Publish and control access

Publishing controls whether a Help Center is available to visitors. Use the site-level publish switch only after the title, branding, articles, and navigation have been reviewed. Individual article status also matters: a published site can contain drafts that are not intended for readers. Treat a change in publication as a customer-facing release and verify the public route after saving.

The site can be public or private. When private access is selected, allowed email domains define who can authenticate for the help center. Enter domains carefully and test with an account from the intended organization. A domain restriction is not a substitute for reviewing article content, and it should not be presented as a general-purpose organization SSO system.

Publishing requires Help Center publish permission, while deleting the site requires the delete permission. Changes to access can affect active visitors, so coordinate them with support and customer-success teams. If you use a custom domain, configure its routing in the Custom Domain settings; one hostname is assigned to one surface.