Author mode

Author mode gates the whole authoring surface. It is off by default.

What it controls

Surface	With author mode off	With author mode on
Popup, Open Authoring Studio	Disabled	Enabled
Side panel studio	Not loaded	Loaded on demand (lazy)
Player on pages	Runs published content	Runs published content

Readers of tours never need author mode. It only exposes the studio.

Turning it on

Open the extension's Options page and tick Author mode. The same page has the site access list: grant a site (Chrome shows its permission prompt, triggered by your click) or revoke one.

The popup shows the store mode (Local or Remote), the sign-in status and two buttons: Open Authoring Studio and Options. In the MVP the store is always Local and the sign-in status is a fixed value, because there is no sign-in.

Worked example

You are setting up a pilot for a claims team.

1. Install the extension, open Options, tick Author mode.
2. Browse to the claims app, open the studio from the popup.
3. Enter the application key claims, press Use the open site, accept the browser prompt.
4. The studio adds the site's origin to the first environment of the app (it creates an environment named dev if there is none) and registers the content script for that origin.

Gotchas

• Policy can pin author mode. If an administrator sets authorMode through storage.managed, the checkbox does not override it. Policy wins over the user's choice, and it also pins the store mode. See force-install and policy.
• There is no managed_schema file shipped in the extension today, so Chrome and Edge will not show these keys in their policy UI. The values are still read from storage.managed if you set them by hand.
• Author mode is a convenience gate, not an access control. Anyone with the extension can switch it on. Roles are not enforced in the MVP.