Can Build Agent work within a user-specified Update Set, or only its own generated Update Sets?

[Dinh Nguyen]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently investigating Build Agent and would like to better understand how it manages Update Sets.

In my testing, I noticed that when I ask Build Agent to make changes, it creates and uses its own Update Set instead of working within the Update Set that I manually created and set as current. The official documentation mentions reviewing Update Sets in the Build Agent workflow, but I could not find details about whether the target Update Set can be controlled by the developer.

I have a few questions:

1. Is it possible to instruct Build Agent to create a new Update Set and then perform all subsequent changes within that Update Set?
2. Is it possible to force Build Agent to use an existing Update Set that was manually created manual? 
3. If 1 and 2 are not possible, so is Build Agent intentionally designed to work only within Build Agent-managed Update Sets?

Any documentation references, product insights, or practical experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Please someone help me!
Thank you so much.

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@Dinh Nguyen 

My thoughts

-> Build Agent automatically creates and manages its own Update Sets; it does not use the manually selected/current Update Set

-> You cannot currently force Build Agent to use an existing, manually created Update Set—there is no documented setting or supported prompt control for this.

💡 If my response helped, please mark it as correct ✅ and close the thread 🔒— this helps future readers find the solution faster! 🙏

[Tanushree Maiti · Accepted solution]

Hi @Dinh Nguyen 

Refer Servicenow Documentation for your queries : Update sets and Build Agent