Knowledge
Document lifecycle
Move documents through draft, review, published, and archived states.
5 min read · Updated Jul 2026
Lifecycle status controls whether a document is editable, in review, live for readers, or retired from AI use.
What you will learn
- Meaning of draft, needs review, published, and archived
- How to transition status from the document header
- How archived documents behave in search and AI
- How lifecycle interacts with verification
Steps
- 1
Open document header
Open any Nintendo document and locate lifecycle status in the header bar.
- 2
Start in draft
New documents default to Draft. Drafts are visible to editors but blocked from production AI Applications.
- 3
Submit for review
Change status to Needs review when content is ready for verification.
- 4
Publish after approval
Once verified, set lifecycle to Published so Docs Sites and AI apps may use the document per policy.
- 5
Archive outdated content
When Nintendo retires a policy, set Archived. Archived documents remain for audit but are blocked from retrieval.
- 6
Confirm in Knowledge Health
Open Health, Issues, and resolve flags for unpublished or blocked documents still linked to apps.
Common issues
- Published but AI still blocked.
- Check verification status. Published alone does not mean verified.
- Cannot archive document linked to Docs Site.
- Unpublish from Docs Sites first, then archive.
Related glossary terms
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