---
title: Visibility
description: Public, password-protected or private — who can open a status page, and what each mode exposes (RSS, badge, JSON).
canonical: https://watchfor.io/docs/status-pages/visibility
---

# Visibility

Public, password-protected or private — who can open a status page, and what each mode exposes (RSS, badge, JSON).

Not every status page should be open to the world. Each page has one of three
visibility modes, chosen under **Who can see this page** in the page editor and
changeable at any time.

	- [🌐 Public](#): Anyone with the URL can view it. The RSS feed, status badge and JSON endpoint are enabled.
	- [🔒 Password-protected](#): Same public URL, but visitors must enter a shared password (6+ characters) first. Good for partners, beta customers or staging environments.
	- [🙈 Private](#): The public URL returns 404 for visitors. Signed-in members of your organization see the page with a "Private preview" banner — useful while you build it, or as an internal-only overview.

## What each mode exposes

| | Public | Password-protected | Private |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Page at `yourname.watchfor.io` | ✓ | after password | 404 |
| Incident pages and history | ✓ | after password | — |
| RSS feed (`/feed.xml`) | ✓ | — | — |
| [Status badge](/docs/status-pages/embed) (`badge.svg`) | ✓ | — | — |
| [JSON endpoint](/docs/status-pages/embed) (`status.json`) | ✓ | — | — |
| Preview by signed-in members | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (with a *Private preview* banner) |

Feed readers and badge embeds can't carry a password, and serving them on a
gated page would leak your status to anyone with the link — so they are only
available on public pages. Switching a page to private cuts them off
immediately — the feed answers 404 from the next request, and the page's
name is not disclosed to visitors.

## Passwords

- A visitor who enters the correct password gets a signed cookie for that
  page and stays signed in for **7 days** on that browser.
- Change or remove the password from the page editor at any time.
- The password is stored hashed and is never shown again after you set it.

## Choosing a mode

- **Public** — your main, branded status page for customers.
- **Password-protected** — a page you share selectively without making it
  fully open.
- **Private** — an internal overview, or a page you're still building. Flip it
  to public when it's ready; the URL doesn't change.

You can run several pages with different visibility at once — for example a
public customer page and a private internal one built from the same monitors.

> **Also via API**
>
> `isPublic` can be set when creating or updating a page through the
> [status pages API](/docs/api/status-pages); passwords are managed in the
> dashboard only.

---

Canonical page: https://watchfor.io/docs/status-pages/visibility · All docs: https://watchfor.io/docs · Site guide: https://watchfor.io/llms.txt