Scheduling an email

[jdhitsolutions]

This is a question I submitted to the Help Desk, but I thought I would post it here as well because others might have the same question.

In reading the docs, it appears I can update the header and schedule the email:

---
subject: Writing Lessons
status: scheduled
email_type: public
slug: writing-lessons
created: 2025-06-05T14:03:01.089Z
modified: 2025-06-05T14:03:01.089Z
---

But if I do that, I assume I also need to add a publish_date property using a UTC formatted time.

---
subject: Writing Lessons
status: scheduled
email_type: public
slug: writing-lessons
created: 2025-06-05T14:03:01.089Z
modified: 2025-06-05T14:03:01.089Z
publish_date: 2025-06-06T17:11:00Z
---

Am I correct in these assumptions?

[jmduke]

Yup, absolutely correct. This feels janky IMHO, and I kind of wonder if we should instead do something like the following (consider this a spitball and not a verbal commitment!):

1. publish_date must always be present for non-draft emails. If Buttondown encounters an email without a publish date, it prompts the user to either mark it as a draft, give it an explicit publish date, or set the publish date to now.
2. Therefore, the act of "scheduling" an email only requires setting the publish date.

[jdhitsolutions]

I recommend adding a check that the publish_date is in the future.

[jmduke]

Technically, we can't, but we'll be very loud and verbose and make sure that a publish date in the past is meant to be an import (and we'll make sure not to send those out.)