# Managed Publishing — Bundle Drop Docs

> Use managed publishing in Bundle Drop to gate which bundles are eligible for delivery at the channel level.

Canonical: https://bundledrop.app/docs/managed-publishing

## What Managed Publishing Is

Managed publishing gives you tighter control over which bundles are actually eligible for devices on a channel.

When it is enabled, Bundle Drop only considers bundles that are part of an active or completed rollout for that channel's platform and runtime-version lane. A rollout that is paused (or not yet started) makes its bundle ineligible until it becomes active again.

For teams using staged rollout, this is the required foundation. Without managed publishing, staged rollout does not gate eligibility — the latest compatible bundle wins. Rollout percentage and property targeting are evaluated server-side on every update check, per install, so eligibility is enforced by Bundle Drop rather than trusted to the client.

Managed publishing is channel-scoped, so you enable or disable it separately for each channel.

## Why Teams Use It

Managed publishing is useful when you do not want every uploaded bundle to become immediately eligible on a channel.

This is especially helpful on production channels where you want release visibility and a more controlled promotion flow.

## How It Fits with Staged Rollouts

Managed publishing works together with [Staged Rollouts](/docs/staged-rollouts).

Without managed publishing, the latest compatible bundle on a channel can be eligible right away.

With managed publishing enabled, rollout state becomes the gate that controls eligibility.

In practice:

- enable managed publishing first
- then use staged rollout to control how broadly a bundle is released
- optionally add [Targeted Rollout](/docs/targeted-rollout-properties) if you want extra audience filtering

In the dashboard, this setting is managed on the channel's Bundles page.

## What the Client Needs to Know

Most app teams only need to remember this:

- managed publishing is configured in the dashboard per channel
- it is required if you want staged rollout to control release eligibility
- it affects which uploaded bundles are eligible
- your app integration does not change

## Related Docs

- For gradual release control, see [Staged Rollouts](/docs/staged-rollouts).
- For audience filters, see [Targeted Rollout](/docs/targeted-rollout-properties).
- For release tracks, see [Channels](/docs/channels).
- For reverting a bad release, see [Rollback](/docs/rollback).