HarborFM

Episodes

Guides for creating and editing episodes and using the episode editor.

Creating Episodes

An episode belongs to a show and is built from a sequence of segments (recorded or uploaded clips, or inserts from your library).

Who Can Create Episodes

Only users with manager or owner role on the show can create new episodes. View and editor roles see the option disabled.

Add a New Episode

  1. Open the show and go to the Episodes section.
  2. Click New episode.
  3. Enter at least the title (and optionally description, season/episode numbers, and other metadata).
  4. Save or continue. Open the episode to edit it.

Episodes in the list are grouped into Draft, Scheduled, and Published. Closing major edit dialogs prompts if there are unsaved changes (Keep editing / Discard).

Next Steps

  • Episode editor overview - Build the episode from segments, trim, and render.
  • Publishing and status - Set draft/scheduled/published, optional expiration, and publish to your feed.
  • Segments - Recording, uploading, library inserts, chapters/soundbites, and building the final episode.

Episode Editor Overview

The episode editor is where you build an episode from a list of segments. You can reorder them, trim, split, remove silence, add transcripts, set chapters and soundbites, then generate the final audio file.

Main Areas

  • Segment list - The ordered list of segments that will be concatenated into the final episode. Each segment is either recorded for this episode, uploaded as a file, or inserted from your library.
  • Waveform / segment editor - Visual representation used for trimming, markers, and positioning. See Segments.
  • Show Notes - Collapsible panel for planning call topics: add topics with optional duration (5–30 min), mark items as discussed, drag to reorder, and choose whether guests can see notes (Share with guests by default, or Host only). Collapsed by default. When shared, guests on a group call can open See Show Notes. (Listener-facing attachments are Episode Files, not this checklist.)
  • Scheduled meeting - When WebRTC is enabled, schedule a future group call from the episode summary: reserve a join code and link, invite guests, then Start Meeting in the join window. Separate from ad-hoc Start Group Call. See Group calls: Scheduled meetings.
  • Final Episode box - Collapsible publishing panel and action tiles for build, download, Archive / Backup (when Archive Settings are configured), chapters, soundbites, transcript, and (when allowed) video. See Publishing and status and Episode archive and backup.
  • More tab - Episode Podcast 2.0 fields, cast assignment, delete episode (owner/admin), and related metadata. See Podcasts: Podcast 2.0.

Workflow

  1. Add segments - Record new sections, upload audio, or insert from the library. See Segments.
  2. Reorder - Drag segments to change order.
  3. Edit - Trim, split, remove silence, EQ, or apply noise suppression as needed.
  4. Optional - Generate transcripts (Whisper), use LLM helpers, add chapter/soundbite markers, create a poll.
  5. Build final episode - Click Build Final Episode (label becomes Final Episode once audio exists). See Making the final episode.

The editor supports real-time collaboration: other users with access see segment, call, and render updates live.

Cast

Assign hosts and guests from the show cast on the episode. Episode cast can appear on the public feed. Members with a private email are included when HarborFM sends guest episode review preview emails (if they were not already on the meeting invite list). See Podcasts: Cast.

Video Generation

When the instance allows video generation (ALLOW_VIDEO_GENERATION and FFmpeg) and your account has canGenerateVideo, you can generate a video from final episode audio and a background image (episode artwork or optional uploaded video cover). Configure spectrum/waveform style, resolution (480p/720p/1080p), and orientation (landscape, portrait, or square). Status updates via polling and the episode WebSocket. Download and playback are available on the public feed when generated.

See Also

Polls

Create a listener poll per episode from the episode editor (Polls dialog): multiple choice, yes/no, and short answer. Settings include enable, start/end, require email, public results, and one-vote-per-IP. Votes persist across rebuilds.

On the public episode page, listeners see a collapsible poll card. Creator results show counts for choice questions, plus paginated short answers and submitted emails (when email is required).

Publishing and Status

Episodes can have a status (draft, scheduled, published) that controls whether they appear in the public RSS feed and when.

