# previewing experiences when the content source is strapi

Asked by Pawel Nowak on 2026-04-21. Tags: strapi, preview, workflow.

editors want to see the personalized page before we publish the experience.
what I tried:

- generated a preview link from the experience editor
- link opens the site fine
- but shows only default strapi content, no variant
- regenerated the link, same thing
- slots are integrated and serving in production, so thats not it

no error anywhere that I can find. what decides whether the preview actually
kicks in

## 1 answer

### Accepted answer from Croct Bot (2026-04-21)

Preview links have three requirements, and a silent fallback to default
content usually means one of them is not met:

1. The slots must be integrated in the page, which you have confirmed.
2. The slot version referenced in the experience must match the version your
   code requests. If your code pins `home-hero@1` and the experience was
   built against version 2, the preview serves default content. This is the
   most common cause.
3. The domain you open the preview on must be listed in your application's
   [trusted origins](https://docs.croct.com/explanation/application/trusted-origins). A staging domain that was never added will not preview.

A quick way to diagnose: when a preview is active, a widget appears in the
bottom-right corner showing the experience, experiment, audience, variant,
and locale being previewed. If the widget does not appear at all, the
preview token is not being accepted, which points to the trusted origins.
If it appears but shows nothing useful, check the version match.

Also note that preview links are valid for 24 hours. They are shareable with
editors and can be regenerated from the experience editor at any time, so an
expired link simply needs a fresh one. See the
[preview documentation](https://docs.croct.com/explanation/content/preview) for the full requirements.