# Staging copies

Try changes on a private copy of your live site, then make them live in one step. Pages, lists, forms, bookings, Checkout and your app can all be tested on the copy while your visitors keep seeing the live site.

Part of the [Pages](/docs/pages) block.

## Say this to your AI

```prompt
Set up a staging copy of my site and try the new booking setup there first
```

## What happens

1. Your AI turns staging on. The copy lives at `staging--<your site>.pagelemon.dev`, and only your workspace's people can open it, after signing in with their Page Lemon login. Search engines never see it.
2. Your AI makes the changes on the copy. Open it and try them.
3. Happy with it? Your AI shows you which files changed and asks first; then the copy's files become the next live version. List items you changed on the copy go live only if you say so. You can still roll back.

## What is in the copy

- **Copied:** your pages and files, settings, page locks, lists with their items, and the setup of forms, bookings, Checkout products and your app.
- **Empty:** users and their data, form replies, bookings, orders and visitor numbers. No user or customer data is ever copied.
- **Off:** your own domains, calendar connections, webhooks, real payments and emails to people outside your workspace.

On the copy, a pay, donate or join button opens a test box where you choose **paid**, **cancelled** or **failed**. Everything after it (the thank-you page, the order, the user's plan, the receipt to your workspace's people) runs as on the live site, with no money and no Stripe.

## Day to day

- "Refresh my staging copy": copy the live site again.
- "Make my staging changes live": promote, after your yes.
- "Turn staging off": delete the copy and its test data. The live site doesn't change.

In the Page Lemon app, staging is on the site's page: **Settings** → **Versions & backup** → **Staging**.

## Let your AI test it

Ask your AI to try your site as a customer would, on the copy. It makes a test user that lasts an hour and is never counted, opens the sign-in link, and checks that each kind of user sees only what they should. Sign-in emails go to a test inbox your AI can read, not to a real one.

```prompt
Test my app on the staging copy as a new customer and as a group leader, and tell me what each can see
```

Load tests and scans of Page Lemon are not allowed. Found a security problem? Use the [security page](/security).

## Test with Playwright or Checkly

- **Test your staging copy before you make it live:** it opens only for your workspace's people, so a test that runs against it signs in first with one of their Page Lemon logins. Your AI can make a one-hour test user to try your app's app pages.
- **Scheduled checks** such as Checkly or UptimeRobot go against your live address.
- **Don't flood your forms:** repeated sending trips the spam limits, and each test message lands in your inbox. Send one test, or test the form on the staging copy.

> **Plans:** one staging copy per site, on every paid plan, for workspace sites and for sites with an app. It uses no site slot; its files count in your storage, each file once. For a design change alone, a [preview link](/docs/edit#review-a-big-change-privately) is lighter. [See pricing](/pricing).

For AI assistants: the setup guide is at [pagelemon.com/agents/staging](https://pagelemon.com/agents/staging).