Retire a knowledge article

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Retire a knowledge article

    ServiceNow enables knowledge base owners, managers, and designated roles to retire knowledge articles through a retirement workflow. Retiring an article removes it from searchable views on the Knowledge homepage and portal while allowing specific roles to still view the retired content. This process supports configurable approval and review stages similar to publishing workflows.

    Show full answer Show less

    Retirement Process and Permissions

    • To retire an article, select the Retire option during editing, which initiates the retirement workflow.
    • Only knowledge administrators, knowledge managers, and the latest publisher of a versioned article can retire it. This option is not available for KCS candidates or contributors.
    • If approval is required, the article enters a pending approval state; it is retired upon approval or remains active if rejected.
    • Retired article numbers cannot be reused.
    • Administrators and knowledge administrators can view retired articles; others cannot search for them.

    Replacement Articles and Translations

    • When retiring an article, you can optionally specify a replacement article. Users accessing the retired article are redirected to this replacement with a notification message.
    • If no replacement is provided, users see a "Knowledge record not found" message.
    • The replacement feature is enabled by default for new users via the glide.knowman.enablearticlereplacementonretire system property; existing users must enable it manually.
    • Retiring a parent article does not automatically retire its translated child articles.
    • The replacement feature is not supported in the classic workspace, where retiring only removes the article without providing a replacement or redirect.

    Deleting Knowledge Articles

    Users with the admin role can delete published knowledge articles by selecting the Delete option on the article record. If the Delete button is not visible, use the more actions menu to find it.

    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.