Create an article

Articles live inside categories. Pick the category first, then create the article — that’s faster than creating an orphan and assigning it later.

1. Open the Knowledge Base

Go to Knowledge Base in the main navigation. The page has three panes: the category tree on the left, the article list in the middle, and the editor on the right.

If this is the first article you’re writing, the category tree may only have a default category. That’s fine — you can create more categories from the same screen, or follow Organize categories and subcategories first.

2. Pick a category

Click the category in the left pane where this article belongs. The middle pane updates to show the articles already in that category.

3. Click New article

The button sits above the article list. The editor opens with a blank article in draft status.

4. Fill in the basics

• Title — Yes — The headline customers and AI both see. Keep it task-shaped: “Update my payment method” beats “Payment management”.
• Slug — Auto — Generated from the title. Edit only if the auto-slug is awkward — change it before publishing because permalinks bake it in.
• Summary — Recommended — One sentence under 160 characters. Shown in search results, category listings, and previews.
• Body — Yes — The article itself. The editor is rich-text — headings, lists, links, images, code blocks.
• Category — Yes — Already filled from step 2. Change it from the metadata panel if needed.
• Subcategory — Optional — Use only when a category has enough articles to need a second level.
• Difficulty — Optional — Beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Filterable in the public site.
• Estimated reading time — Optional — In minutes. Shown on the article page so customers know what they’re getting into.
• Keywords — Optional — Extra search terms that aren’t in the body. The search reads them; readers don’t see them.
• Tags — Optional — Cross-cutting labels for filtering. Add tags through Settings → Knowledge if the one you want doesn’t exist.
• Status — Yes — Stays as draft until you’re ready to publish. See article statuses.

5. Write the body

Use the rich-text editor. A few rules of thumb:

• Lead with the answer. The first sentence should resolve the question in the title.
• Use headings. They become the table of contents on the article page.
• Link generously. When you mention a related article, link it. The “See also” section at the bottom is where most readers go next.
• Avoid screenshots that go stale. Describe the path in words (“Settings → Knowledge → Languages”) instead of pasting an image of the menu.

6. Preview

The editor has a Preview button. Use it before publishing — what looks fine in the editor sometimes wraps strangely on the public site.

7. Publish

Change Status from draft to published. The article goes live on the public help center within a few seconds. The embedding pipeline picks it up almost as fast — your AI agents start retrieving from it as soon as the embedding job finishes (usually within a minute).

If you’re not ready to publish but you want the article to be reviewed first, set status to needs-review instead. That keeps it invisible to the public while flagging it for a teammate.

What happens after publishing

• Public site — the article appears in its category, in tag listings, in any sections that match its rules, and in search results.
• AI agents — Capabilities, Sidekick, and Web Chat / voice agents start using it for retrieval.
• Translations — if you have languages enabled beyond the default, a translation job is queued. See Manage languages.
• Search shadow logs — every search that retrieves the article is logged. Stale articles will show up in the quarterly review pass.

Common gotchas

• The article isn’t showing up in search. Embedding takes a minute or two after publish. Wait, then re-run your search.
• The slug feels wrong. Edit the slug before publishing. After publish, changing it breaks any external links.
• The summary is too long. Hard cap is 160 characters. Anything longer is truncated in listings.
• It’s published but customers can’t find it. Check the status (must be published, not needs-review) and the role assignments — if you’ve enabled role browsing, an article tagged for admin only is invisible to public visitors.