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Configure the Knowledge Management Service Portal › Configuring Knowledge Management › Knowledge Management › Manage content capabilities › Extend ServiceNow AI Platform capabilities
Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Enable external or public users to view knowledge articles from the Knowledge Management Service Portal

Enable knowledge articles on the Knowledge Management Service Portal to be visible to external or public users.

Before you begin

The Knowledge Management Service Portal plugin (com.snc.knowledge_serviceportal) must be enabled.

Role required: admin

About this task

If you're using Knowledge Management within the Customer Service Management (CSM) application, you can automatically make knowledge articles public by activating and running the Make KM Service Portal Pages Public fix script after you install the Customer Service Management plugin (com.sn_customerservice).

If you're using Knowledge Management as a standalone application, perform the steps in this procedure.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Service Portal > Pages.

  2. In the Pages list, search for and open kb_home.

    Note: If the application scope isn't set to Knowledge Management - Service Portal, you cannot edit the form and a warning message appears. To make the form editable, select the word here at the end of the message.

  3. Enable public or external users to view knowledge articles from the Knowledge Management Service Portal.

ActionDescription
Make knowledge service portal pages visible to public users
  1. On the Page form, select the Public check box.
  2. Select Update.
Make knowledge service portal pages visible to external users
  1. On the Page form, in the Roles field, select the edit user roles icon
  2. On the Roles form, move snc_external from the available roles in the Available column to the Selected column.
  3. On the Roles form, select Done.
  4. On the Page form, select Update.

  1. Repeat the steps 2 and 3 for kb_article_view and kb_search pages.

  2. Manage access to the articles for the Knowledge Management Service Portal pages.

    ActionDescription
    Enable access to the knowledge base for public.After you set the page to public as described in step 3, configure user criteria for your knowledge bases by navigating to All > Knowledge > Administration > Knowledge Bases, and opening the record for each knowledge base. In each record you can use the Can Read related list to add the public role.
    Enable access to the knowledge base for external users.After you add the snc_external role to the page as described in step 3, ensure that external users have read access to the knowledge bases for which you want to give access.

    For more information about providing access to knowledge bases, see Managing access to knowledge bases and knowledge articles.

Parent Topic:Configure the Knowledge Management Service Portal