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How to publish a Knowledge article

Publishing a Lightning Knowledge article promotes a finished draft to Online so it reaches the channels assigned to it. You publish from the article record after the draft content is complete and any required approval has cleared.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Founder & Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated Jun 16, 2026

Publishing a Lightning Knowledge article promotes a finished draft to Online so it reaches the channels assigned to it. You publish from the article record after the draft content is complete and any required approval has cleared.

  1. Open the draft article

    From the Knowledge app or the Article Manager list, open the article whose draft version you want to publish. Confirm you are viewing the Draft version, not an existing Online one.

  2. Confirm channels and categories

    Check the channel selections (Internal App, Customer, Partner, Public Knowledge Base) and the Data Categories on the article so it will be visible to the intended audience once live.

  3. Click Publish

    Select Publish on the article. Choose to publish now or set a future publish date and time, and decide whether to publish completed translations at the same time.

  4. Verify the live article

    After publishing, confirm PublishStatus shows Online and preview the article in the target channel to make sure it appears where the audience will look for it.

Mandatory fields
Titlerequired

The article headline shown in search results and the article header.

URL Namerequired

The stable URL identifier that persists across versions so inbound links keep resolving.

Channelsrequired

At least one channel (Internal App, Customer, Partner, or Public Knowledge Base) so the published article has an audience.

Data Categoriesrequired

The category values that scope visibility and help users find the article through category filters.

Gotchas
  • A missing Customer or Partner channel publishes the article to agents only and leaves it invisible on the public help center, with no error.
  • A scheduled publish still waits on approval; if the article is stuck in an approval process at its scheduled time, it will not go live until approval completes.
  • Editing an Online article creates a new Draft version; the live version does not change until you publish that draft.
  • Translations have their own PublishStatus, so a published master does not make an unpublished translation visible in its language.

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