A/B test lifecycle and editing rules
The three states
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved but not live. Nothing is deployed. Full edit access. |
| Running | Live. Visitors are being split and results are collecting. |
| Archived | Stopped. Traffic goes back to the normal page (unless you declared a winner). Historical results stay available in Analytics. |
What happens on activation
When you click Activate on a draft:
- Atomicat checks that every control and variant page is still published.
- A routing rule is deployed to the CDN edge for your entry path.
- The test status becomes running and visitors start being assigned.
Activation takes a few seconds. If it fails, check that every variant page is published and no other running test uses the same entry path.
While the test is running, those pages must stay published. Unpublishing is blocked until you archive the test. If you archive, unpublish a page, then activate again later, you must republish the page first.
Editing rules by state
| What you change | Draft | Running |
|---|---|---|
| Name, hypothesis | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Goal (type and fields) | ✅ Free | 🔒 Locked |
| Variants, pages, destinations, weights | ✅ Free | 🔒 Locked |
| Test type, site, entry path | ✅ Free | 🔒 Locked |
Once a test is live, only the name and hypothesis can change. Site, entry URL, variants, traffic split, and goal stay fixed so results remain comparable. To change any of those, archive the test and create a new one.
Redeploy
Redeploy does not unlock structural edits. Use it when you need to refresh live routing or variant copies, for example:
- You edited and republished a page that is part of a running page variant or split URL test.
- Edge routing looks stale (for example after an infrastructure change).
Atomicat may ask for confirmation before redeploying.
Multiple tests on one site
You can run several tests on the same site at the same time, as long as each test uses a different entry path (for example /offer-a and /offer-b). Two running tests can never share an entry path.
Archiving one test does not affect the others — routing for the remaining tests is rebuilt automatically.
Archive, declare winner, and delete
- Archive stops the traffic split for that entry path. Visitors see the normal published page again (unless you already declared a winner). Results remain visible in Analytics.
- Declare winner publishes the winning variant to the entry URL (for page-based tests), records the winner on the test card, and archives the test. See Declaring a winner.
- Delete is only available for drafts and archived tests. It removes the test permanently.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pause a test and resume it later?
There is no pause. Archive the test to stop it; you can create a new test with the same setup later. Results from separate runs are reported separately.
Why are variants and goal locked while running?
Changing the structure mid-run would mix incompatible data in one experiment. Archive and create a new test if you need a different setup.
What do visitors see after I archive?
The page that is normally published at the entry path — the same page visitors saw before the test started, unless you declared a winner.