---
title: "Éclair 1.12: an editorial calendar with AI, and an AI bots page"
description: "Éclair 1.12: plan your posts in a calendar, let the AI suggest ideas and write drafts with the cost shown, and see which AIs read your site."
url: "https://eclaircms.org/blog/eclair-1-12-editorial-calendar-ai-bots"
lang: "en"
author: "Thierry Gustin"
published: "2026-11-04"
updated: "2026-11-10"
---

# Éclair 1.12: an editorial calendar with AI, and an AI bots page

> **Key takeaways** — Released on November 4, 2026, Éclair 1.12 adds two pages to the admin. The Planner lays out your next posts in a calendar: you note your ideas, the AI can suggest 4 to 12 based on your site and write each one as a draft, with the cost of every call shown in tokens and dollars. Nothing is published without you. The AI bots page shows which AIs read your pages, which ones and why, with no IP address and no cookie.

With Éclair 1.12, released on November 4, 2026, you prepare your next posts in a calendar: you note your ideas, and the AI can suggest more based on your site and write them as drafts, with the cost of every call shown. Nothing is published without you. A second page, AI bots, shows which AIs read your site, which pages, and for what purpose.

## What’s new in Éclair 1.12?

| Feature | Where to find it | What it gives you |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Editorial calendar | Admin › **Planner** | Your published, scheduled, draft and idea posts, day by day, in a month calendar |
| AI-suggested ideas | Planner › **Suggest ideas with AI** | 4 to 12 post ideas drawn from your site, placed on the next free days |
| AI-written drafts | **Write** button on each idea | A complete draft in one click, never published on its own |
| Cost shown | On each idea and as a total | Every AI call in tokens and dollars, counted in the monthly AI budget |
| Automatic writing | Planner › **Automatic writing** | Due ideas written 1 to 14 days before their date, off by default |
| AI bots | Admin › **AI bots** | AI visits over 7, 30 or 90 days, by bot, by page and by purpose |

Your public pages stay identical to the byte: 1.12 adds no tag, no script and no cookie. The archive weighs 659 KB, and 52 new automated checks bring the total to 1,034.

## How do you plan your posts with the Planner?

With Éclair 1.12, the **Planner** appears in the menu, between Redirects and the Administration group. It brings together a month calendar (published, scheduled, draft and idea posts) and an **Upcoming** list.

To note an idea by hand:

1. Open **Planner**, then click **Add an idea**.
2. Fill in the **Title or topic** and the **Planned date**. Add the **Main keyword** and the category if you like.
3. In **Angle and notes for writing**, say who the post is for, the question it answers and what you absolutely want to say in it.
4. Click **Add to planner**.

The blog must be turned on in Settings to publish the planned posts.

## How does the AI suggest post ideas?

First turn on the [AI assistant](https://eclaircms.org/en/documentation/ai-assistant) in **Settings › AI assistant**, with your own API key. Then:

1. In **Planner**, open **Suggest ideas with AI**.
2. Choose **How many ideas** (4, 6, 8 or 12) and the **Pace**, from 1 to 5 per week.
3. To steer the suggestions, fill in the **Theme (optional)**, for example “getting ready for winter”.
4. Look at the estimated cost shown, then click **Suggest**.

The AI starts from your business, your categories, the posts already written and the pages AI bots read most. It places its ideas on the next free days. Nothing is published: you edit or remove each idea as you see fit.

## How does the AI write a draft?

On an idea, click **Write** and allow one to two minutes. The AI writes a complete draft with the same engine and safeguards as the **Create with AI** box of new content. It never publishes.

Then click **Review and schedule**: read it through, add your own experience and examples, then choose the publication date.

## How much does each AI call cost?

Éclair is free. The AI, on the other hand, is billed by your provider, based on the tokens used. Éclair 1.12 shows you that spending at every step:

- **Before you click**: the buttons show the estimated cost of a set of ideas and of a written post, with the name of the model used.
- **After each call**: the idea shows the number of tokens and the cost in dollars.
- **In total**: the **Spent by the planner** line adds everything up, next to the **Monthly AI budget**.

