Buttondown live-wiring preflight

Make the Brighton subscriber path testable before it goes live.

Make the next Good Morning Brighton live-wiring pass boring: know the Buttondown settings, metadata, tests, approval gates and rollback plan before touching subscribers.

Buttondown, referral attribution, welcome automations and public leaderboard publishing remain disabled until credentials exist, tests pass and the editor explicitly approves live launch. Do not send subscriber email from this repo.

Test subscribe URLReferral wiringWelcome sequenceLeaderboard shell

Account settings

Buttondown account facts to verify before automations, sends or attribution checks.

Account setting

newsletter_slug

Expected: good-morning-brighton

Matches the static subscribe form action and keeps the Buttondown account easy to audit.

Account setting

sender_identity

Expected: Good Morning Brighton with verified reply-to

Readers need a recognisable local sender and a reply route before automation is enabled.

Account setting

footer_and_address

Expected: Postal address, unsubscribe footer and privacy route confirmed

Required before any live subscriber email or welcome sequence.

Account setting

test_recipient_group

Expected: Internal-only test addresses

All welcome and issue templates should render in Buttondown tests before a real subscriber receives them.

Metadata map

Fields expected to move from the website into Buttondown and the private referral ledger.

Private metadata

tag

Source: Static hidden input on /subscribe/

Example: website

Private metadata

referrer

Source: ?ref= parameter captured by /assets/referral.js and stored in browser localStorage

Example: founding-reader-001

Private metadata

source_path

Source: Landing page or CTA route once the embed supports custom metadata

Example: /share/

Private metadata

signup_region

Source: Default static market value unless reader self-identifies another local area

Example: Brighton and Hove

Private metadata

reward_status

Source: Private ledger after moderation

Example: pending

Preflight tests

Run these with internal-only addresses before any subscriber email, public post, leaderboard refresh or sponsor promise.

OpenPreflight test 1Submit a test signup from /subscribe/?ref=test-preflight and confirm Buttondown receives the email, tag and referrer metadata.OpenPreflight test 2Open /share/?ref=test-preflight and confirm email, WhatsApp and copy-link outputs preserve the same referral code.OpenPreflight test 3Export test subscribers and verify private ledger hashing happens before any leaderboard scoring file is created.OpenPreflight test 4Send welcome sequence test emails only to internal addresses and confirm Today, Sources, Share and Sponsor routes render correctly.OpenPreflight test 5Regenerate website pages and run npm run issue:build, npm run website:build and npm run website:check after any metadata or form change.

Approval gates

Every gate must be true before enabling real subscriber email or public referral features.

OpenApproval gateButtondown account settings, sender identity, unsubscribe footer and reply handling are verified.OpenApproval gateReferral metadata survives the full website-to-Buttondown test signup path.OpenApproval gatePrivate ledger contains only hashed subscriber identifiers and moderated referral counts.OpenApproval gateWelcome sequence has completed internal test sends with no broken links or misleading sponsor claims.OpenApproval gatethe editor approves enabling real subscriber email, referral leaderboard publishing or any public launch push.

Rollback plan

Failure should degrade to static, reviewable routes instead of risking the reader list.

OpenRollback stepDisable Buttondown welcome automation first if any test or live send behaves incorrectly.OpenRollback stepReplace the subscribe form with a static contact/holding route if metadata capture fails during launch.OpenRollback stepPause public leaderboard generation and keep /leaderboard/ as a moderated shell if fraud controls are unclear.OpenRollback stepDocument every failed live-wiring step in the repo and Linear MY-2577 before the next attempt.

Linear proof

Track live-wiring proof against MY-2577 and related issue MY-2571.

Boundary

No Buttondown automation, live subscriber email, public leaderboard, sponsor contact or launch post is enabled by this static page.