Who can see a knowledge base

Two checks decide what someone gets from a knowledge base. KB Access decides who can open it at all. Each document's own access then decides which of its documents they see. The Access section sets the first and previews the second.

What you'll need

• The Knowledge Base app in your top bar.
• This permission: Knowledge Base · Setup - Read.
• To grant or revoke, you must be the knowledge base's creator or a tenant administrator, and able to list what you pick: Roles & Permissions · Role - List, Identity & Users · Department - List or Identity & Users · Group - List.

If Knowledge Base isn't in your top bar, your role can't view it or your plan doesn't include it. Ask a workspace administrator, or see Permissions and module visibility.

Steps

1. Open Access

   Open the knowledge base and select Access in its menu. KB Access lists every grant with its Type and Scope. How access works explains the two checks.

   

   The Access section of Northwind Supplier Handbook: the KB Access table with the AP Clerk role and the Supplier onboarding group, and the Grant access button ringed.

   Enlarge

2. Grant access

   Select Grant access. In the panel, switch between Roles, Departments and Groups, search, and tick each name; existing grants are already ticked and marked Already has access. Select Grant access. Add on a row of the KB Access table opens the panel on that type.

   

   The Grant access panel on its Groups tab: a search field and a list of groups, Supplier onboarding ticked and marked Already has access, Knowledge Champions newly ticked, above Cancel and Grant access.

3. Revoke a grant

   Select the cross beside a name in KB Access. Revoke access lists the documents and Q&A pairs tagged with it, because revoking also removes that tag from them. Select Revoke.

   

   The Revoke access dialog for AP Clerk, warning that it will be removed from 1 document and 1 Q&A pair, listing payment-terms-2026.docx and Can I change a supplier's bank details from an email?

4. Preview an audience

   Under Document Access Preview, Roles in use, Departments and People groups list every tag on this knowledge base's documents. Choose a Role, Department and Group, then select Preview access to see each document marked Reachable or Not reachable.

   

   The access preview for the AP Clerk role: This audience can retrieve 2 of 5 documents, with payment-terms-2026.docx and supplier-onboarding-guide.pdf Reachable and the others Not reachable.

   Enlarge

5. Change what you found

   Document access is changed on Documents: select Edit beside Access on a document, or tick rows and select Reassign access. See Managing knowledge base documents.

What success looks like

• Access granted. appears and the role, department or group shows in KB Access with the scope This KB + its documents.
• The preview reads, for example, This audience can retrieve 12 of 40 documents.
• Access-change history lists each grant and revocation with who made it; filter it to Granted or Removed, or by date.

How document access works

A document set to Public reaches everyone who can open the knowledge base. One set to Internal users reaches people who match one of its role, department or group tags; matching one is enough. One set to Only me, with no tags, reaches only its creator and tenant administrators, and the Access column on Documents shows it as Admin / Creator. Q&A pairs and sources work the same way.

The tag lists in every access editor offer only the roles, departments and groups granted here, so grant first, then tag. Document access can only narrow KB Access, never widen it.

If something goes wrong

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
Grant access is greyed out, with Only this knowledge base's creator or a tenant admin can manage access.	You are neither.	Ask the creator or a tenant administrator.
A tab in the panel says you do not have permission to list these.	Your role cannot list that kind of principal.	Ask for the matching list permission named above.
The preview is marked computed locally or Layer-1 denied.	The server preview failed and the page estimated it, or that audience has no KB Access.	Treat a local estimate loosely; for Layer-1 denied, grant the audience first.
Someone can open the knowledge base but gets no answers.	Their role, department and group match no tag on its documents.	Preview their audience, then tag the documents or make them Public.
Access is missing from the menu, even for the creator.	The section appears only with a Knowledge Base · Setup permission.	Ask for Knowledge Base · Setup - Read.

Next

• Roles, Departments and Groups - what you grant to.
• Managing knowledge base documents - changing a document's access.
• How the Knowledge Base works - the two checks in context.