache state, reviewer, and exact rollback instruction before publishing.
• Verify the change as a logged-out visitor after cache and minification behavior are applied.
• Capture the affected URL, target selector, intended visual outcome, reviewer, and rollback note for every meaningful visual change.
• Review mobile, desktop, keyboard focus, reduced motion, contrast, checkout, cart, account, and navigation behavior before publishing.

Acceptance checks

• The published visual change matches the reviewed scope across required breakpoints.
• Rollback can be performed without inspecting the original prompt thread.
• The proposed CSS or presentation output can be traced to a specific page, component, and design goal.
• The reviewer can reject, revise, or roll back the change without guessing which selectors were affected.

Failure modes to test

• Test blocked reference URLs, unsafe copied assets, mobile breakage, accessibility regressions, checkout/account side effects, and rollback from the wrong CSS entry.
• Test mobile overflow, contrast failure, keyboard focus loss, reduced-motion behavior, broad selector impact, cache differences, and checkout/account regressions.
• Confirm the CSS or presentation workflow can be rejected, revised, or rolled back from a named history item.

Evidence to capture

• Capture before/after screenshots, affected breakpoints, accessibility result, CSS history label, and rollback confirmation.
• Capture target URL, selector or component family, desktop/tablet/mobile review, accessibility notes, CSS history label, and approval status.
• Record screenshots or presentation notes only after removing provider keys, customer data, private URLs, and unrelated admin details.

Decision record

• Decision field to include: target template family, affected breakpoints, accessibility result, client or site-owner approval, and rollback label.
• Record the visual decision, target URL, component or selector family, reviewer, accessibility result, responsive result, CSS history label, and rollback owner.
• Include whether checkout, cart, account, logged-out, cache, reduced-motion, and mobile states were reviewed before production publishing.

Stop or rollback path

Stop visual publishing when scope, accessibility, mobile behavior, checkout/account impact, or rollback history is unclear. Revert the named CSS history item when needed and resume after affected pages are rechecked.

Monitoring window

• Recheck contrast, focus, reduced-motion behavior, layout stability, and revenue-critical templates after publishing.
• Monitor affected pages after cache clears, theme updates, mobile traffic, and checkout/account review.
• Review visual feedback, accessibility findings, and CSS history before expanding the design pattern.

Expansion criteria

• Visual changes can expand only after checkout, account, product, navigation, mobile, accessibility, and rollback checks pass.
• Reuse the design pattern only after affected breakpoints, templates, accessibility states, and rollback history pass review.
• The designer and site owner agree which pages or component families are in scope.

Common mistakes

• Approving a visual change without a rollback note or post-cache verification.
• Publishing broad CSS from a single preview without checking logged-out, mobile, checkout, account, and cache states.
• Using external design references as production assets instead of review context.

Common questions

When is a visual change ready to publish?

Publish only after scope, affected templates, responsive behavior, accessibility, checkout/account impact, cache behavior, approval status, and rollback history are clear.

Who should own this decision?

The designer should own visual intent, while the site owner or developer approves production impact.

What should stop the rollout?

Stop when visual work affects checkout, account, mobile, accessibility, cache, or broad selectors without a rollback note.

Related operations

• Use Client Presentation Workflow when an agency needs client approval.
• Use Multi-Page Consistency Checker before broad component updates.
• Use Design Tokens and Style System before token-level changes.