---
title: "Step 5: Publish an assessment"
slug: "step-5-publish-assessment"
tags: ["admin"]
updated: 2026-05-28T11:29:00Z
published: 2026-05-28T11:29:00Z
---

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

# Step 5: Publish assessment

Once all assessment steps are complete, clicking **Publish** usually only requires selecting a marking workflow and setting the status to **Live**.

![Cirrus Publish Assessment Settings](https://cdn.document360.io/cdfc20c8-6721-4154-b0a1-9f49f139d107/Images/Documentation/Cirrus%20Publish%20Assessment%20Settings.png)

### Select the marking workflow for your assessment

There are three workflows to choose from, depending on the type of questions in your assessment.

#### 1. Scheduler is assessor (Simple workflow)

With this workflow, the person who schedules the assessment automatically becomes the assessor. This workflow does not support [moderation](/v1/docs/moderation) or multiple assessors.

**Note**: Choose carefully. Once you select the Simple Marking Workflow for an assessment, it cannot be changed to the Extended workflow. We do not recommend this workflow for assessments with manually marked questions.

#### 2. Coordinator assigns assessors (Extended workflow)

Recommended for assessments containing manually marked questions such as **File response** and/or **Essay** questions. A [coordinator](/v1/docs/coordinator) sets up the marking workflow by allocating one or more assessors and optionally configuring moderation rounds. Use this workflow when your assessment contains at least one manually marked question.

#### 3. Auto-scored

Select this option only if **all** questions in the assessment are auto-scored. This means the assessment must not contain any file response or essay questions.

              Using blueprints with only auto-scored questions

              

When using blueprints, you can filter item types. By default, all item types are included. If your blueprint includes file response or essay question types (even if none are currently in the question bank), the **Auto-scored** option will be greyed out.

To resolve this, update the item type filter in the [blueprint settings](https://help.cirrusassessment.com/docs/topics#blueprint-settings) by unchecking **File response** and **Essay**. This ensures the blueprint uses only auto-scored questions and makes the auto-scored workflow available.

#### Extra option: allow manual score adjustment

When enabled, assessors can manually adjust the scores of auto-scored questions. This option is only available if the assessment contains auto-scored questions.

#### Scoring format

By default, Cirrus allows decimal values when entering scores (for example, 7.5 out of 10). To restrict marking to whole numbers only, enable **Disable decimal scoring** when publishing. This is useful when assessment policy or institutional guidelines require integer scores. When enabled, decimal inputs are not accepted in the marking workflow.

### Status

To complete the assessment, set the status to **Live** and click **Publish**.

The assessment is now ready to be scheduled and delivered to candidates.