> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gradial.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Working with AEM Launches

> How Gradial uses AEM Launches to stage content changes for review before publishing to production.

<Info>
  Whether you use Launch or Direct Edit, Gradial's agent authors content only — it does not publish pages unless publishing permissions are explicitly provided. Publishing is otherwise a separate, manual step performed by your team.
</Info>

## What Are AEM Launches?

[AEM Launches](https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-cloud-service/content/sites/authoring/launches-for-pages/overview) let you prepare and review content changes without affecting your live site. When Gradial creates or modifies content using the **Launch** workflow type, it writes those changes into a staged launch copy rather than directly to production pages. Your team reviews the launch, then promotes it to the source pages when ready.

<Info>
  The workflow type (Launch vs. Direct Edit) is configured per AEM integration in **Settings → Integrations → AEM → General**. See [Advanced Configurations](/docs/integrations-administration-and-setup/integrations/aem/advanced-configurations) for details.
</Info>

You can configure the workflow type separately for **Pages**, **Experience Fragments**, and **Content Fragments**:

***

## How Gradial Uses Launches

When the **Launch** workflow type is enabled, every Gradial task that modifies AEM content follows this sequence:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Launch created">
    Gradial creates a new AEM Launch scoped to the pages being modified. The launch is a staged copy — your live pages are untouched.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Changes applied to the launch">
    Gradial's agents write all content changes into the launch copy.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review in Gradial">
    Your team reviews the changes in Gradial. Tasks can be iterated at this stage without affecting production.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Promote the launch">
    Once approved, promote the launch from Gradial — individually per task, or in bulk across multiple tasks at once. Gradial pushes the promoted content back to the AEM source pages.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Publish">
    Publish the updated source pages to make changes live.
  </Step>
</Steps>

***

## Promoting Launches

You can promote launches directly from Gradial without going into AEM.

**Promote individually** — open a completed task and promote its launch from the task detail view.

**Promote in bulk** — select multiple completed tasks and promote all of their launches at once. This is useful for coordinated campaign releases where several pages need to go live together.

***

## Nested Launches

If a launch already exists for a page (for example, a campaign branch being worked on by another team), Gradial can create a nested launch — a launch within a launch. This lets multiple workstreams stage changes against the same future content state without overwriting each other's work.

Nested launches are promoted in order: the inner launch must be promoted before the outer one.

***

## Managing Launch Conflicts

When you promote a launch, Gradial automatically checks whether the source page was modified between the time the launch was created and the time of promotion. If a change is detected, Gradial flags the conflict before applying anything — you won't silently overwrite someone else's edits.

You can then decide how to proceed: promote anyway, discard the launch, or coordinate with your team before retrying. No need to go into AEM to detect or investigate the conflict.

***

## Permissions Required

For Gradial to create and promote launches, the configured AEM user needs the following:

| Permission                   | Path                                          |
| :--------------------------- | :-------------------------------------------- |
| Read, Modify, Create, Delete | `/content/launches`                           |
| Replicate                    | Source content paths (e.g. `/content/mysite`) |

You can verify launch permissions are correctly configured under **Settings → Integrations → AEM → Permissions → Launch Permission Test**.

***

## Related

* [Advanced Configurations](/docs/integrations-administration-and-setup/integrations/aem/advanced-configurations) — set the workflow type to Launch or Direct Edit
* [AEM Launches documentation](https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-cloud-service/content/sites/authoring/launches-for-pages/overview)