Human-in-the-Loop Editorial Workflow for AI Summaries and Newsletter Publishing

Summary

Add a full editorial workflow so AI-generated article summaries and newsletter candidates move through clear states (draft -> in_review -> approved/rejected -> published) before broad distribution.

Problem

The platform already generates summaries and newsletter content at scale, but there is no first-class review pipeline for analyst/editor sign-off. For government-facing usage, teams need traceable approval steps, reviewer accountability, and controlled publishing.

Proposed Solution

• Introduce review states on articles and newsletter candidates.
• Add role-aware actions for analyst, editor, and admin users.
• Build a review queue UI with filters (source, topic, date, risk flags, status).
• Require explicit approval before content is eligible for newsletter send jobs (configurable override for emergency mode).
• Store structured reviewer feedback and revision history.
• Emit audit events for every workflow transition.

Acceptance Criteria

• Articles have workflow fields: reviewStatus, reviewedBy, reviewedAt, reviewNotes, publishEligible.
• Unauthorized users cannot transition review states.
• Editors can approve/reject with required notes for rejection.
• Newsletter generation excludes non-approved content by default.
• Audit log is queryable by article ID and reviewer.
• Frontend queue supports bulk actions and optimistic updates with rollback on failure.

Technical Notes

• Backend:
  • Extend article schema and add workflow transition service with validation guards.
  • Add endpoints such as:
    • GET /api/review/queue
    • POST /api/review/articles/:id/transition
    • GET /api/review/articles/:id/history
• Frontend:
  • Add Review Queue page and Article Review Panel.
  • Add transition controls with confirmation modals.
• Newsletter service:
  • Filter candidate set to publishEligible=true.

Tasks

• Define workflow states and transition matrix.
• Extend MongoDB models for review metadata and audit events.
• Implement role-based transition endpoints and server-side validation.
• Build review queue UI with filtering, detail drawer, and bulk actions.
• Integrate approval gating into newsletter candidate selection.
• Add unit/integration tests for transitions and access control.
• Add Playwright flow for reviewer approve/reject journey.
• Document workflow API and operational runbook in README.

Out of Scope (Initial Iteration)

• Multi-step legal/compliance chains beyond a single editor approval.
• External approval providers (Slack/Jira integrations).