Knowledge workflows

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Knowledge Workflows

    Knowledge workflows in ServiceNow manage the publishing and retirement processes of knowledge articles according to the workflows assigned to their respective knowledge bases. Users can choose from default workflows or create custom ones, and they can set up approval processes for articles requiring managerial consent. The default option is Workflow, and customers upgrading to Zurich will have access to both workflows and flows for managing knowledge articles.

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    Key Features

    • Approval Processes: Different workflows can be configured for publishing and retiring articles, allowing for managerial approval before an article is published or retired.
    • Email Notifications: Notifications can be sent to both approvers and authors regarding the approval status, which can be enabled by setting the glide.knowman.enableapprovalnotification property to true.
    • Default Workflows:
      • Knowledge - Approval Publish: Requires manager approval, moving articles through Draft, In Review, and Published states.
      • Knowledge - Approval Retire: Requires manager approval to retire articles from the published state.
      • Knowledge - Instant Publish: Publishes articles immediately without approval.
      • Knowledge - Instant Retire: Retires articles immediately without approval.
      • Knowledge - Publish/Retrieve Knowledge: Subflows that can be integrated into custom workflows.

    Key Outcomes

    By effectively utilizing knowledge workflows, ServiceNow customers can streamline their knowledge management processes, ensuring timely approvals and clear communication regarding article status. Customers can expect improved governance over knowledge articles, as well as the ability to maintain oversight on published and retired content, enhancing overall knowledge base management.

    The publishing and retirement processes for a knowledge article are controlled by workflows defined for the knowledge base that the article belongs to.

    You can assign different workflows to each Knowledge Base .

    You can use one of the default workflows, or create your own workflows to define custom publishing and retirement processes for different types of knowledge.

    For the workflows that require approval, you can configure which users can approve or reject by editing the getApprovers() function in the KBWorkflow script include.

    Existing users of Knowledge Management upgrading to Zurich will have access to both workflows and flows in the Knowledge Base form. However, they will be able to use either workflows or flows for a knowledge base, with Workflow being the default option.

    Cross selection between flow and workflow for publish and retire is not possible.

    You cannot delete the approval records for knowledge flows. You can only approve or reject the records.

    Table 1. Default knowledge workflows
    Workflow Description
    Knowledge - Approval Publish Requests approval from a manager of the knowledge base. Articles in approval are In Review state before moving to Published state once approved or to Scheduled for publish if set to publish later. If the manager rejects the request, the workflow is canceled and the article remains in Draft state.

    If ownership groups is enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the ownership group members for approval.

    If ownership groups is not enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to knowledge base managers for approval.

    A notification is also sent to authors or revisers of articles to inform them that their article has been approved or rejected.

    To turn on approval email notifications, set the glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification property to true.

    Note:
    Only the active user receives the notifications.
    Knowledge - Approval Retire Requests approval from a manager of the knowledge base before moving the article to the retired state. The workflow is canceled and the article remains in the published state if any manager rejects the request.

    If ownership groups is enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the ownership group members for approval.

    If ownership groups is not enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to knowledge base managers for approval.
    Knowledge - Instant Publish Immediately publishes a draft article without requiring an approval, or publishes on the scheduled publish date if set to publish later.
    Knowledge - Instant Retire Immediately retires a published article without requiring an approval.
    Knowledge - Publish Knowledge A subflow that moves the knowledge article to the published state. You can use this subflow when defining your own workflow.
    Knowledge - Retire Knowledge A subflow that moves the knowledge article to the retired state. You can use this subflow when defining your own workflow.
    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.

    Email notifications for approval workflows

    You can send email notifications for approval workflows.
    • Notify approvers about knowledge articles submitted for their approvals.
    • Notify authors about the approval status of their knowledge articles.
    To send email notifications for approval workflows, enable the Send notification to approvers and authors in article approval workflow property (glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification). Beginning with New York, the property is enabled by default. Existing customers on release versions prior to New York can enable this property to send email notifications. Disable any custom notifications for article approvals before enabling this property. If the glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification property is not available, an administrator can create the property and set its value to true. For more information, see Knowledge Management properties.