QA Gate and WordPress Review

QA is not duplicated in SCS. WordPress is the review surface; SCS reads the review state through WP-CLI and enforces it before a page can move to Scheduled, Published, or Tracking.

What already exists on opshell.dev

Verified on the pilot site:

• ACF Pro 6.8.10 is active.
• group_opshell_technical_review on post stores opshell_technical_reviewer (user) and opshell_review_date (date).
• The theme displays “Reviewed By …” in the byline.
• The SEO Architecture group stores content_type (hub, pillar, cluster, supporting), hub_parent, pillar_parent, cluster_parent, primary_keyword, and semantic_tags.
• The author profile group on users stores expertise, credentials, and reviewed_on.

That review group is attribution, not a gate: it records who reviewed and when, but not what was checked or whether it passed.

The portable review gate

The pilot adds wpstrategist-review-gate, a small plugin that registers group_wpw_review_gate on posts and pages:

Field	Type	Values
wpw_review_status	Select	not_reviewed, in_review, changes_requested, approved
wpw_reviewer	User	WordPress user
wpw_review_date	Date	Stored as Ymd
wpw_review_scope	Checkbox	factual, technical, editorial, ymyl, legal, accessibility
wpw_review_checklist	Checkbox	accuracy, sources, originality, internal_links, metadata, schema, media, disclosure
wpw_review_notes	Textarea	Reviewer notes

The plugin also syncs wpw_reviewer and wpw_review_date to the legacy opshell_technical_reviewer / opshell_review_date fields when they exist, so the byline keeps working.

note

The field names are deliberately generic (wpw_*) so the same plugin can be installed on other sites. The existing opshell fields remain untouched.

SCS commands

scs wp draft --workspace bs --pid FS-0001          # create/update a draft
scs qa open  --workspace bs --pid FS-0001          # print the WP edit URL
scs qa pull  --workspace bs --pid FS-0001          # read ACF review state
scs qa check --workspace bs --pid FS-0001          # fail unless approved
scs qa check --workspace bs --pid FS-0001 --advance # set status Scheduled on pass
scs wp publish now --workspace bs --pid FS-0001    # publish live after approval
scs wp publish 2026/12/31 --workspace bs --pid FS-0001  # schedule after approval

qa pull writes a snapshot to publishing.csv: qa_status, qa_reviewer, qa_date, qa_scope, qa_notes. The snapshot is for terminal reporting; WordPress remains authoritative.

Gate rules

scs qa check requires:

• wpw_review_status = approved
• a reviewer
• a review date
• checklist items: accuracy, sources, originality, internal_links, metadata
• ymyl in wpw_review_scope when the brief says YMYL review required: yes

If the review fields are missing, the status is not_configured and the check fails closed. SCS will not treat “reviewer + date” as an automatic approval.

Status mapping

SCS keyword status	WordPress	Meaning
Writing / Editing	draft	Draft being written
QA	draft	Draft created, review pending
Scheduled	draft / scheduled	Review approved, ready for scheduling
Published	publish	Live
Tracking	publish	GSC data being collected

scs publish creates or updates a draft. A live post is never converted back to draft. The state transition to publish requires an approved QA snapshot.

Two status vocabularies

WordPress and SCS use different words for the same states. Do not compare them directly.

WordPress wpw_review_status	SCS publishing.qa_status	Meaning
not_reviewed	pending	Draft created, nobody has reviewed it
in_review	in_review	Review started
changes_requested	changes_requested	Reviewer wants changes
approved	approved	Gate passed
— (fields missing)	not_configured	Review plugin or fields absent; fails closed

scs qa pull writes the SCS snapshot. WordPress remains authoritative.

warning

For YMYL finance/health content, require a named reviewer with relevant credentials and set the ymyl scope. A generic editor review is not enough.