Debug search source and content security filters

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 1 minute to read

    • Use the Session Log to view search source and content security filters applied to results for a search query. Administrators can use this approach to verify search source filters and content security settings.

    Before you begin

    Role required: admin

    About this task

    Enable session debugging for AI Search to view debug log messages for search source and content security filters. Each debug log message shows the filters that AI Search applies to determine which records appear in a search query's results.

    Procedure

    1. To enable session debugging for AI Search, navigate to All > System Diagnostics > Session Debug > Debug AI Search.
    2. Navigate to All > System Diagnostics > Session Debug > Debug Log.
      The Session Log opens.
    3. Use the Search Preview UI for AI Search to submit the search query of interest.
      Note:
      To debug content security filters for another user, specify their name in the Search Preview UI's user impersonation tool.
    4. To see the search source filters applied for your search queries, filter the Session Log entries for AIS:search sources.
      Sample search source filter message.
    5. To see the content security filters applied when evaluating access to search results for the current (or impersonated) ServiceNow AI Platform® user, filter the Session Log entries for security query.
      Sample content security filter messages.

    What to do next

    If a search source's filters exclude records that should be searchable, modify those filters. For details, see Create a search source for AI Search.

    If content security filters prevent the user from seeing search results that should be accessible, correct the access control settings for the affected source records and then reindex content for the relevant indexed source. For details on content security settings, see Content security in AI Search. To reindex content, follow the steps from Perform a full table index or reindex for a single AI Search indexed source.