Control access at the knowledge article level through user criteria

You specify user criteria for a knowledge article to control which users are granted read access to the knowledge article.

Before you begin

Role required: knowledge_manager, knowledge_admin

Note: You may need to configure the form to add Can Read and Cannot Read fields.

About this task

Try to use only user criteria, which were introduced in Knowledge Management v3, to control access to knowledge articles. Roles were used for this purpose in Knowledge Management v2. For more information, see Managing access to knowledge bases and knowledge articles.

Note:

Starting with the Washington DC release, the Knowledge Management v3 homepage (com.snc.knowledge3) is being prepared for deprecation in the future Y release. It is replaced by the Knowledge Management Service Portal (com.snc.knowledge_serviceportal), which is active by default for customers on Madrid and later releases. For more information about the new experience, see Knowledge Management Service Portal homepage features.

As a knowledge base owner or a manager if the glide.knowman.apply_article_read_criteria property is enabled and you don't satisfy the article level user criteria, then the article will not be visible in portal search. To be able to view the article in the portal search, you must configure article level user criteria accordingly.

If you are a part of the ownership group associated with the article then you can see the article in portal search, irrespective of the article level user criteria.

Procedure

Open a knowledge article.

Note: You can update only the latest version of the knowledge article.
Assign access based on user criteria.

Access	Procedure
Allow read access	In the Can Read field, search for and add user criteria. For example, to allow read access to a user, search for a user criteria that the user matches and add it to this field.
Deny read access	In the Cannot Read field, search for and add user criteria. For example, to deny read access to a user, search for a user criteria that user matches and add it to this field.Note: If users have contribute access to the knowledge base, they also have read access to the knowledge article regardless of the Cannot Read setting. Activate the property (glide.knowman.apply_article_read_criteria) to override contribute access to a knowledge article based on Can Read and Cannot Read user criteria at the article level. For more information, see Knowledge Management properties. Users who meet both Can Read and Cannot Read user criteria are denied read access to the knowledge article. The Cannot Read setting overrides the Can Read setting for the knowledge article.

Access

Procedure

Allow read access

In the Can Read field, search for and add user criteria. For example, to allow read access to a user, search for a user criteria that the user matches and add it to this field.

Deny read access

In the Cannot Read field, search for and add user criteria. For example, to deny read access to a user, search for a user criteria that user matches and add it to this field.Note:

If users have contribute access to the knowledge base, they also have read access to the knowledge article regardless of the Cannot Read setting.

Activate the property (glide.knowman.apply_article_read_criteria) to override contribute access to a knowledge article based on Can Read and Cannot Read user criteria at the article level. For more information, see Knowledge Management properties.

Users who meet both Can Read and Cannot Read user criteria are denied read access to the knowledge article. The Cannot Read setting overrides the Can Read setting for the knowledge article.

**Note:** If the **Can Read** and **Cannot Read** fields aren't visible, configure the Knowledge form to display them. For more information, see Configuring the form layout.

On the Knowledge form, click Update, and then click Publish to apply the changes.

What to do next

After you add user criteria, you can use the user criteria diagnostics feature to verify the access users have to a knowledge base or a knowledge article. For more information, see User criteria diagnostics for Knowledge Management.

Important: After making user criteria additions or changes, you may need to log out and log back in to clear the prior configuration.

Parent Topic:Managing access to knowledge bases and knowledge articles

Control access at the knowledge base level through user criteria

title	Control access at the knowledge article level through user criteria
description	You specify user criteria for a knowledge article to control which users are granted read access to the knowledge article.
locale	en-US
canonical_url	https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/servicenow-platform/knowledge-management/t\_SelectUCArticle.html
release	australia
product	Knowledge Management
classification	knowledge-management
topic_type	task
last_updated	2026-09-10
reading_time_minutes	3
breadcrumb	Managing access to knowledge bases and knowledge articlesConfiguring Knowledge ManagementKnowledge ManagementManage content capabilitiesExtend ServiceNow AI Platform capabilities