Article verification — keeping content current

Ref: C08 · Track: Knowledge Base Admin · Time to complete: ~3 min

Why this matters

Published articles age badly. Prices change, features ship, policies update. The worst KB is one where the content looks official but is eight months out of date. Verification rules force someone to re-check content on a cadence.

How verification works

1. Your admin creates a verification rule (e.g. "Every article in the Billing section must be re-verified every 90 days").
2. On matching articles, a verification countdown starts from their last verification date.
3. When the countdown hits zero, the article is flagged in the book view as pending verification.
4. An admin or the article owner opens the article, reviews it, and clicks Mark as verified.
5. The countdown resets.

The article stays published the whole time — verification is a reminder, not a gate. The customer never knows.

Setting a verification rule (admin-only; included for awareness)

In Guide admin → Settings → Verification: 1. Click Add rule. 2. Scope the rule: by section, category, label, or user segment. 3. Set the cadence: 30 / 60 / 90 / 180 / 365 days. 4. Assign an owner or role responsible. 5. Save.

You can stack rules: "Legal articles every 90 days AND product articles every 180 days" are two separate rules.

What you'll see in the book view

Filter by Verification status: - Verified — recently verified, countdown running. - Pending verification — overdue, needs someone to check. - Expired — significantly overdue (admin-configured threshold). - Not tracked — no rule matches this article.

Sort by "time to next verification" to work through the queue systematically.

The act of verifying

Open an article that's pending verification:

1. Read it top to bottom.
2. Check any mentioned prices, features, URLs, team names, regulations are still current.
3. If changes are needed, edit and save (publish the changes).
4. Click Mark as verified.
5. The countdown resets.

If you can't verify because you need input from someone else, leave it flagged and @mention the right person in an internal comment on the article.

What to actually look for

Most verifications break in one of these places: - Prices and plan tiers — updated in marketing but not in the help center. - Screenshots — UI changed, screenshot is from the previous version. - Feature names — product renamed something. - Support addresses / phone numbers — a number got retired. - Links — internal links went stale, external links 404. - Date-sensitive policy references — "effective 2024" when it's now 2026.

Gotchas

• "Mark as verified" doesn't republish. If you edited during verification, click Publish first, then Mark as verified.
• Rules scoped by label — if you remove the label, the rule stops applying. Don't accidentally retire articles from verification by editing labels.
• Verification status on archived articles — doesn't matter. Archived articles aren't in the verification queue.

Quick check — have you got this?

• An article is "pending verification". Can customers still see it?
• You verify an article but didn't change anything. Does the countdown reset?
• Your admin sets a new rule: all Billing articles every 90 days. What happens to existing Billing articles?

Related articles

• C05 — The book — managing all your content
• C09 — Archived articles and article history
• C19 — Using your sandbox to experiment safely