How to set Zapier triggers for ChatGPT approvals

Short answer
Use a two‑Zap setup: one Zap that generates and stores ChatGPT drafts in a “queue” record (Airtable / Notion / Google Sheets), and a second Zap that watches for an approval flag (a checkbox, status column or filtered view) and then publishes to your blog (WordPress/Ghost/API). Preview the draft via the queue record or send a Slack/email with the excerpt and a link to the record before approving.

Recommendation (simple, reliable)
- Queue: Airtable (best balance of structure + filtered-view triggers). If you want lowest friction use Google Sheets; if you live in Notion, use Notion.
- Preview: send a Slack or email with excerpt + link to the queue record.
- Approve trigger: change a Status field to “Publish” or move the item into an “Approved” view.

Example Zap flows (concrete)
1) Generate & queue (Zap A)
- Trigger: Manual trigger / Schedule / Webhook (you click or schedule when you want a draft).
- Action 1: Call ChatGPT to create the post (title, body, excerpt).
- Action 2: Create a record in Airtable (fields: Title, Body, Excerpt, Status=Draft, Preview URL).
- Action 3 (optional): Send Slack/email with the Excerpt + link to the Airtable record for review.

2) Approve & publish (Zap B)
- Trigger: Airtable "New Record in View" (create a view filtered to Status = Publish) OR "Updated Record" where Status changed to Publish.
- Action 1: Create Post in WordPress (map Title and Body; optionally set post_status to publish).
- Action 2: Update the Airtable record to Status = Published and add Published URL.
- Action 3 (optional): Send a confirmation Slack/email.

Ways to preview drafts before publishing
- Live preview in your queue (open Airtable/Notion record) — easiest and safest.
- Slack/email digest that includes the excerpt and a link to the full record.
- Create a WordPress post with status=draft as a preview step, review it in WP admin, then flip status to publish (Zap B can listen for WP post status change to trigger final publish).

Decision criteria (choose based on these)
- Budget: Airtable/Notion have free tiers; WordPress publishing via Zapier may require a paid Zapier plan for multi-step Zaps or premium integrations.
- Skill level: Google Sheets is simplest; Airtable gives structured metadata and filtered-view triggers.
- Workflow stage/team size: Solo bloggers -> Sheets/Airtable. Teams -> Airtable/Notion with comments.
- Output quality: Want formatted HTML? Use ChatGPT to produce HTML and store that in the Body field, or render Markdown in preview.

Checklist to implement
1) Create an Airtable base (fields: Title, Body, Excerpt, Status, Published URL).
2) Build Zap A: trigger -> ChatGPT (generate) -> Create record in Airtable -> send preview notification.
3) Make an Airtable view filtered to Status = Publish.
4) Build Zap B: Trigger = New Record in View -> Action = Create WordPress post -> Action = Update record to Published -> Notify.
5) Test end‑to‑end with one sample draft; tweak formatting (HTML vs Markdown).

Best-for / Avoid-if
- Best for: Solo bloggers who want a reliable manual-approval step and a single place to review drafts.
- Avoid if: you want fully automatic publishing without any human review (then you can skip the queue and auto-publish).

If you want, I can write a starter Zap step mapping (Airtable fields → WordPress post fields) or a compact template for the Slack preview message. Also can show the minimal Zapier ChatGPT action fields to use. (Tool note: ChatGPT is a natural generator to plug into step 1 — select it as the action in Zap A.)

Compare ChatGPT and Gemini