---
title: "Verify unpublished catalog products disappear from public access"
description: "Unpublish a controlled product and inspect its direct URL, search results, category listings, and new-purchase eligibility under the documented visibility policy."
canonical_url: "https://vostride.com/agent-library/product-catalog/unpublished-product-direct-url.md"
md_url: "https://vostride.com/agent-library/product-catalog/unpublished-product-direct-url.md"
content_kind: "recipe"
topic: "product-catalog"
---

# Verify unpublished catalog products disappear from public access

Unpublish a controlled product and inspect its direct URL, search results, category listings, and new-purchase eligibility under the documented visibility policy.

## Risk

Catalog unpublishing affects several distribution surfaces. Removing a category card is insufficient when search or a known detail URL still permits a new purchase, though administrative previews may intentionally remain available.

## Fixtures

- A published sandbox product with a unique title and known public URL.
- A supported publish-state fixture and explicit public-unpublishing versus administrator-preview policy.
- Index and cache propagation expectations plus hooks for publication status and new cart eligibility.

## Steps

1. While the product is published, verify its public detail page, category card, and exact-title search result are visible.
2. Unpublish the product through the supported fixture and verify its authoritative publication state.
3. After the documented propagation boundary, open the direct URL while signed out and verify the required unavailable or not-found response.
4. Search the exact title and revisit its category; verify the product is absent from public results under the visibility contract.
5. Inspect the new-cart eligibility hook and verify it cannot be newly purchased; if an administrative preview exists, verify that capability only in its separately authorized account run.

## Expected results

- Public detail access follows the unpublished-product policy.
- Public listings and search remove the product after the agreed propagation interval.
- Unpublishing prevents new purchases while retaining only explicitly authorized preview access.

## False-pass traps

- An administrator preview session can make a public visibility failure look expected.
- Immediate search results before the documented index update boundary are not definitive evidence of a regression.

## Cleanup

- Republish the fixture product and wait for its normal index restoration if shared tests depend on it.

## Use with agent-qa

Adapt this test design to your application's acceptance criteria and configured target using the [recipe execution guide](/agent-library/software-factory/turn-a-recipe-into-an-agent-qa-test.md). External fixture setup and non-UI checks require your own supported hooks or test tooling. Validate the authored test, execute it, and inspect the completed evidence; this recipe is not a recorded test result.

## References

- [agent-qa test](/docs/agent-qa/configuration/test.md)
- [agent-qa hooks](/docs/agent-qa/guides/hooks.md)
- [agent-qa auth state](/docs/agent-qa/guides/auth-state.md)

- [Product catalog QA recipes](/agent-library/product-catalog.md)
- [Software factory QA library](/agent-library.md)