Webflow
Connect Webflow to Citeca and publish articles automatically.
Connect Webflow and Citeca publishes finished articles straight into it — live, or as drafts for you to review first.
Setup time
About 3 minutes
Access needed
Admin on the site or store
What we touch
Blog posts only
Note
This connection can only read and publish blog posts. Your theme, products and settings are never modified.
What you need#
- A Webflow plan that includes CMS and API access (CMS plan or higher)
- Access to the workspace the site lives in
- A CMS collection for blog posts, with a rich-text field
- A blog post page design for that collection (a Collection Template page in the Designer), so articles have a page on your site
Live vs. draft — and the “Draft on site” badge
Webflow keeps two copies of every CMS item: a staged one and a live one. At connect time you pick which Citeca uses. Publish live pushes each article to your live domain — you’ll see a green Live badge with a link. Save as draft creates the staged copy only — Citeca shows a blue Draft on site badge, meaning the article was delivered to Webflow successfully but isn’t public yet, on purpose, so you can review it first. A draft badge is not an error. To switch modes, use Manage → Reconnect and answer the “Live or draft?” step differently.
Your blog needs a page design in Webflow
Webflow shows CMS items through a Collection Template page. Without one, every article is saved in the CMS but its address on your site is a “page not found”. During setup we check for it (and the Webflow card says Needs one step if it’s missing). To add it, in the Webflow Designer: (1) in the left toolbar click Pages, then under CMS collection pages click Blog Template (not there? click the + next to CMS collection pages). (2) Press A (or click +) and click Heading; in the small Heading 1 settings box that opens, click the purple dot next to Text, then Blog → Name. (3) Add a Rich Text the same way (search “rich text”), click the purple dot next to Content, then Blog → Post Body (don’t use Edit Rich Text, that’s for fixed text). (4) Click Publish (top right), keep your webflow.io domain ticked, then Publish to selected domains. If the title is hard to read, select it and change its colour in the Style panel. Articles already delivered appear by themselves within a few minutes.
Webflow’s Editor sometimes renders CMS rich text wrong
Visible markup, broken layout, odd spacing inside the Webflow Editor is a known Webflow issue rather than a bad article. Your live site displays the same content correctly — check the published page before assuming anything is wrong.
Connecting Webflow#
Open Settings → Publishing, find Webflow and press Connect. The wizard walks you through the steps below.
- 1
Before you start
One thing to confirm — the whole setup takes about 3 minutes.
- Confirm: I’m an admin on the Webflow site I want to publish to
- You’ll generate an API token in Webflow and paste it here.
- We’ll then find your site and blog collection for you — no IDs to copy.
- The API access section only appears for site admins.
- Your site needs a Webflow CMS plan or higher, with a collection for blog posts.
Note
This connection can only read and publish blog posts. Your theme, products, and settings are never touched.
- 2
Open your site’s settings
It has to be the site’s own settings — not your workspace settings.
- On the dashboard, click ••• on your site card — that is Site settings.
- In the left menu open Apps & Integrations, then scroll down to API access.
- Workspace → Apps & Integrations (a different page) can’t reach site content. Skip it.
Heads up
Workspace settings has its own API section, but tokens made there can’t touch site content. If you don’t see a CMS row later, you’re on the wrong screen.
- 3
Generate a token — with two permissions
Every row starts on No access. CMS and Sites need to change; Pages is optional.
- Give the token a name, e.g.
- Every permission row starts on “No access”. Change these two:
- Optional: also set Pages to Read only. It lets us check your blog page design is in place, so articles show up on your site and not just in the CMS.
- Click Generate token. Webflow shows it once — copy it before leaving.
Heads up
Leave the rest on No access. A token generated without the CMS and Sites rows will look valid and then fail on every call.
- 4
Paste your token
We check it against Webflow on the next step, so you’ll know straight away if a permission is missing.
- Webflow API token — Paste it whole — a token that’s been cut short will be rejected.
- 5
Confirm where we publish
This is what your token can reach. Pick the collection your blog posts live in.
- 6
Check your blog page
Webflow shows CMS articles through a blog page design. We check yours is there, so articles appear on your site and not just in the CMS.
- 7
Live or draft?
This decides whether new articles go public automatically or wait for your review. You can change it later by reconnecting.
- Publish live — Articles go straight onto your live site — a “Live” badge and a public link. Best if you want this running hands-off.
- Save as draft — Articles arrive in Webflow as drafts (“Draft on site”) for you to review and publish yourself. Nothing is public until you do.
Note
Webflow keeps a staged copy and a live copy of every CMS item. “Save as draft” creates the staged copy only — in Citeca it shows as a blue “Draft on site” badge, meaning it was delivered to Webflow but isn’t public yet. “Publish live” pushes it to your live domain, shown as a green “Live” badge with a link.
