Strapi Integration

Overview

Strapi is an open-source headless CMS that gives you full control over your content structure. Publish Owl connects to Strapi's REST API to create and update content entries, with configurable field mapping to match your custom content types. Both Strapi v4 and v5 are supported.

Requirements

• A Strapi instance (self-hosted or Strapi Cloud) that is publicly accessible
• Admin access to create API tokens
• A content type for your articles (e.g., "Article" or "Blog Post")

Step 1: Create an API Token

1. Log in to your Strapi admin panel
2. Go to Settings → API Tokens
3. Click Create new API Token
4. Name it "Publish Owl"
5. Set the token type to Full access or configure custom permissions for your content type (create, update, find)
6. Copy the generated token

Step 2: Add Your Strapi Site

1. In Publish Owl, go to Sites
2. Click + Add Site
3. Enter a name for your site
4. Select Strapi as the CMS type
5. Fill in:
   • Strapi Base URL: Your Strapi URL (e.g., https://cms.example.com) — must be publicly accessible
   • API Token: The token from Step 1
   • Content Type: The pluralized API name of your content type (e.g., articles)
6. Optionally customize the field mapping (see below)
7. Click Save Site

Field Mapping

Strapi lets you define custom field names for your content types. If your fields don't use the default names, you can configure the mapping in Publish Owl:

Leave the default values if your content type uses the standard field names.

Supported Features

• Title, Content, Slug — Configurable field names
• Featured Image — Stored as a URL in a text field (if configured)
• Status — Published (sets publishedAt) or draft (sets publishedAt to null)

Deploy Hooks

Since Strapi is a headless CMS, your frontend needs to be rebuilt after publishing new content. Publish Owl supports deploy hooks — after saving your site, enable "Trigger deploy hook after publishing" and enter your Vercel or Netlify deploy hook URL. This triggers an automatic rebuild every time an article is published.

Limitations

• No scheduled publishing: Strapi doesn't support scheduled publishing via its API.
• No image upload: Featured images are stored as URLs in a text field rather than uploaded to Strapi's media library. Your frontend should render the URL directly.
• Headless: Strapi has no built-in frontend, so the URL returned by Publish Owl points to the API endpoint, not a public-facing page.

Troubleshooting