My app has to be published first? But it's still under development

Question

Okay, I want to build an App that allows me to create questions on Stack Exchange. I registered it here on Stack Apps but now when I want to create a question I get this message:

{
  "error_message": "Applications must have a registered Stack Apps post to write",
  "error_id": 403,
  "error_name": "access_denied"
}

On my profile the Stack Apps Post is set to Not set and it tells me that my app has to be published first:

Stack Apps Post

Not Set

When you've published your application, it should be listed on Stack Apps with the app or script tags.

But how should I publish something, that I could not initially test? And how would I publish my App (not that I would be ready for this now)?

Answer 1

It's a bit of a Catch-22. Work around it by:

1. Make a app (or script) post for your app (or script).
2. Also tag it with placeholder.
3. And put "PLACEHOLDER - " at the beginning of the title.
4. Provide a summary of what your app will do.
5. Go to Your apps and click your new app registration
6. Click Edit details and in the Stack Apps post field post the link to the post you created

Also, indicate in the post text that the app is not yet ready for prime time.

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This has already been done a few times, for example:

• "Chatdump - a site monitor (placeholder)"
• "A small Stack Overflow browser for Android, for a school project (Placeholder)"

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Warning: Don't abuse this, or create an essentially empty post and not update it expeditiously. Otherwise the question will be closed and, if not corrected, quickly deleted.