# Create and publish a product

**Category:** [Product Catalog](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/pim)
**Updated:** 2026-08-19

## Create a product

From the Products list, choose **New product**. Each product needs:

- **SKU** — the unique identifier for the product.
- **Product Family** — optional. Pick a [family](organize-with-families-attributes-categories) to inherit its attribute set, or leave it as `— no family —`.
- **Status** — Draft, Published or Archived.
- **Enabled** — whether the product is active.

Save to create the record. You land on the product detail page, where you can add variants, upload media and review completeness.
## Edit and track changes

Use **Edit** to change the SKU, family, status or enabled flag. Every create, edit and publish is recorded in the product's **History**, which shows a versioned changelog with who made each change and when.
## Publish to channels

When the product is ready, click **Publish**. This sets the status to Published and creates a publication record for *every active channel* you've defined, stamped with the publish time and your user. Publishing fires a `pim.product.published` event that other parts of TotalCtrl can react to.
## Plan limits

Your plan caps how many products and SKUs you can hold. If you hit the product limit when creating, you'll see a message to upgrade. The same applies to variants against the SKU limit.
## Next steps

Add variants with the [variant matrix](add-variants-and-the-variant-matrix), then set up [feeds](build-product-feeds) to distribute the catalog.

---

## Related Articles

- [Managing Products](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/managing-products)
- [Build product feeds for shopping channels](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/build-product-feeds)
- [Import products in bulk](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/import-products-in-bulk)
- [Add variants and use the variant matrix](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/add-variants-and-the-variant-matrix)
- [Organize with families, attributes and categories](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/organize-with-families-attributes-categories)

---
[← Back to TotalCtrl Help Center](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/)