Build Agent checkpoints and conversation change log

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated July 1, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Build Agent checkpoints and conversation change log

    The conversation change log in Build Agent tracks every modification made to your application during a conversation. Integrated within ServiceNow Studio, it allows you to view updates, roll back changes to previous checkpoints, and deploy changes using update sets. This feature helps you manage application changes efficiently and maintain control over your development process.

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    Key Features

    • Change log viewing: See all changes made since a given checkpoint, including the files updated, categorized similarly to the Studio Navigator panel.
    • Checkpoint management: Automatically created checkpoints group changes that you can revert to at any time. Checkpoints are created after approving each task plan.
    • Rollback capability: Restore your application to a previous checkpoint, enabling safe experimentation and error correction.
    • Update sets integration: Changes from each checkpoint are packaged into update sets accessible from both the change log and the Deployment tab in ServiceNow Studio. This facilitates organized deployment across environments.
    • Manual edit update sets: Build Agent detects manual changes and manages corresponding update sets, removing empty ones or finalizing those with changes.
    • Scope consistency (Australia Patch 4+): All update sets from checkpoints reside in the same application scope, allowing them to be merged and simplifying deployment workflows.

    Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers

    With Build Agent's checkpoints and conversation change log, you can confidently develop applications by tracking and reviewing every change. You gain the ability to:

    • Efficiently monitor and understand modifications made during your Build Agent sessions.
    • Revert to stable application states without losing work, minimizing risks during development.
    • Deploy changes systematically using update sets that correspond to specific checkpoints.
    • Manage manual edits alongside automated changes seamlessly.
    • Maintain scope consistency to simplify merging and moving update sets between environments.

    This functionality ensures a controlled, transparent, and streamlined development and deployment process when working with Build Agent in ServiceNow Studio.

    The conversation change log tracks every change Build Agent makes to your application. It appears automatically in an integrated tab in ServiceNow Studio and lets you view updates, roll back to a previous checkpoint, and deploy changes to an update set.

    Conversation change log

    Use the conversation change log to do the following actions:
    • View the changes you have made since a checkpoint
    • Roll back changes to the previous checkpoint
    • Approve and deploy changes to an update set
    When viewing the conversation change log, you can also view update sets created by Build Agent from within the chat panel. Each checkpoint includes a button that opens the relevant update set in a new tab. For information on how the change log and checkpoints work with update sets, see Update sets and Build Agent.
    Figure 1. Change log
    Checkpoint selection with Checkpoint 1 selected and a generated change log summary for an app.
    The change log displays the following:
    • The Files list displays all the files that Build Agent updated during your conversation. The categories mirror the ones in the ServiceNow Studio Navigator panel.
    • The menu at the top shows the current checkpoint. You can use the list at the end of the checkpoint name to select a different checkpoint to view. When there are multiple checkpoints, a Summary option appears, which shows changes from each checkpoint all together.
    • The overview section shows the plan and actions Build Agent took based on the conversation.
    • The action in the corner menu to pen the chat, Restore your app to a previous checkpoint, or open the app details page.

    Changes from each checkpoint in the conversation are packaged together into an update set. You can find each update set on the Deployment tab on the ServiceNow Studio home page. For more information on deployment, see Deploying what you built with Build Agent.

    Checkpoints

    Checkpoints are groups of changes that you made to an application that you can revert to at any time during your conversation with Build Agent. Checkpoints are created automatically after you approve each task plan.

    Note:
    With Australia Patch 3 and earlier, checkpoint 0 creates an update set in global scope, and subsequent checkpoints created update sets in your application scope. However, update sets that exist across different scopes and can't be merged.

    With Australia Patch 4 and later:

    • Checkpoint 0 doesn't create an update set. Instead, it serves as a placeholder in the UI that you can use to restore your application to its initial state.
    • Checkpoint 1 is the base update set for your application. The checkpoint 1 update set is the parent, or chain root, for all subsequent update sets created during the conversation. Because all update sets exist in the same application scope, you can merge them together when you're ready to move your changes to another environment. For information on update sets, see Update sets and Build Agent.

    When Build Agent prepares to create the next checkpoint, it checks whether any changes exist in the manual edit update set. If no changes are present, Build Agent removes the update set. If changes exist, Build Agent completes the update set and renders it with the other update sets from your conversation. You can access manual edit update sets directly from the checkpoints panel in your Build Agent conversation.