Every call counts towards the AI assistant’s monthly budget. Once that budget is reached, the AI stops until the following month.

## What does automatic writing do?

**Automatic writing**, reserved for administrators and off by default, writes ideas a few days before their date.

1. In **Planner**, open **Automatic writing** and turn on **Write automatically**.
2. Set **How many days before the date**, from 1 to 14.
3. Click **Save**.

The AI then writes the due ideas, one at a time, within the monthly AI budget, when an administrator opens the admin. To not depend on that, have the secret address under **Write even when the admin is closed** called every hour, by your host’s cron or cron-job.org.

A **Schedule without review** option exists, but it is not recommended: Google penalises text published in bulk without human review (see its [spam policies](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)). And even when it is on, a post that still contains “To complete” markers always waits for your review.

## Which AIs read your site, and why?

The **AI bots** page answers that, over 7, 30 or 90 days. It sorts visits into three purposes:

| Purpose | Example bots | What it means |
| --- | --- | --- |
| On-demand lookups | ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User | Someone asked an AI a question, and it came to read your page to answer: a potential citation |
| Answer engine indexing | OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot | The AI adds your page to its index so it can cite it later |
| Model training | GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, Bytespider | Text collection to train future models |

You see visits per day, by bot and by page, the reads of your `robots.txt`, and the **pages never read by an AI yet**, with a tip: link to them from your most-read pages and give them an FAQ. A warning appears if training bots come even though your `robots.txt` asks them not to read your pages. A summary card also waits for you on the dashboard.

To go further, read the [GEO documentation](https://eclaircms.org/en/documentation/geo).

## Does AI bot tracking respect your visitors?

Yes. Éclair records only three things per bot visit: the time, the bot’s name and the page address, without query string. No IP address, no human visitor, no cookie. The log is capped at 4 MB per month and deleted after 13 months.

Tracking runs before anything else, so pages served from the cache are counted too. It is on by default: to stop it, turn off **Track AI bot visits** in **Settings › AI & GEO**.

One limit: the identity is the one each bot declares, and a fake bot can pose as a real one.

## How do you upgrade to Éclair 1.12?

The latest version, Éclair 2.0.0, includes everything from 1.12.

- **From 1.10.0 or later**: make a backup, then open **Admin › Updates** and click **Update**. The update is signed and verified, with automatic rollback if anything goes wrong.
- **From 1.9 or earlier**: use FTP one last time, with the archive from the [Download](https://eclaircms.org/en/download) page. The [updates guide](https://eclaircms.org/en/documentation/updates) walks through each step.

The details are in the [changelog](https://eclaircms.org/en/changelog), and 1.11 is covered in [undo and redo everywhere](https://eclaircms.org/blog/eclair-1-11-undo-redo-micro-animations).

## Frequently asked questions about Éclair 1.12

### Can the AI publish posts for me?

No, not without your explicit approval. Ideas and drafts stay as drafts. Only an administrator can turn on “Schedule without review”, an option that is not recommended, and even then a post that still contains “To complete” waits for your review.

### Do I need the AI assistant to use the Planner?

No. You can note your ideas by hand and follow your calendar without AI. The AI assistant is there to suggest ideas and write the drafts.

### How much does the Planner cost?

Nothing, like Éclair. Only AI calls are billed by your provider: the estimated cost shows before each click, then the actual cost, within the monthly AI budget.

### Does the AI bots page slow my site down?

It adds no script, no tag and no cookie to your public pages. On the server side, Éclair appends a single line to the log for each visit from a recognised AI bot.

### Can I stop AIs from training on my text?

You can ask them to in your `robots.txt`, set in **Settings › AI & GEO**: the “Citations only” choice refuses training bots. The AI bots page then flags training bots that come anyway.

[Download Éclair 2.3.0](https://eclaircms.org/en/download)

— Thierry Gustin, Créateur d’Éclair CMS, consultant SEO et formateur IA · November 10, 2026