Knowledge workflows

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Knowledge workflows

    Knowledge workflows in ServiceNow Zurich release control the publishing and retirement processes of knowledge articles within each knowledge base. You can assign different workflows per knowledge base, using default ones or creating custom workflows to manage approvals and state transitions. Workflows remain the default option for knowledge bases, although flows are also available, but cannot be mixed.

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    Key Features

    • Customizable workflows: Use default workflows or create your own to define how articles are published or retired.
    • Approval mechanisms: Workflows can require approvals from knowledge base managers or ownership groups, configurable via the getApprovers() function in the KBWorkflow script include.
    • Default workflows include:
      • Knowledge - Approval Publish: Requests manager approval before publishing. Articles move from "In Review" to "Published" or "Scheduled for publish." Rejection keeps the article in draft.
      • Knowledge - Approval Retire: Requests manager approval before retiring an article. Rejection keeps it published.
      • Knowledge - Instant Publish: Publishes articles immediately without approval.
      • Knowledge - Instant Retire: Retires articles immediately without approval.
      • Knowledge - Publish Knowledge and Retire Knowledge subflows: Move articles to published or retired states, usable within custom workflows.
    • Email notifications: Approvers and authors receive notifications about approval requests and statuses when the property glide.knowman.enableapprovalnotification is enabled (enabled by default from New York release onward).
    • Retired articles: Only admins and knowledge admins can view retired articles. Retiring a parent article does not retire its translations automatically.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    • Define and assign workflows per knowledge base to enforce your organization's publishing and retirement policies.
    • Configure approval workflows and approvers based on your organizational roles and ownership groups.
    • Enable email notifications to keep authors and approvers informed throughout the approval process.
    • Administrators can manage retired articles by republishing if necessary.
    • Understand that switching between workflows and flows is not supported for the same knowledge base.

    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.