Configuring External Content Connectors

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring External Content Connectors

    Configuring External Content Connectors in the ServiceNow AI Platform enables you to retrieve, index, and make searchable content and metadata from a wide variety of external content source systems. This integration expands AI Search capabilities by allowing unified search across external repositories, collaboration tools, content management systems, and other platforms.

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    The configuration process involves setting up access and permissions on the external systems, creating and managing connectors in ServiceNow, configuring crawl settings, and scheduling content crawls to ingest relevant data into AI Search applications.

    Configuration Process

    • Source System Access: Administrators of external systems must configure access settings to allow ServiceNow connectors to retrieve content securely.
    • Connector Creation: ServiceNow AI Platform administrators create external content connectors tailored to specific source systems such as Adobe Acrobat Sign, Amazon S3, Atlassian Jira Cloud, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Slack, Workday, Zendesk, Zoom, and many others.
    • Crawl Settings: AI Search administrators configure crawl parameters for each connector, defining what content to index and how frequently crawls should occur.
    • Crawl Execution: Content crawls and optionally user permission crawls are created and scheduled to retrieve and update content and metadata in AI Search.

    Supported External Content Sources

    ServiceNow supports connectors for a broad range of external platforms including, but not limited to:

    • Collaboration and project management tools: Asana, Atlassian Confluence Cloud, Atlassian Jira Cloud, monday.com, Trello, Slack, Microsoft Teams
    • Content management and storage: Adobe Experience Manager, Amazon S3, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft SharePoint Online, WordPress
    • Learning and HR systems: Cornerstone LMS, SAP DMS, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
    • Development and code repositories: GitHub Enterprise Cloud, GitLab
    • Customer support and documentation: Zendesk Guide, ServiceNow product documentation
    • Communication platforms: Zoom, Microsoft Viva Engage
    • Others: Fluid Topics, HubSpot, Lucidchart, ManageEngine, Miro, Notion, Docusign, Adobe Acrobat Sign, Aha! Roadmaps, Webcrawler

    Management and Maintenance

    • Renaming Connectors: You can rename existing connectors for clarity or organizational purposes.
    • Activation Control: Connectors can be deactivated to pause scheduled crawls without deleting indexed content, and reactivated to resume crawling.
    • Deletion: Deleting a connector removes its configuration and all associated crawled content and metadata from the AI Platform.
    • Editing Settings: Connection and crawl settings can be modified; significant changes may require re-crawling content to refresh indexed data.
    • User Permission Configuration: Customize user permission crawls by overriding default field mappings and applying transformation scripts to handle security principal IDs, ensuring accurate access control alignment.

    Search Integration

    • Connectors’ search sources can be linked to search profiles to make external content searchable within ServiceNow portals and AI Search applications.
    • External content can also be included in Now Assist in Virtual Agent chats, enhancing conversational search capabilities with data from external systems.

    Verification and Troubleshooting

    Regularly verify connection settings and source system permissions to ensure connectors function correctly and scheduled crawls proceed without interruption. This helps identify permission changes or revocations impacting content ingestion and search availability.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Consolidate search across diverse external content repositories into a single, unified AI Search experience.
    • Enhance knowledge discovery by indexing rich content and metadata from multiple third-party systems.
    • Maintain security and compliance by configuring precise user permission mappings.
    • Improve end-user productivity by integrating external source content into ServiceNow portals and virtual agent interactions.

    Plan and configure your External Content Connectors implementation.

    External Content Connectors configuration overview

    Configuring retrieval and indexing of content from your external content source systems requires the following steps:

    Configuration step Description
    Source system administrator configures access settings for your external content source system
    ServiceNow AI Platform admin creates external content connectors
    AI Search administrator configures external content connector crawl settings for external content connectors
    AI Search administrator creates (and optionally schedules) crawls for external content connectors