How to identify synced child and parent articles

If you need to identify synced articles, whether they're parent or child, you can do so in one of three places:

• In the article editor UI: Refer to the Identify synced articles in the article editor instructions.
• In a Manage CSV export: Refer to the Identify synced articles in a Manage CSV export instructions.
• In an API call: Refer to the Identify synced articles in the API instructions. 

We walk through more detailed instructions of each approach below.

Identify synced articles in the article editor

The information below varies based on whether you're using our 2026 new editor or old editor.

To figure out which instructions to follow:

1. Open any article for editing.
2. If the lefthand navigation is collapsed and there's a link near the top of the page to Switch to old editor, follow the New editor documentation.
   
3. If the lefthand navigation is expanded and the top of the editor and the righthand column have a heavier grey background, follow the Old editor documentation.

Here are side-by-side examples of the new editor and the old editor:

Sample New editor

Sample Old editor

New editor Old editor

In the new article editor, child articles have a warning between the article's title and the metadata that says:

This article shares its content with a parent article.
Edits to this body will sync to the following parent article and all other articles that share content with it:

Here's a sample:

Sample child shared content article warning.

Child article warnings only show the parent article, not all children.

In the new article editor, parent articles have a warning between the article's title and the metadata that says:

This article shares its content with xx child articles
Edits to this article's body will also update the following articles:

Here's a sample:

Sample parent shared content article warning

In the old article editor, child articles have a warning between the article's title and the editor that says:

This is a child shared content article. Updating it will update its parent shared content article." with links to the parent article title and the parent article knowledge base.

Here's a sample:

Sample child article warning

Child article warnings will only ever show the parent article, not all children.

In the old article editor, parent articles have a warning in the same place that says "This is a parent shared content article. Updating it will update these child shared content articles:" and will then provide a list of links to the child shared content article's category, the child shared content articles themselves, and the knowledge base the article is in. The category the child article's within will appear before the article name. Here's a sample:

Sample parent article warning with child article

Identify synced articles in a Manage CSV export

When you export a Manage filter to csv, check the box to include the Shared Content Article column in the export.

The shared content child article will have the parent article's ID in the Shared Content ID field.

The parent article will not display any information about child articles.

Refer to Export Manage articles to CSV for instructions on using the Manage export to CSV option. Refer to Manage CSV export column list for more information on the columns available in Manage CSV exports.

Identify synced articles in the API

Use the articles endpoint to identify synced child articles. Child articles display the parent article's ID in the content_article field.

The parent article will not display any information about child articles.

Refer to the API endpoint reference for more information on the endpoint. Refer to Use the KnowledgeOwl API if you're new to using the KnowledgeOwl API.