The One-Route Payload CMS Live Preview Pattern

When you wire up a payload cms live preview, you’re not just plumbing a URL—you’re building a contract between the admin panel and your Next.js App Router. The goal is keystrokes-ago fidelity: editors click Preview, land on your front end, and see exactly what’s in the draft, even when the public site is cached to the hilt. Our implementation at techpotions settled on one preview route, one shared secret, and one shared URL builder. Here’s every decision that made it work. The admin panel’s prev