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A Theme Assistant change should not be published just because the preview looks good once.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.

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.

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.

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.

Run Responsive and Accessibility Review first.
Use Audit Log Review after publishing.
Use Responsive and Accessibility Review before visual publishing.
Use Client Presentation Workflow when an agency needs client approval.
Use Publishing and Rollback for Theme Changes before approving production CSS.
Use Multi-Page Consistency Checker before broad component updates.
Use Design Tokens and Style System before token-level changes.

Publishing and Rollback for Theme Changes