--- title: "Adding and publishing a working agreement" description: "Create a working agreement from the Structure module, attach it to one of your roles, write it, and publish it. Document types set to a governance workflow go to the circle for a decision instead." category: structure-governance section: policies-and-publications type: Tutorial lastUpdated: 2026-08-26 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/how-to-add-and-publish-a-publication --- # Adding and publishing a working agreement ## Adding and publishing a working agreement A working agreement is a document a circle or a role uses to write down a process, a rule or a way of working. This is the feature holaspirit called a publication, and a policy is one type of working agreement. [Working agreements overview](/structure-governance/publications-overview) explains how the words line up. They all live in one place: the **Structure** app, then **Working agreements**. ![The Working agreements list in the Structure module, with the Add agreement button in the top right and a table of documents showing Name, Type, Circle/Role and Publish date.](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-and-publish-a-publication/01-working-agreements-list.png) ## Who can create one From the **Working agreements** list, you attach the new document to a role you hold. The role picker offers nothing else, and the help text under it says so: *Only roles you are assigned to*. If you are assigned to no role, the field tells you that and you cannot create from this list. To attach a document to a **circle** rather than a role, start from that circle's page instead. A document belongs to a role or to a circle, never to both. If the document type you pick requires a governance workflow, you also need to be a decision maker of the circle. See [Managing document types](/structure-governance/manage-publications-types). ## Create the document 1. Open the **Structure** app, then **Working agreements**. 2. Click **Add agreement**. 3. Enter a **Title**. 4. Choose the **Role** the document belongs to. 5. Choose a **Document type**. 6. Click **Create**. ![The Create Working agreement dialog with three required fields: Title, Role with the help text "Only roles you are assigned to", and Document type, above Cancel and Create buttons.](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-and-publish-a-publication/02-create-working-agreement-dialog.png) All three fields are required, and there are only three. In particular the dialog has no circle field and no review date: the review date is set on the document itself once it exists. Talkspirit saves the document as a **draft** and opens the editor straight away, so you can start writing. ## Write it and set its properties Type in the page body. Your changes are saved as you go, and the header shows **Saved** once they are. The **General** panel on the right holds the document's properties: **Belongs to**, **Contributors**, **Type** and **Review date**. Type and review date can both be changed here at any time, and attachments are added from the same panel. ![A working agreement open in edit mode. The header shows a Draft badge, a Saved indicator, Stop editing and Publish. The General panel on the right lists Belongs to, Contributors, Type and Review date.](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-and-publish-a-publication/03-working-agreement-editor-publish.png) ## Let other people in A new document starts as **Private**. Click **Contributors** in the General panel to open **Manage access**, then search for members, circles or roles and click **Invite**. Each one gets **Viewer**, **Contributor** or **Admin**. The **Access settings** dropdown at the bottom switches the whole document between **Public**, **Restricted** and **Private**. **Public** is not offered when the owning circle keeps its content to members only. ![The Manage access dialog: a field reading "Select members, circles, or roles to invite" with an Invite button, a Who has access list, and an Access settings dropdown set to Private.](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-and-publish-a-publication/04-manage-access.png) Two things are worth knowing before you invite anyone: - Members of the role or circle the document belongs to can already **edit** it without being invited. You only need to invite people from elsewhere. - **Publishing** is narrower than editing. The person who created the document can publish it, as can an organisation administrator and anyone you give **Admin** here. Being a contributor, or a member of the owning circle, is not enough. Managing access is itself restricted to those same people. ## Publish it For a document type that publishes directly, which is the usual case: 1. Open the document and click **Edit** if you are not already editing. 2. Click **Publish** in the top right. The document's badge changes to **Published** and the list shows a publish date. Publishing again later works the same way. Once a document is published, **Edit** starts a draft alongside it, the header shows a **Pending draft** chip, and **Publish** puts that draft live. Readers keep seeing the published version until you do. See [Editing or deleting a working agreement](/structure-governance/how-to-edit-or-delete-a-publication). ## When the document type needs a decision Whether a document publishes directly or goes to the circle is a property of its **document type**, not of your circle or of the organisation. An administrator sets it per type in the Structure settings, and it is the same switch for every document of that type. See [Managing document types](/structure-governance/manage-publications-types). For a type that requires a governance workflow, the editor replaces **Publish** with **Submit for governance**. Clicking it creates a proposal for the circle and submits it in one step: - the document's status becomes **In review**; - editing is locked while the vote runs, and the document shows an *Under governance review* banner; - if the proposal is accepted the document is published for you, and if it is cancelled the document goes back to draft. Only a decision maker of the circle can submit. And because the proposal has to go to a circle, use the circle's page to create documents of a governance type: a document attached only to a role has no circle to send the proposal to. ## What's next? - [Working agreements overview](/structure-governance/publications-overview) - [Editing or deleting a working agreement](/structure-governance/how-to-edit-or-delete-a-publication) - [Managing document types](/structure-governance/manage-publications-types) - [How do I add attachments to roles and circles?](/structure-governance/adding-attachments-to-roles-and-circles)