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Publishing & sharing

A widget moves through three states. Understanding them is the key to publishing confidently.

StateCreated byWho can use it
DraftSaveOnly you, in the editor.
BuiltBuildOnly you — available on your overlays for testing.
PublishedPublishEveryone — installable from the Workshop or by share code.
   Save            Build              Publish
 ────────▶ Draft ────────▶ Built ────────────▶ Published
 (edit)            (test it yourself)   (others can install)

Build — test it yourself​

Build compiles your draft into a runnable widget and makes it available on your own overlays only. Add it from Add Widget → Custom widgets in your Overlay Editor and confirm it behaves the way you expect on a real overlay before anyone else sees it.

Building does not affect anyone who has installed your widget. It's your private test step.

Publish — release it​

Publish takes your latest build and releases it. The published version is what installers get. You must build before you can publish ("build the widget before publishing").

When you publish:

  • A public widget appears in the Workshop for anyone to install.
  • Anyone who already installed it has their live overlays update automatically to your new version.
tip

Publish deliberately, build freely. Keep Save/Build as your fast inner loop, and Publish only when a version is ready for other people's streams.

Visibility​

A widget is either public or private:

  • Private — not listed in the Workshop. You can still share it with a share code.
  • Public — listed in the Workshop for anyone to find and install.
Public is permanent

Once a widget is public you can't make it private again — other people may already have installed it, and pulling it out from under them would break their overlays. Make sure you're ready before you go public.

Licensing​

When you publish you can set a licence so installers know what they're allowed to do:

LicenceMeans
All rights reserved (default)Install and use it; no reuse of the source.
CC-BYReuse with credit.
CC-BY-SAReuse with credit, share-alike (derivatives keep the same licence).
CC-BY-NCReuse with credit, non-commercial.

Two independent permission gates control reuse:

  • Source visible — whether installers can read your widget's code.
  • Remixable — whether others can fork your widget into their own editable copy.

A share-alike licence is enforced: a widget derived from a CC-BY-SA widget can only be re-published under the same licence.

Catalogue art​

A widget in the Workshop shows a thumbnail and a banner. Set them (plus the name, description, category and author credit) on the Settings → Catalogue tab.

ImageShapePractical guidance
Thumbnail (icon)SquareA clean square logo. The editor accepts roughly 64×64 up to 512×512, under 2 MB.
Banner16:9A wide promo image. Roughly 426×240 up to 1920×1080, under 5 MB.
Screenshot

Add a screenshot of the Settings → Catalogue tab with the icon and banner upload areas.

Catalogue changes show up in the Workshop the next time you Publish — the gallery shows your published details, not your draft.

Share codes​

To hand a widget to specific people without listing it publicly, mint a share code (it looks like CW-XXXXX). A code grants one of:

  • Install — the recipient can install and use the widget.
  • Remix — the recipient can also fork it into their own editable copy (only if the widget is remixable).

You can rotate a code to invalidate the old one. Full detail, including how recipients redeem a code, is in Share codes.

Updates & versioning​

Community tracks a simple incrementing version as you save — it's for safe concurrent editing, not a public version number. There's no semantic versioning, no changelog, and no version pinning: when you publish, every installer moves to the latest published version automatically. Keep that in mind — a breaking change reaches everyone the moment you publish it. Test with Build first.

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