- 8
Ready to connect
We’ll save your token encrypted and verify the connection one last time.
- Heads up: Webflow’s own Editor sometimes renders CMS rich text wrong — visible markup, broken layout. That’s a known Webflow issue, not a bad article. Your live site displays it correctly.
- How articles look is down to your Webflow theme and CSS. We send clean semantic HTML; your site styles it.
Note
Your token is encrypted before it’s stored, and is only ever decrypted server-side when an article publishes.
Webflow is connected
We can reach your CMS collection. Your first articles are being prepared — they’ll appear in Webflow automatically when they’re ready.
Check it worked#
Verify it’s working
4 checks
- The Webflow card shows Connected, naming the site and collection.
- The article appears in CMS → your blog collection in Webflow.
- If the connection is set to publish live, the article is on your Webflow domain.
- If it is set to draft, the item is there marked as a draft, waiting for you.
To test without waiting for a scheduled article, open any finished article in Blog content and press Publish. You get a result per destination immediately, including the exact error if something is wrong.
Managing the connection#
Once connected, the Webflow card shows a green Connected dot and a Manage button. Everything about the connection is changed from there — there are three controls.
- Test connection — checks the credentials against Webflow right now. If they fail you get the platform’s own response, not a generic message.
- Reconnect — walks through the setup again. This is how you paste a rotated token, publish somewhere else, or change whether articles go live or wait as drafts. It replaces what is stored rather than adding a second connection.
- Disconnect — deletes the stored credentials and stops publishing. Articles already published stay on your site untouched, and your drafts and schedule in Citeca are kept.
Note
When something fails you get a plain explanation and the steps to fix it. The platform’s own response — status code, endpoint and response body — is folded away under Details for support; “Copy error report” puts all of it in one paste for a support message.
TroubleshootingQuestions#
My site and collection did not load after pasting the token.
The token needs CMS: read and write and Sites: read only. Generate a new one with exactly those permissions and paste it again — Webflow shows a token once, so a partially copied one is a common cause. Pages: read only is optional: with it we can confirm your blog page design exists before your first article goes out.
My article says “Saved in CMS” and its link shows “page not found”.
Webflow accepted the article, but your site has no page design for the blog collection yet (a Collection Template), so the article has nowhere to appear. In the Webflow Designer click Pages → CMS collection pages → Blog Template (create it with the + if missing). Press A and click Heading, then click the purple dot next to Text → Blog → Name. Add a Rich Text, click the purple dot next to Content → Blog → Post Body. Then click Publish → Publish to selected domains. Then press I’ve done it, check again on the Webflow card in Settings → Publishing; the article switches to Live with its link. We also look again every few minutes on our own.
Publishing fails with a field error.
We fill the fields your collection has: the name, the slug and its rich-text body, plus a main image, summary, author, date and SEO title or description where they exist (with no image field, the cover photo opens the article body). A collection with no rich-text field, or with a required field we can’t fill (a reference or option field, for example), is refused until you add the field or make it optional.
What happens when I regenerate the API token?
The old one stops working straight away and publishing fails with an authentication error. Press Manage on the Webflow card, then Reconnect, paste the new token, and Test connection to confirm it.
Can I publish to more than one Webflow site?
One Webflow site per connection. If you manage several, generate a separate token for each and connect them separately.
Why does my Webflow article say “Draft on site”?
Because the connection’s publish mode is Save as draft — so Citeca delivers the article to Webflow as a staged draft rather than publishing it live. It’s working; it’s just waiting for your review. Nothing is wrong with your token or your site.
How do I make Webflow articles go live automatically?
Open Settings → Publishing → Webflow → Manage → Reconnect, click through to the “Live or draft?” step, choose Publish live, and finish (you’ll paste a Webflow token again — generate one with CMS: Read and write and Sites: Read only). From then on, new articles publish straight to your live domain.
I switched to Publish live — why is my old article still a draft?
The mode only applies to articles published *after* you change it. An item already created as a draft stays a draft until you re-publish it: go to Blog content, open the article, and press Re-publish — it now goes out live. Or publish that one item by hand in Webflow.
Does unpublishing delete the Webflow item?
No. The live version is unpublished and the CMS item is marked as a draft, with its content intact. Publishing again restores it to the same URL.
Can I disconnect without losing published articles?
Yes. Disconnecting only deletes the credentials we stored. Everything already published stays exactly where it is, because those are posts in your own CMS.
Will publishing the same article twice create a duplicate?
No. Articles are matched on their slug, so republishing updates the existing post rather than adding a second one.
Something missing or wrong here? Tell us and we will fix it.