Salesforce Knowledge is a structured knowledge base built into the platform. Articles are first-class records (not files) with:
- Article types — categories of content (FAQ, How-To, Known Issue, Product Doc) defined by the admin. Each article type has its own fields and layout.
- Versioning — articles have a draft/published lifecycle and version history. Edits create new draft versions; publishing replaces the live version.
- Translations — articles support multiple language versions, with workflows to manage translation status.
- Data Categories — taxonomy for organising articles (Product > Module > Feature). Used for filtering and access control.
- Attached as related list — articles can be linked to Cases (so an agent searching while on a Case sees suggested articles), surfaced in the Service Console, and exposed in Experience Cloud sites.
Differences from regular files:
- Files are unstructured — uploaded documents, no schema, no versioning beyond manual.
- Knowledge articles are structured records with workflow, translations, and reporting.
Common admin tasks:
- Define article types with the right fields per content category.
- Build the Data Categories tree.
- Configure article-to-case attaching and search relevance.
- Set up the Knowledge author/reviewer/publisher permission sets — usually a multi-stage workflow.
Caveat: Salesforce has historically had two Knowledge implementations (Classic Knowledge with article types, and Lightning Knowledge with Knowledge as a custom object). New orgs use Lightning Knowledge; old orgs may need migration. Mentioning the migration awareness signals senior experience.