Episode Status

  • Draft - Not included in the public feed; visible only to you and collaborators in the app.
  • Scheduled - Set a publish date/time; the episode is not live for listeners until that time (unless Show Scheduled Episodes is on; see below).
  • Published - Included in the public RSS feed so subscribers and directories see the episode.

Unlisted

On Overview, Publishing, and Build Final Episode Publishing (when status is scheduled or published), you can mark an episode Unlisted. Anyone with the link can open the episode page and listen when it is released, but the episode stays off the public feed list, RSS, and sitemap. Switching back to draft clears Unlisted.

When changing status from draft/scheduled to published, publish_at is set to now if it was empty. Publish and Scheduled stay disabled in the publishing panel until a final build exists.

If the show has Show Scheduled Episodes enabled (see Podcasts: Show settings), scheduled or future-dated published episodes appear on the public feed and episode pages as Premiering [date] until the release time; audio and waveforms are not served until then.

Expiration

Optional Expires at (datetime) in the publishing panel. When that time has passed, the episode is omitted from the public feed list, public RSS, sitemap, and public audio/video URLs. It stays in the studio (status does not change). If both Publish at and Expires at are set, Expires at must be after Publish at.

By default, expired episodes are also omitted from subscriber/private feeds. Turn on Keep expired episodes for subscribers in Edit Show Details to leave them available on private feeds only (see Podcasts: Show settings).

Subscriber Only

The Subscriber Only toggle on an episode omits it from the public RSS and (when the show does not list subscriber episodes publicly) from the public episode list; it still appears in tokenized subscriber feeds. Optional Subscriber only from and Subscriber only until datetimes refine when that gating is active:

  • No dates: always subscriber-only while the toggle is on (previous behavior).
  • Start only: public until that time, then subscriber-only.
  • End only: subscriber-only until that time, then public again.
  • Both: subscriber-only only while inside the window.

The toggle is not cleared when the window ends; public surfaces simply stop treating the episode as gated. If both dates are set, start must be before end.

Episode Files

On the Final Episode card, Episode Files (requires Can Upload Episode Files) opens a dialog to attach files and links for listeners. Uploaded files are stored under the episode, named with a UUID on disk, and count toward the show owner's storage limit (freed on delete). Allowed types include common images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, HEIC), PDF, Office (docx/xlsx/pptx), ZIP, and plain text; uploads are checked by magic bytes.

On the public episode page, Episode Files appear in a collapsed-by-default card between the description and Support The Show. Images open in a lightbox; YouTube and Vimeo links embed; other links and files download or open externally.

This is separate from Show Notes in the episode editor, which is a private talking-points checklist for hosts and guests during production.

Guest Episode Review

When an episode first becomes preview-eligible (draft to scheduled, or draft to published and unlisted), and the episode has a scheduled meeting, HarborFM emails a one-time review preview link to:

  • The meeting host (account email)
  • Guests invited by email on that meeting
  • Episode cast members who have a private email and were not already on that list

Recipients can open the link to preview audio (including scheduled episodes that are not public yet), approve, or leave feedback. The host is notified on response. Listed published episodes redirect preview links to the normal public episode URL. Reverting to draft revokes outstanding review tokens. Meta edits after the first notify do not send again.

Email must be configured on the instance. See Admin: Email.

Publishing Workflow

  1. Build your episode in the episode editor and click Build Final Episode so the final audio file exists.
  2. Use the Final Episode publishing panel to set status to published (or scheduled). Optionally mark Unlisted if you want a link-only release.
  3. If you use Podcast Delivery (export), deploy from the show's delivery settings so the updated RSS and audio are pushed to S3, FTP, or your other targets. See Export and delivery.

Listeners see new episodes when they refresh the feed; if you use a CDN or external host, they may need to wait for cache or sync.

Delete Episode

Owner/admin only: red Delete Episode at the bottom of the More tab. Confirm in the dialog; the episode is removed and you return to the episodes list.

See Also