A Private knowledge base is restricted to authorised users only. Content is accessible only to readers or users with an account, and a login is required to view any articles.
Common use cases
- Internal IT support knowledge base
- HR policies and procedures
- Company-wide documentation
- Internal API documentation
- Proprietary software manuals
Behaviour
- All content is hidden from public view. Readers must sign in with their credentials to view any articles.
- Login is required for all readers — there is no public access to any part of the knowledge base.
- Reader access controls, reader groups, and block inheritance settings apply and allow you to further restrict which readers can see which content.
- JWT authentication is supported in Private mode.
- Login sessions expire after more than 15 minutes of inactivity as a security measure. Refreshing the page re-establishes the session.
How to set your project to Private access
- Navigate to Settings () > Users and security in the left navigation bar in the knowledge base portal.
- In the left navigation pane, navigate to Site access.
- Select Private.
- In the Update reader access confirmation dialog, enter your project's subdomain.
- Click Yes to confirm.
NOTE
When switching from Mixed to Private, you might want to reconsider the previously assigned access permissions.
FAQ
Why do I see a session expired error when viewing content on a private knowledge base site?
If your knowledge base site is set to Private, your login session may expire after more than 15 minutes of inactivity. This is a standard security measure to prevent unauthorised access to private content. A simple workaround is to refresh the page, which re-establishes your session and restores access.