Reviewing before anything goes out
Two switches, for two kinds of work
Everything the Evidence Engine writes goes out on its own by default, and it tells you what it published. If you would rather see things first, there are two separate switches. Pages for your own website — Settings → Review before publishing. It covers the whole account: every page for your site, from the Evidence Engine or a schedule, waits under Needs you until you press Close it now. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides — per project. Open the project's Settings, find "Review before publishing (Google Docs, Sheets, Slides)" and tick "Hold Google Docs, Sheets and Slides for my review". Each project decides for itself, so a client who wants to see everything can, while another site runs unattended.
What happens to a held document
It is still written — into your own Google Drive — but it is not shared. Nothing counts it as published while it waits: not the evidence totals, not the page on your site, not the weekly email, and not an AI assistant reading your account. It waits on the Evidence Engine under "Waiting for your review", with a link to open it in Google Drive. It is your file: read it, edit it, then choose. Publish — shares it, links it in and counts it, exactly as if it had gone out on its own. The gap it answers closes on the next cycle, and the page on your own site follows as it normally would. Discard — leaves the file private in your Drive and never uses it. The gap is set aside, so the engine does not quietly write it again; reopen the gap if you want a new draft.
What waits with it
A topic cluster built on a held document waits too. Its hub document, its LinkedIn and Blogger posts and its Drive summary would each link to, or quote, something you have not approved, so none of them is made until you publish. Nothing is rewritten while it waits, and nothing is charged again.
Checks that run either way
Whether or not you review, a Doc, Sheet or deck that only describes a subject — "we publish guidance on this topic" — instead of saying something about it is not written at all. It is the same check that guards pages for your own site. And Google documents go out at most one batch a day per project, so a busy cycle never floods your Drive or your Google presence. Pages for your own site are not held back by this.
Sheets and Slides only where they are cited
Standalone Google Sheets and Slides are made only where they are cited. For each subject we look at every page AI answers, Google's AI Overview and search results were seen citing for it in the last 90 days. Where none of them is a spreadsheet, no standalone Sheet is made for that subject; where none is a slide deck, no deck. A topic cluster still gets its Guide, and a gap that asked for a Sheet or a deck is closed with the reason, before anything is spent on it. Reopen the gap if you want it made anyway. A subject with fewer than 10 pages seen is made as before: too little measured is not a no. Google Docs are not affected - they are the parts your own page is built from. To make Sheets and Slides for every subject regardless, tick "Make them for every subject" in the project's settings.
We never delete anything from your Drive. A discarded document stays exactly where it is, private, for you to keep or remove.