Knowledge Articles not available in Recommendations

[andrea_s71]

Hello all,

I am currently implementing ITSM for one of our service lines. They want to use a knowledge base for the first time and would like to test it first, so we have created a knowledge base for them as part of the implementation. The fulfillers need to send documentation knowledge articles and would like to attach them to RITMs in the Service Operation Workspace. I have tested this on our Dev instance, and can attach knowledge articles from the team's KB just fine. On our test instance however, I cannot find any of the knowledge articles from their KB through Recommendations. Only very few knowledge articles are available as search result, and none in the new KB. I have re-indexed AI search to include all of kb_knowledge, but this didn't fix anything. How can I make sure the new KB is indexed and available for search? I did not have to configure anything specifically for this to work on DEV, it just works there.

Thanks for any help!

[meghanakra]

Verify the Knowledge Articles are actually Published

• Open the articles in kb_knowledge
• Confirm:
  • Workflow state = Published
  • Valid to/from dates are correct
  • Active = true

Draft or retired articles are not indexed for Recommendations.

Check User Criteria on the Knowledge Base

Verify the KB is Included in the Search Source

Check if AI Search is Enabled for the KB

Some instances use:

• Traditional Zing Search in DEV
• AI Search in TEST

Verify:

• System Properties related to AI Search
• Knowledge Search Settings

Especially:

• glide.ais.enabled
• glide.knowman.search.use_ai_search

Mismatch between environments can cause exactly this behavior

Verify Search Profile Used by Service Operations Workspace

Workspace Recommendations do NOT always use the global search configuration.

Check:

• AI Search → Search Profiles

Find the profile used by:

• Service Operations Workspace
• Agent Workspace
• ITSM Workspace

[vaishali231]

Hey @andrea_s71 

 Check

1. Verify the Knowledge Articles are Published

Only published articles are searchable in Recommendations.

Check:

• kb_knowledge.workflow_state = published
• Valid publish dates
• Not expired
• Article language matches user language

A very common issue is articles sitting in:

• Draft
• Review
• Retired

2. Verify User Criteria on the KB

This is the most common cause.

Go to:

Knowledge Base record

Check:

Can Read

Can Contribute

If the fulfillers/users in TEST do not match the User Criteria, the articles will not appear in:

Recommendations

AI Search

Workspace KB search

Even admins sometimes see inconsistent behavior because AI Search respects ACLs/User Criteria differently.

Compare:

DEV KB User Criteria

TEST KB User Criteria

3. Check AI Search Sources

In Service Operations Workspace, Recommendations usually rely on:

AI Search

Search Sources

Contextual Search

Go to:

AI Search > Search Sources

Verify there is a source for:

kb_knowledge

And confirm:

Active = true

Indexed = true

Applies to Workspace experience

Sometimes TEST instances miss cloned or activated search source configs.

4. Run Full Indexing for Knowledge

Do BOTH of these:

Traditional Zing Index

Navigate to:

Knowledge > Administration > Search Management

Run:

Reindex Knowledge Base

OR execute:

new KBKnowledge().rebuildSearchIndex();

AI Search Index

Navigate to:

AI Search > Index Sources

Find:

Knowledge index source

Then:

Submit Full Reindex

After indexing:

Wait for completion

Check indexing logs

5. Verify Search Profile Used by Workspace

Service Operations Workspace may use a Search Profile that excludes the KB.

Check:

AI Search > Search Profiles

Open the profile used by:

Service Operations Workspace

Verify:

Knowledge source included

Correct filter conditions

Sometimes only global KBs are included.

6. Check Domain Separation (If Enabled)

If TEST has domain separation enabled differently than DEV:

Articles may index into another domain

Workspace user may not see them

Verify:

KB domain

Article domain

User domain

7. Verify Table Configuration for AI Search

Go to:

AI Search > Indexed Sources

Ensure:

kb_knowledge

Active

Correct fields mapped

Also verify:

Title

Text

KB fields indexed

8. Check ACLs / Article Visibility

Even if KB criteria is correct:

ACLs

Knowledge ownership groups

Article-level user criteria

can block results.

Try impersonating the fulfiller directly and test:

Global Search

Workspace Recommendations

KB Portal search

9. Compare Plugins Between DEV and TEST

Sometimes DEV has plugins active that TEST does not.

Compare activation of:

AI Search

Knowledge Management Advanced

Workspace Search plugins

Especially:

com.snc.ai-search

com.snc.contextual_search

Workspace-related plugins

10. Rebuild Contextual Search Cache

Sometimes Recommendations cache stale data.

Try:

sn_cd.cdapi.CDAPIRecommender.rebuildAllIndexes();

Or:

sn_aisearch.AISearchIndexUtil.reindexTable('kb_knowledge');

*************************************************************************************************************************************

If this response helps, please mark it as Accept as Solution and Helpful.

Doing so helps others in the community and encourages me to keep contributing.

Regards

Vaishali Singh

Servicenow Developer
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaishali-singh-2273361bb

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @andrea_s71 

refer : KB2108628 Configure AI Search Source to Display New KB Articles in Service Portal 

How to add knowledge article link in RITM notification 

[andrea_s71]

I am afraid that none of these are solutions. I used the suggestions to go back and check user criteria, and found out that out of 12 team members 7 get the correct recommendations, and 5 do not. I double-checked with access analyzer, and all team members have exactly the same roles, user criteria, etc. They should all be able to find the knowledge articles through global search and in SOW. 

Search sources and search profiles for SOW are 100% identical between the two instances. I am stumped.