When editors update an entry in Strapi, do I need to update Croct too?
Working on a fashion ecommerce site, Strapi backend, and we are about to map our first components to Croct slots. One thing I could not figure out from the docs: is the mapped content copied into Croct at setup time, or referenced?
Our editors change product copy and seasonal banners in Strapi several times a week. If the mapping takes a snapshot, I can see variants going stale fast and nobody noticing until a customer does. Before I wire this up I want to understand what stays in sync automatically and what does not
1 answer
Nothing is copied. Your Strapi content remains the default fallback and it is served by your app the same way it is today: your frontend fetches from Strapi, and the slot only overrides that content for visitors who match an experience's audience. So when editors update a banner in Strapi, the change flows through exactly as it does now, no sync step involved.
The only content that lives in Croct is the variant content you author there for experiences and experiments. That part is deliberate: a variant is supposed to differ from the default, so it does not track Strapi edits. If an editor rewrites the default hero copy, it is worth a quick look at any active variants of that hero to keep them coherent, but that is an editorial habit, not a technical requirement.
One related behavior worth knowing: if you pause an experience, visitors immediately see the default slot content again, meaning whatever is current in Strapi. So the fallback is always as fresh as your CMS.