# Publishing a character

> Visibility, the review, the discovery gate, and deleting a character.

Source: https://reverie.im/en/docs/characters/publishing
Language: en

Visibility is a single select on the editor's **General Settings** tab. There are three values and no draft state — a character either exists on Reverie or it does not.

| Setting                                 | Who can reach it                               | Earns?                          |
| --------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- |
| **Public - Visible to everyone**        | Anyone, through browsing, search and discovery | Yes, under the conditions below |
| **Unlisted - Only accessible via link** | Anyone you give the link to                    | No                              |
| **Private - Only you can see**          | You                                            | No                              |

New characters start as **Unlisted** in the editor. The conversational builder creates them unlisted too; the visual builder saves them private.

## Going public \[#going-public]

Two things happen when you save a character as public:

1. **An avatar is required.** The save is refused without one.
2. **The avatar is reviewed.** The check runs inline while your save is in flight, and the save fails if the image does not pass. See [image guidelines](https://reverie.im/en/docs/characters/image-guidelines) for what it actually rejects — it is more permissive than most creators expect.

There is no queue, no waiting period and no human approval step. There is no review of your text.

The first time a character goes public, two things happen once and only once: everyone who follows you gets a notification, and the character is queued for translation into Reverie's other languages.

## Editing a live character \[#editing-a-live-character]

> **An edit lands in every existing chat immediately.** Reverie does not
> snapshot a character when someone starts a chat — the prompt is rebuilt from
> the current fields on every turn. Rewriting the personality of a character
> people are already playing rewrites it in their open stories too, mid-scene.
>
> The one exception is the greeting, which is written into a chat when that
> chat begins. Changing it affects new chats only.

Plan around it. Typo fixes, an extra example conversation or a new scenario are safe at any time. A rewrite of the personality, the relationship or the system prompt is a different character wearing the same name, and the people mid-story with the old one get the new one on their next message. If a change is that big, a second character is usually the kinder option.

## The discovery checklist \[#the-discovery-checklist]

Being public is not the same as being discoverable. A character is admitted to discovery and onboarding feeds only when all five of these are present:

| Requirement   | Satisfied by                                          |
| ------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| A name        | **Character Name**                                    |
| A profile     | **Character Bio** or **Detailed Description**         |
| A personality | **Character Personality** or **Detailed Description** |
| An avatar     | **Character Avatar**                                  |
| An opening    | At least one **Starter Dialog**                       |

Miss one and the character stays out of browsing and recommendations entirely, even while public and even though it saved without complaint. The most common miss is the greeting, because nothing in the editor requires it.

Your creator dashboard shows this as **Work health → Completeness checklist**, with the state written as either "Required recommendation items complete" or "Required before entering recommendation pools".

The same checklist also scores breadth out of 100 across five weighted dimensions — **Identity** (25), **Visuals** (20), **Openings** (20), **Dialogue quality** (20) and **Play depth** (15). Those points are not an admission gate; they are a list of the things that tend to make a character worth returning to: a relationship, gallery images, a second opening with reply choices, distinct examples, tags, a scenario, stickers, a voice.

## Earning from a character \[#earning-from-a-character]

Publishing alone does not earn. All of the following must hold:

* The character is **Public**. Unlisted and private characters never earn.
* You are an **approved creator** — the application needs at least 3 public characters, an account at least 7 days old, and a verified email.
* The character's own paid credit consumption passes **1,000,000 credits in a month**.

Above that threshold you receive **5% of the excess**, paid monthly. The editor shows an **Earns Points** badge and a **Creator Incentive Program** card once visibility is set to public.

Full details: [becoming a creator](https://reverie.im/en/docs/creators/becoming-a-creator) and [revenue streams](https://reverie.im/en/docs/creators/revenue-streams).

## Unpublishing \[#unpublishing]

Switch visibility back at any time.

* **Unlisted** hides the character from browsing and search. Everyone who already chats with it keeps their conversations and can keep going.
* **Private** revokes other people's access. Their data is kept, not destroyed.

Neither deletes anything, and both are reversible.

## Deleting \[#deleting]

**Delete Character** sits in the editor header, in edit mode only.

If other people have chatted with the character, Reverie stops you first and offers three ways out that keep their chats working and your earned rewards intact: **Make it unlisted**, **Make it private**, or **Transfer to the platform** — the official account takes ownership, you keep what you earned and lose the ability to edit it, and that transfer cannot be undone.

> If you continue anyway, deleting a character that other people use:
>
> * turns every other player's chats into **read-only archives** — no new
>   messages, ever;
> * **deducts the credits you earned** from that character from your balance;
> * requires you to type the character's name to confirm.
>
> It is recoverable for **7 days** from **Recently deleted** in your character
> list. After that it is gone.

A character nobody else has chatted with is deleted outright, with no restore window.

Characters that have won a creator campaign award cannot be deleted at all.

## Related \[#related]

* [Image guidelines](https://reverie.im/en/docs/characters/image-guidelines)
* [Becoming a creator](https://reverie.im/en/docs/creators/becoming-a-creator)
* [Reviews & creator notes](https://reverie.im/en/docs/characters/reviews-and-notes)
* [Discovery](https://reverie.im/en/docs/community/discovery)
* [Analytics](https://reverie.im/en/docs/creators/analytics)