Draft Article
A Draft Article is a Salesforce Knowledge article in editable, unpublished state.
Definition
A Draft Article is a Salesforce Knowledge article in editable, unpublished state. Draft is the lifecycle stage where authors create new articles, revise existing ones, or hold pending changes before they go live. Drafts are not visible to agents in the Knowledge sidebar, not searchable in customer-facing communities, and not surfaced in support flows. Authors and editors with the right permissions can see and modify them; everyone else sees only the previously published version (if one exists).
The Draft state is the first stop in the Knowledge article lifecycle. Authors create a Draft Article, fill in content and metadata (data categories, validation status, language), have it reviewed (formally or informally), and then Publish it. Existing published articles can be returned to Draft through the Edit as Draft action (formerly Demote), letting editors fix mistakes or update content without taking down the published version until the new one is ready.
Working with Draft Articles in Salesforce Knowledge
The Knowledge article lifecycle and where Draft fits
Knowledge articles move through three primary states: Draft, Published, and Archived. Draft is where authoring and revision happen. Publishing moves the article to the Published state, making it visible. Archive moves a published article out of circulation while preserving history. Edit as Draft (formerly called Demote) creates a new Draft from a Published article so you can revise without taking the published version offline.
Permissions to author and review Drafts
Creating a Draft Article requires the Knowledge User license and the Manage Articles permission on the relevant article type. Editors who can publish need the additional Publish Articles permission. Reviewers who need read-only access to Drafts need View Draft Articles. These permissions live on profiles and permission sets; assign them deliberately rather than broadly.
Data categories and the Draft assignment
Knowledge articles are organized through Data Categories: a hierarchical taxonomy (Product, then Cloud, then Sales Cloud, for instance). Each Draft Article is assigned to one or more categories. Visibility to readers is controlled by category access on profiles; Drafts inherit the category but visibility is also gated by the Draft state itself. An editor with category access still cannot see Drafts unless they have View Draft Articles.
Validation status and the review workflow
Knowledge supports a Validation Status field (Not Validated, Validated, Out of Date, Needs Review). Many orgs use this to drive a review workflow: a Draft starts as Not Validated, an editor reviews and sets Validated, then publishes. The status field is a Picklist; you can extend the values for more granular tracking (Legal Review Pending, SME Review Complete).
Multi-language Knowledge and Draft translations
Salesforce Knowledge supports multiple languages. Each language version of an article is a separate Knowledge__kav record. Drafts work per-language: you can have a published English article and a Draft French translation simultaneously. The Draft Translation feature lets translators work on the French version while the English version stays live.
Draft Articles and Approval Processes
For regulated industries (healthcare, finance, government), Drafts often need formal approval before publishing. Salesforce Approval Processes can be configured on KnowledgeArticleVersion: when a Draft is submitted for approval, it routes through one or more approvers, and the Publish action is gated by approval status. This is how organizations enforce the four-eyes principle on customer-facing content.
Bulk authoring and the data loader pattern
Knowledge does not support bulk editing through the standard UI for more than a handful of articles at a time. For mass migrations (importing 500 articles from an old CMS), use the Data Loader against the Knowledge__kav object with the language and article type fields set correctly. Each imported record starts as a Draft; a follow-up step publishes them in batches once content is validated.
How to create and publish a Draft Article in Salesforce Knowledge
Creating a Draft Article is a multi-step workflow: author the content, set metadata, optionally route for review, then publish. The flow takes a few minutes for a single article and is the same in Lightning Knowledge and Classic.
- Open Knowledge and click New Article
Navigate to the Knowledge app, click New Article. Pick the article type (FAQ, How-To, Known Issue, or whatever types your org uses) and the language.
- Author the title and body
Title appears in search results; body is the article content. Use the rich-text editor to format headings, lists, images, and links. Salesforce supports HTML for advanced formatting.
- Set the Data Categories
Assign the article to one or more Data Categories. This drives visibility to readers and search facets. Leaving categories blank typically means the article will not surface in customer-facing searches.
- Fill in metadata fields
Validation Status, Article Type, Channels (Internal App, Customer, Partner, Public Knowledge Base), and any custom fields your org has added. Channels gate which audiences see the article once published.
- Save as Draft
Click Save. The article enters the Draft state. It is not yet visible to readers. You can continue editing, route for approval, or come back later.
- Submit for approval and publish
If approval is required, click Submit for Approval to route the Draft through your configured Approval Process. Once approved (or if no approval is required), click Publish. The article goes live and becomes the Published version.
The article''s headline. Appears in search results and the article header.
The slug used in the article''s URL. Set automatically from the title but editable.
The language of this Draft. Each language version is a separate record.
Drives the available fields and the layout. Org-defined (FAQ, How-To, Known Issue, etc.).
- Drafts are not visible to readers, even with category access. View Draft Articles permission is required to see them; reviewers who lack it cannot help review.
- Save does not publish. Clicking Save preserves the Draft; clicking Publish makes it visible. Mixing these up means readers wait days for content that is already written.
- Channels gate visibility independent of category access. An article with the Public Knowledge Base channel disabled will not appear on your public site no matter what data categories it has.
- Draft Articles count toward Knowledge storage limits. Cleaning up abandoned Drafts is good hygiene, especially in orgs with high authoring volume.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Draft Article.
- Article Lifecycle in Lightning KnowledgeSalesforce Help
- Publish ArticlesSalesforce Help
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is a Draft Article?
Q2. What happens when you edit a published article?
Q3. Why treat draft management as a workflow?
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