Failure mode: publishing the page before checking the data row is non-empty

Failure mode: publishing the page before checking the data row is non-empty

The classic thin-content leak isn't bad writing — it's pages built from rows that have nulls in the fields that carry the value. "Plumbers in {city}" renders with zero listings because that city's join returned nothing.

Empty-state gate:
— Step 1. Owner: data. For each template, name the 3 fields that MUST be populated for the page to be useful (e.g. listing_count, primary_stat, summary).
— Step 2. Owner: dev. Add a publish guard: if any required field is null or below threshold (listing_count >= 3), set status = held, not published.
— Step 3. Owner: SEO. Held pages get noindex and stay out of the sitemap until data fills.
— Step 4. Owner: data. Weekly job re-checks held pages and promotes the ones that now pass.

Guardrail: the page's existence is gated on data, not on the URL pattern existing.

Ship gate: don't publish until all boxes are checked.