--- title: "ServiceNow Knowledge Migration: The Complete Guide to Getting Content In" description: "Every supported way to move content into ServiceNow Knowledge Management, in one place. Word import, spreadsheet and Import Set loads, the REST API, IntegrationHub spokes, Store apps, and agentic migration, with a decision guide by source system and a checklist for the review step that decides whether the result is usable." canonical: https://ocho.bot/blog/servicenow-knowledge-migration-guide last_updated: 2026-09-12 --- # ServiceNow Knowledge Migration: The Complete Guide to Getting Content In > Every supported way to move content into ServiceNow Knowledge Management, in one place. Word import, spreadsheet and Import Set loads, the REST API, IntegrationHub spokes, Store apps, and agentic migration, with a decision guide by source system and a checklist for the review step that decides whether the result is usable. Published: 2026-09-12 Every ServiceNow knowledge migration ends in the same place: HTML articles in the `kb_knowledge` table, grouped into knowledge bases and categories, each one moved through Draft, Review, and Published by a workflow. What differs is where the content starts (Word files, PDFs, SharePoint, Confluence, another ITSM tool) and how much of it should never arrive. This guide is the index for the whole problem. It lists every supported route, says what each does to headings, images, links, and metadata, and links to a detailed article for each source system. ## The five routes **1. Import Articles (Word files).** ServiceNow's only native file import. Accepts .doc and .docx, creates one article per file with images as attachments, lands in Draft unless you check Publish. Right for tens of documents. Wrong for hundreds, for PDFs, and for anything needing per-article metadata. Guide: [How to import Word documents into a ServiceNow knowledge base](/blog/import-word-documents-into-servicenow-knowledge-base). **2. Easy Import and Import Sets (spreadsheets and data sources).** Rows become articles; the Text column carries HTML. Easy Import is a spreadsheet upload from any list; Import Sets add a staging table and a transform map, which you want as soon as the load runs twice or the field mapping is not one-to-one. Both need images handled separately. Guide: [How to bulk import knowledge articles into ServiceNow](/blog/bulk-import-knowledge-articles-into-servicenow). **3. REST Table API and Attachment API.** `POST /api/now/table/kb_knowledge` with JSON creates an article; `POST /api/now/attachment/file` adds files to it. The route for anything scripted and the one ServiceNow's own import guide recommends for large batches. Same guide as route 2. **4. IntegrationHub spokes and Store apps.** The Microsoft SharePoint Online spoke and the Confluence Cloud spoke give Flow Designer actions against those systems, but neither converts pages into articles; the Confluence spoke cannot even read a page body. Store apps from third parties package the conversion for specific sources, mostly Confluence. Both need an IntegrationHub subscription or a license. Guides: [SharePoint](/blog/sharepoint-to-servicenow-knowledge-base-migration) and [Confluence](/blog/confluence-to-servicenow-knowledge-base-migration). **5. Agentic migration.** An AI service reads the whole source set first, decides what should exist, drafts articles with citations, and publishes what your experts approve. This is the route for estates too large for anyone to read. Ocho is our product in this category, and it is described honestly, tradeoffs included, at the end of each source-system guide and on the [migration page](/leave-sharepoint). ## Decision guide by source - **A folder of Word documents:** route 1, unless there are more than a few dozen, then route 2 or 3. - **A folder of PDFs:** no native import exists. Attach, embed, convert to Word, or extract and load through the API. Guide: [How to convert PDFs into ServiceNow knowledge articles](/blog/convert-pdfs-to-servicenow-knowledge-articles). - **SharePoint sites, wikis, and libraries:** export page HTML and load via route 2 or 3; Word files via route 1; PDFs as attachments. Guide: [SharePoint to ServiceNow](/blog/sharepoint-to-servicenow-knowledge-base-migration). - **Confluence spaces:** HTML export or REST pull, then route 3; or a Store app. Guide: [Confluence to ServiceNow](/blog/confluence-to-servicenow-knowledge-base-migration). - **Another ITSM or help desk tool:** their export API into an Import Set with a transform map, coalesced on the old article id. - **Any of the above at thousands of pages with duplication:** route 5, because the reading is the work. ## What every route does to your content - **Headings.** The Word import keeps default heading styles and drops heading numbers. Scripted routes keep whatever HTML you send. - **Tables.** Content survives; styling and borders do not in the Word import. Scripted routes keep simple table HTML. - **Images.** Always become attachments on the article record. The Word import embeds them for you; every other route needs an upload step and a URL rewrite. - **Links.** Preserved for .docx in the Word import. For everything else, links to other migrated pages must be rewritten to the new article numbers after those articles exist. - **Metadata.** The Word import assigns one knowledge base and one optional category per batch. Routes 2 and 3 carry per-article category, author, validity date, and custom fields. Ownership groups need Knowledge Management Advanced. - **State.