EarlyForge sends the article to your site

On publish, EarlyForge delivers the article — title, content, intro, lead image, language, and SEO metadata — to your connected Next.js site.

Your site stores it

Your Next.js app saves the article wherever you keep content. Re-publishing the same article updates it in place rather than creating a duplicate.

EarlyForge triggers revalidation

EarlyForge calls your revalidation endpoint with the path that changed. Your app revalidates that path using Next.js on-demand ISR.

Readers see the update

The static page regenerates and the new article goes live within seconds.

Add a revalidation endpoint to your site

Create an API route in your Next.js app — for example app/api/revalidate/route.ts — that EarlyForge will call after publishing. It verifies the request is genuine, then revalidates the changed path:

import crypto from 'crypto';
import { revalidatePath } from 'next/cache';
import { NextRequest } from 'next/server';
 
export async function POST(request: NextRequest) {
  const body = await request.text();
  const signature = request.headers.get('X-Webhook-Signature') ?? '';
  const secret = process.env.EARLYFORGE_REVALIDATE_SECRET!;
 
  // Verify the HMAC-SHA256 signature before trusting the payload
  const expected =
    'sha256=' +
    crypto.createHmac('sha256', secret).update(body).digest('hex');
 
  const valid =
    signature.length === expected.length &&
    crypto.timingSafeEqual(Buffer.from(signature), Buffer.from(expected));
 
  if (!valid) {
    return new Response('Invalid signature', { status: 401 });
  }
 
  const { path } = JSON.parse(body); // e.g. "/articles/ai-adoption-newsrooms"
  revalidatePath(path);
 
  return Response.json({ revalidated: true, path });
}

Connect Next.js Direct in EarlyForge

Go to Sites → select your site → Connections → Next.js Direct and provide:

• Revalidation URL — your endpoint, for example https://yoursite.com/api/revalidate
• Revalidation secret — a shared secret used to sign every request

The secret is stored inside the site's connection and encrypted by EarlyForge. Add the same value to your Next.js app as a server-side environment variable (EARLYFORGE_REVALIDATE_SECRET).

Test the connection

Click Test connection. EarlyForge sends a signed test request to your revalidation URL and confirms it responds successfully.

Save the connection

Click Save. Next.js Direct is now an active publishing destination.