FAQ
The most common questions about consistency, Scout, the writer agent, publishing, feeds, and privacy. If you’re wondering it, someone else already asked it — loudly.
Product & workflow
What Hot Metal is, and how people actually use it.
What is Hot Metal?+
Hot Metal helps you generate quality content consistently: you set topics and a cadence, Scout brings fresh ideas, and you write posts by talking to a writer agent in a focused workspace.
What’s the typical workflow?+
- Create a publication (or several).
- Add the topics you want to be known for.
- Set a Scout schedule and (optional) auto-mode.
- Review ideas → promote one → write in a session → publish.
Do I need a publication to use it?+
Yes — the workflow is publication-first (topics, schedules, and feeds live under a publication).
Scout & ideas
Where the ideas come from, and how to control them.
What does Scout do?+
Scout researches the web for your topics on a schedule (or on demand) and generates a list of fresh ideas with angles, summaries, and source links.
Can I choose when Scout runs?+
Yep. You can run Scout manually, or set a schedule per publication (daily, multiple times per day, or every N days) with timezone support.
How do topics affect Scout?+
Topics are your “authority targets.” Each topic can be active/inactive and has a priority. Scout uses your active topics to find relevant news and generate ideas.
What are idea statuses (New / Reviewed / Promoted / Dismissed)?+
They help you triage. Promoting an idea creates a writing session seeded with that idea’s context so the writer agent can start drafting immediately.
Writing, voice, and styles
How the writer agent works — and how you keep your voice.
How do I write a post?+
You write in a session. The workspace is split into chat + draft, so you can brainstorm and revise via conversation while the draft updates in real time.
Can the writer match my tone and voice?+
Yes. You can pick a Writing Style for a publication or session. Styles can be written manually as a prompt, or learned from a URL to approximate an existing writing voice.
Do you have version history?+
Drafts are versioned inside a session. You can switch versions and copy the current draft from the draft panel.
Publishing & automation
Human-in-the-loop vs. auto-mode, plus what publishing looks like today.
Is Hot Metal fully automated?+
It can be. Most people start human-in-the-loop (ideas + drafting help, then review and publish). When you’re ready, auto-mode can run parts of the pipeline on your schedule.
Do I control what gets published?+
Always. In manual mode, nothing publishes without you clicking Publish. Auto-mode is opt-in per publication.
What fields can I set at publish time?+
Slug, author, tags, excerpt, and hook. The app can also generate hook/excerpt/tags for you when you open the publish modal.
Can I publish to LinkedIn?+
Yes, if you connect LinkedIn in Settings. Then you can choose to also publish to LinkedIn when publishing a post.
Publications & blogs
Multi-publication support and how it’s organized.
Can I manage multiple publications and blogs?+
Yes. Publications have their own topics, schedules, and writing styles — and you can publish a draft to one or multiple publications.
Can I publish the same post to multiple publications?+
Yes. In the publish modal you can select multiple publications and publish the draft to all of them.
Ownership, feeds, and export
Your content, your distribution.
Do I get RSS/Atom feeds?+
Yes. Each publication can expose RSS and Atom feeds. You’ll find the feed links on the publication home page (and you can enable partial vs full-content feeds in settings).
Do I own my content?+
Yes — you own what you write. We store your drafts and published posts so the product can work, and you can always copy your drafts out of the app.
Can I export all my content?+
Today: you can copy drafts from the editor and use RSS/Atom feeds for published posts. Bulk export is planned.
Privacy & security
The serious stuff (kept short and human-readable).
How is authentication handled?+
We use Clerk for authentication. Protected pages require sign-in, and your publications and sessions are scoped to your account.
Is my writing sent to third-party services?+
Yes — the writer agent and Scout rely on external AI/research services to generate drafts and ideas. If you’re writing something that shouldn’t leave your laptop, don’t paste it into an AI tool (including ours).
What happens when I connect LinkedIn?+
You explicitly authorize LinkedIn via OAuth. You can disconnect at any time in Settings, which removes the saved connection for your account.
Access, pricing, and rollout
How to get in (and what to expect).
How do I get access?+
Sign up for free and start publishing right away.
Is there pricing information?+
Hot Metal is free to start. We’ll introduce paid plans as we add more advanced features.
Ready to get started?
Sign up free and start building your content engine today. Consistency loves company.