Archive an article

Archiving retires an article without deleting it. The article disappears from the public help center and from AI retrieval, but stays in the database — so you can restore it later if you change your mind.

Use this when:

• The feature the article describes has been removed or replaced.
• The article was wrong and you’ve published a better one. Archive the old one to avoid two articles competing in search.
• A workflow is deprecated and you want a clean record that it once existed.

There are two ways to archive — they do the same thing. Pick whichever is faster.

Option 1: Archive button

1. Open the article in the editor.
2. Click Archive Article above the editor.
3. Confirm in the modal.

The modal explains the consequences before you commit: the article comes off the public site, AI agents stop retrieving from it, and it moves out of the default article list.

Option 2: Status dropdown

1. Open the article in the editor.
2. In the right sidebar, change Status from Published to Archived.

Same effect. The dropdown is useful when you’re already in the metadata panel adjusting other fields.

What happens after archive

• Public site — the article disappears within a few seconds. Permalinks to the article return 404.
• AI agents — Capabilities, Sidekick, Web Chat, and voice agents stop retrieving from it. The embedding is removed from the active index.
• Admin article list — the article is hidden by default. You can show archived articles by filtering on Archived status.
• Search — public search ignores archived articles entirely.

Restoring an archived article

If the feature comes back, or you archived too aggressively, restoring is one click:

1. Filter the article list by Archived status.
2. Click the article to open it.
3. Click Restore Article (the button that replaces “Archive Article” when an article is already archived), or change the Status dropdown to Draft or Published.

A restored article re-appears on the public site within a few seconds and gets re-embedded for AI retrieval.

Archive vs. delete

Atender’s KB doesn’t have a delete action for articles, by design. Archive is the equivalent — it removes the article from every customer-facing surface while preserving the history. If you genuinely need an article gone forever (legal or compliance reason), contact support; otherwise, archive is the right tool.

Common gotchas

• External links break. If you’ve shared the article URL anywhere — release notes, a Slack post, a customer email — those links will 404 after archive. Consider publishing a redirect article first, or archive only when you’re sure no one’s linking to it.
• Translations come along. Archiving the source article archives the article on every language. There’s no per-language archive.
• Bulk archive is supported. The bulk-edit UI accepts archived as a target status. Useful when retiring an entire feature.