2026-10-02 · Creator Publishing Hub publishing plugin, Taylor Assistant Access, Creator Publishing Hub audio worker
Image-association retries now confirm associations that are already saved, and Story companions can be attached independently to published articles. The audio worker skips visibly corrupted narration inputs within a bounded scan and reports current processing outcomes more accurately.
What changed
- Return a successful, read-only confirmation when the requested image associations already match the saved article, instead of reporting a conflict. Repeated confirmations do not rewrite the article, change its revision or add a publication hold.
- Allow a separately supplied Story companion to be attached to an already-published article while preserving the existing restrictions on article-image changes, revision conflicts and publication holds.
- Skip narration inputs containing repeated unknown-token corruption and continue to other eligible items within a bounded scan. Retain the existing two-item audio batch limit and preserve completed attachments.
- Report audio runs to their own site with separate processed and skipped counts. Preserve configured local audio-provider selection and endpoint balancing without adding a paid-provider fallback.
- Distinguish missing or stale audio reports from current failures while retaining their last reported outcome and historical totals. Mark which report belongs to the local site.
- Keep the publishing plugin and Taylor extension on one calendar release across the six managed publishing sites.
Verification
- Focused Story workflow verification passed: 50 workflow checks, 83 contract checks and 64 operation checks. Coverage includes read-only association retries, Story changes after publication and retained protection against conflicting edits.
- All 14 audio-reporting PHP checks and six audio-worker tests passed. Tests cover stale or missing reports, local-site identity, skipped counts, corrupted narration inputs and run-reporting behavior. Changed PHP and JavaScript syntax checks passed.
- All eight public-release-notes gate tests passed. Before rollout, the 11 installed publishing and assistant runtime files on each of the six managed sites matched the pre-change source exactly.
- All five reported Story associations returned successful API confirmations with changed:false and completed operation receipts. Full article and media readback remained unchanged, preserving three drafts and two published articles.
- Installed runtime versions and file hashes matched the release on all six managed publishing sites. Public capability responses reported the same publishing and Taylor versions, all six homepages returned HTTP 200, and the central update-package download matched the recorded SHA-256 checksum. Protected site settings were unchanged.
- A live Creator Newsdesk audio batch examined three items, skipped one corrupted narration and attached two new MP3 narrations using the configured local Fish provider. Both public files returned HTTP 200, matched generated-file checksums and decoded without errors. One was also played in the browser with advancing playback time and no media error.
- Fresh reports were confirmed for the five configured audio-worker sites. Creator Publishing Hub has no configured audio worker and is shown as unknown rather than being reported healthy.
Rollout
Deployed and verified on October 2, 2026 across Creator Publishing Hub, Creator Newsdesk, The Factology Daily, Credit Repair Choices, The Daily Smirk and Love Lies Abroad. The audio worker was separately deployed and verified with two delivered Creator Newsdesk narrations. Public notes were published before distribution and updated after verification. This rollout does not establish that every site has resumed article publishing or that historical audio backlogs are complete.
Updating
- The publishing plugin uses the existing WordPress update channel. Taylor Assistant Access is a must-use extension and must be updated together through managed deployment; updating only the normal plugin does not install the assistant correction.
- The audio worker is updated through its managed runtime deployment. Preserve existing provider configuration, completed audio attachments and worker state.
- Back up affected files and verify the installed versions and file checksums after rollout. Preserve current content, credentials, access settings, operation receipts and publication holds.
Scope and limitations
- This release does not bulk-publish historical articles, remove editorial or legal requirements, or establish Facebook or other social-platform delivery.
- Story companions remain separate from article-image requirements. Audio generation runs after article publication and is not a prerequisite for an article to publish.
- Skipping corrupted narration leaves the source article unchanged for separate editorial review. An empty audio run may include skipped items and does not mean every article has usable audio.
- Historical audio failures remain visible. Missing or stale reports indicate unknown current health; they do not prove that all six sites are working or failing.
- Provider availability and delivered audio require separate runtime checks. Live narration recovery was verified on Creator Newsdesk; this release does not claim complete audio recovery or backlog completion for every site.
- Audio history counters describe retained reports, not complete daily totals. Current report freshness and actual attached audio must be checked separately.
- Creator Publishing Hub audio is not configured. Skipped corrupted article content remains unchanged and requires separate editorial correction before that narration can be generated.