** Every route should create articles in Draft. The knowledge base workflow (Instant Publish or Approval Publish by default) then moves it to Published. - **Numbers.** Article numbers are assigned by the platform. Never supply them. ## The review step ServiceNow's states exist so a person confirms each article before readers see it: Draft, Review, Scheduled for publish, Published, Pending retirement, Retired, Outdated. A migration that inserts straight into Published skips the one control that catches conversion errors and, more important, catches content that should not have been migrated. The review checklist we use for every migrated article: 1. Is this one topic, or several? Split long imports. 2. Is there another article on the same topic? Merge or retire one. 3. Is it current? Check dates, product versions, and named systems. 4. Do the links work, and do they point at ServiceNow rather than the old system? 5. Are the knowledge base, category, owner, and valid-to date set? 6. Would a help desk agent find it from the words they would type? At fifty articles, a knowledge manager does this in a week. At five thousand, nobody does it, and the migration publishes the old problems under a new URL. That gap is what agentic migration closes: Ocho reads every page, gives each one a keep, archive, or duplicate verdict with a logged reason, drafts one cited article per topic, and hands the approval to your experts. The checklist still runs; it runs on drafts that already answer questions 1 through 4. ## Common mistakes - **Migrating the folder tree.** SharePoint and Confluence nesting is not a category scheme. Design the categories, then map. - **Skipping the inventory.** Counting items by type and last-modified date is an afternoon, and it changes the plan. - **Loading everything at once.** Timeouts and partial loads are the documented result. Small batches, logged sys_ids, resumable scripts. - **Forcing Published on insert.** It bypasses approvals and versioning. - **Leaving the old system live with no plan.** New content keeps being created there. Decide the intake path before cutover. ## Questions ### Is there a ServiceNow migration tool for knowledge articles? Not a native one for external sources. The native tools are the Word import, spreadsheet and Import Set loads, and the REST APIs. Store apps cover specific sources such as Confluence. Agentic services such as Ocho cover the reading and drafting that the tools leave to you. ### Can Now Assist generate the articles? Now Assist for Knowledge Management drafts articles from resolved incidents and cases. We found no documented feature that generates articles from uploaded documents or external pages. ### What license do the spokes need? ServiceNow states that spokes may require an IntegrationHub or Workflow Data Fabric subscription and refers to a subscription entitlement knowledge article for which tier includes which spoke. Check with your account team. ### How long should a migration take? The load is days. The review is weeks to months unless something does the reading for you. Plan the timeline around the review. ## Sources and how we checked Checked on 2026-09-12 against ServiceNow documentation, ServiceNow-authored community material, and the ServiceNow Store. Each linked guide carries its own source list. - ServiceNow docs: [Import Word documents](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/zurich-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/task/import-word-platform.html), [Table API](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/api-reference/rest-apis/c_TableAPI.html), [Attachment API](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/api-reference/rest-apis/c_AttachmentAPI.html) - ServiceNow docs: [Knowledge article states](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/xanadu-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/concept/knowledge-article-states.html), [Knowledge workflows](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/washingtondc-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/reference/r_KnowledgeWorkflows.html), [Ownership groups](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/washingtondc-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/concept/enable-ownership-group.html) - ServiceNow docs: [Microsoft SharePoint Online spoke](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/zurich-integrate-applications/page/administer/integrationhub-store-spokes/concept/sharepoint-online-spoke.html), [Confluence Cloud spoke](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/yokohama-integrate-applications/page/administer/integrationhub-store-spokes/concept/confluence-cloud-spoke.html), [IntegrationHub subscription usage](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/washingtondc/integrate-applications/integration-hub/subscription-usage.html) - ServiceNow community: [Options for importing external articles into ServiceNow](https://www.servicenow.com/community/knowledge-management-articles/options-for-importing-external-articles-into-servicenow/ta-p/2673388) --- Ocho — AI knowledge orchestration · [Home](https://ocho.bot/) · [Docs](https://ocho.bot/docs) · [Blog](https://ocho.bot/blog) · [About](https://ocho.bot/about) · [Developers](https://ocho.bot/developers) · [Contact](https://ocho.bot/contact) · [llms.txt](https://ocho.bot/llms.txt)