> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.zionapp.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Publishing staff availability

> How supervisors and monitors publish bookable meeting slots, and how administrators can publish on their behalf.

Availability is the set of open time slots a supervisor or monitor makes bookable for parents. A meeting can only be booked directly when an open slot exists. Supervisors and monitors manage their own slots on `/staff/availability`. Administrators can publish or delete slots on behalf of a staff member from `/admin/availability`.

## Who can publish availability

| Role                | Where                 | Scope                                                                                                                                           |
| ------------------- | --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Supervisor, monitor | `/staff/availability` | Their own slots only                                                                                                                            |
| Administrator       | `/admin/availability` | On behalf of any staff member, constrained to the admin's assigned learning centres, or org-wide if the admin has no explicit centre assignment |

Administrators, teaching staff, parents, and students do not publish availability. A staff member is only bookable by a parent if they hold the supervisor or monitor role and are assigned to the child's learning centre. Administrators are never bookable.

## Publishing a slot

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the availability page">
    Supervisors and monitors go to `/staff/availability`. Administrators go to `/admin/availability` and select the staff member to publish for.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose a single slot or bulk-generate">
    Create one slot at a time by setting a date, start time, and end time, or bulk-generate a schedule using a recurring preset, an explicit list of dates or a date range, or by copying last week's slots forward by seven days.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save">
    The slot is published immediately. If publishing on behalf of a staff member, that staff member is notified, and any parent who is watching for openings with that staff member is notified too.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  Bulk generation is capped at 200 slots per call.
</Note>

## Rules that keep slots valid

* Slots cannot overlap. The app checks for overlap before saving, and a database constraint blocks it as a backstop.
* Slots cannot be created in the past. The check compares the slot against today's date in the Africa/Kampala timezone.
* A slot only becomes bookable once it is published and remains unbooked. It disappears from the bookable list the moment a parent claims it.

## Deleting a slot

A staff member, or an administrator acting on their behalf, can delete a slot they published as long as it has not been booked. A slot that is already attached to a meeting cannot be deleted directly. Cancel the meeting first, which frees the slot, and then delete it if needed.

## How a slot becomes bookable

Once a slot is published:

* It appears to parents whose child is assigned to that staff member's learning centre, on the `/parent/meetings/book` wizard.
* A parent claims it atomically, so two parents can never book the same slot.
* A stale slot, one whose time has already passed, is rejected if a parent tries to book it.
* If no slots are open for a given staff member, a parent can instead propose candidate times as a request, or subscribe to be notified when that staff member next publishes a slot.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Meetings overview" icon="calendar-check" href="/features/meetings/overview">
    How meetings, slots, and requests fit together.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Booking and requests" icon="calendar-plus" href="/features/meetings/booking-and-requests">
    How parents book a slot or request a time, and how staff respond.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Managing and documenting meetings" icon="clipboard-check" href="/features/meetings/managing-and-documenting">
    Rescheduling, cancelling, notes, and marking a meeting complete or no-show.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Roles and permissions" icon="shield" href="/reference/roles-permissions">
    Full reference of what each role can do across Zion.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>