Draft preview

Open any draft entry in your live Astro site — without making it publicly visible — using a shared preview token.

How it works

1. Generate a Preview token in Settings → API.
2. Set a Preview URL for a collection in Schema → (collection). Use {slug} as a placeholder.
3. The editor's ↗ Preview button opens https://yoursite.com/posts/{slug}?preview_token=….
4. Your Astro page calls getPreviewEntry() with the token — which reads directly from the pod, bypassing the published-only snapshot.

Astro page setup

In a server-rendered Astro page (output: 'server' or 'hybrid'):

---
import { getEntry, getPreviewEntry } from 'orbiter:collections';

const slug  = Astro.params.slug!;
const token = Astro.url.searchParams.get('preview_token') ?? '';

const entry = token
  ? await getPreviewEntry('posts', slug, token)
  : await getEntry('posts', slug);

if (!entry) return Astro.redirect('/404');
---
<article>
  <h1>{entry.data.title}</h1>
  <div set:html={entry.data.body} />
</article>

getPreviewEntry validates the token against the one stored in your pod. If the token is wrong or missing it returns null — so unauthenticated visitors never see draft content.

Security

• The token is a 48-character hex string generated with crypto.getRandomValues. Regenerating it in Settings immediately invalidates any existing preview links.
• Only one token exists at a time — it is shared across all editors who have access to the admin.
• Preview URLs should only be shared with trusted reviewers.

TypeScript

The generated orbiter-env.d.ts includes typed overloads per collection:

import { getPreviewEntry } from 'orbiter:collections';

// Returns PostEntry | null
const entry = await getPreviewEntry('posts', slug, token);