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Platform tooling · 4 min read

An editor update system with a human approval gate on every write

A safe workflow for reading and changing a visual editor's theme and template data through its APIs, with confirmation before each mutation and a backup before each delete.

  • REST APIs
  • Claude Code
  • Runbooks
  • Safety gates

A visual editor stores each page as structured template data behind an API. Changing that data in bulk is powerful, and also easy to get catastrophically wrong. I built an editor update system around one rule: reads are free, writes are never automatic.

Safe change workflowEvery mutating call passes through the same gate. Nothing is batched under one approval.

Understand

  1. API catalog
    Every endpoint recorded with a verified response shape
  2. GET and inspect
    Reads run freely to see the real data
  3. Plan the change
    Exact request body, reviewed before it is sent

Change

  1. Approval gate
    A person confirms each POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE
  2. Backup first
    For deletes, save the full template JSON to disk
  3. Mutate
    One call at a time
  4. Verify with GET
    Confirm the saved shape matches the plan

The design decisions

  • An isolated workspace with its own instructions, so nothing bleeds into other projects and the rules are impossible to miss.
  • A growing, append-only API catalog. Each endpoint is recorded with its method, whether it mutates, a working request and the response shape I actually observed.
  • Backup before delete is mandatory. A deleted template is saved with a timestamp, and restoring it is a single PUT of the saved page configuration.
  • Approvals do not carry over: a similar call approved earlier in the session does not authorise the next one.

The goal is speed without fear. Automation does the tedious inspection and bookkeeping, and a person keeps the final say on anything that changes live data.