Retire a knowledge article

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Retire a knowledge article

    ServiceNow enables knowledge base owners, managers, and administrators to retire knowledge articles using a retirement workflow similar to the publishing workflow. Retired articles are no longer searchable on the Knowledge homepage or portal but remain viewable by knowledge base owners and managers. The retirement process can include approval steps, and only authorized roles—including knowledge administrators, knowledge managers, and the latest publisher—can retire articles.

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    Retirement Workflow and Permissions

    • Initiate retirement by selecting the Retire option on an article, which triggers the associated retirement workflow.
    • Approval can be required before retirement; articles enter a pending approval state and are retired only if approved.
    • Only knowledge administrators, knowledge managers, and the latest publisher can retire versioned articles; retirement is not available for KCS contributors or candidates.
    • Retired articles retain their unique article numbers, which cannot be reused.
    • Administrators and knowledge administrators have exclusive access to view retired articles.

    Replacement Articles and Redirection

    • You can specify a replacement article when retiring an article. Users accessing the retired article are automatically redirected to the replacement article with a notification message.
    • If no replacement article exists, users see a "Knowledge record not found" message.
    • The replacement feature is not supported in the classic workspace.
    • A system property (glide.knowman.enablearticlereplacementonretire) controls this feature and is enabled by default for new users; it must be enabled manually for existing or upgraded users.
    • Retired articles with replacements return HTTP status code 301; without replacements, they return 404.

    Additional Details

    • Retiring a parent article does not automatically retire its translated child articles, as translations maintain a parent-child relationship.
    • Administrators and knowledge administrators can republish retired articles if needed.

    Deleting Knowledge Articles

    • Users with the admin role can delete published knowledge articles.
    • Deletion is performed by selecting the Delete option on the article record or through the more actions menu if the button is not visible.

    Initiate the retirement workflow to retire a knowledge article. Knowledge base owners and managers can view articles after they are retired but cannot search for retired articles on the Knowledge homepage and portal.

    A knowledge article has an associated retirement workflow, similar to the publishing workflow. This allows administrators to configure these workflows, defining an approval and review process for retiring knowledge if appropriate.

    When editing an article, select Retire. This launches the retirement workflow associated with that article. Only knowledge administrator, knowledge manager, and the latest publisher of the versioned knowledge article (not available for kcs_candidate or kcs_contributor) can retire a knowledge article. For more information, see Retire a versioned article. If the article requires approval prior to retirement, the article goes to a pending approval state, and the workflow either finishes when approved or cancels if rejected by an approver. The article number associated with the retired article is not available for reuse. For information on the status of a knowledge article see Knowledge article states.

    Note:
    • Only administrators and knowledge administrators can view the retired knowledge articles. To reuse a retired article, administrators and knowledge administrators can republish the article. For more information, see Republish a retired article.
    • An article and its translations have a parent-child relationship. Retiring a parent article does not automatically retire all its translated child articles.
    You can provide a replacement article while retiring a knowledge article. When the retired article is accessed, the user is automatically redirected to the replacement article with the display message The article KBxxx is retired and has been replaced with the knowledge article KBxxx. If no replacement article is available, the page displays the message Knowledge record not found. The retire with replacement feature is not supported on classic workspace. By default, the glide.knowman.enable_article_replacement_on_retire system property is set to true for new users, to provide a replacement article for a retired article. Set the property to true manually so existing and upgraded users can view and use the feature.
    Note:
    • Article with replacement returns a 301 code.
    • Article without any replacement returns a 404 code.
    • The retire action on classic workspace will just retire the article and not provide a replacement irrespective of the setting of glide.knowman.enable_article_replacement_on_retire.

    Delete a knowledge article

    Users with the admin role can delete a published knowledge article. On an article record, select Delete. If the Delete button isn't displayed, select the more actions icon , and then select Delete.