Indexed sources in AI Search
Summarize
Summary of Indexed sources in AI Search
Indexed sources in AI Search designate ServiceNow AI Platform® tables and external document sets containing alphanumeric text and string fields that you want to make searchable. AI Search ingests and stores this content in its search index to enable efficient searching across selected records and documents.
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Indexed source types
- Internal indexed sources: Retrieve and index alphanumeric content from text and string fields of ServiceNow AI Platform tables and their child tables. Certain tables are excluded from indexing, and remote tables cannot be indexed internally.
- External indexed sources: Retrieve content from external repositories or remote tables via external content schema references, enabling indexing of non-ServiceNow data.
Retention policies and filter conditions
To manage index size and performance, you can configure retention policies and filter conditions that limit which records from source tables are indexed. This is especially important for large tables like Task [task], where retention policies are mandatory. These settings also enable automatic purging of stale records from the index.
Attributes and field settings
Attributes control indexing behavior at the record level for an indexed source, while field settings define behavior for individual fields on those records. These configurations allow precise control over how content is indexed and searched.
Indexing behavior and considerations
- AI Search automatically indexes record changes (create, update, delete) in the chosen tables and child tables. Unmodified records require a full table index to be included.
- Only text and string fields are indexed for search; numeric fields can be used for faceting or filtering but are not searchable unless copied into text/string fields.
- For knowledge articles (Knowledge [kbknowledge] table), AI Search indexes knowledge block content by default, but administrators can opt to exclude it.
- Only one active indexed source per ServiceNow AI Platform table is allowed. Duplicate sources from plugins or applications are inactive by default and must be managed accordingly.
Additional capabilities and configurations
- Guardrails: Limit the number of task and alert records indexed to reduce index size and improve search performance.
- Semantic index configuration: Supports Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for enhanced semantic search on indexed records.
- Catalog variable content indexing: Enables indexing of searchable content from variables on Catalog Item records, configurable by item and variable set.
- Exclusion of knowledge block content: Administrators can prevent AI Search from indexing specific content within knowledge blocks.
Practical benefits for ServiceNow customers
By defining and configuring indexed sources in AI Search, customers can make relevant ServiceNow platform data and external content searchable, enabling faster and more precise information retrieval. Proper use of retention policies, filter conditions, and field settings helps maintain index efficiency and relevance, while semantic indexing and catalog variable indexing extend search capabilities to meet sophisticated enterprise needs.
Indexed sources designate ServiceNow AI Platform® tables and external document sets with alphanumeric text and string field content that you want to make searchable. AI Search ingests text and string fields from table records or external documents and stores their searchable alphanumeric content in its search index.
For instructions on creating an indexed source, see Create an indexed source.
Indexed source types
- Internal indexed source
- An internal indexed source retrieves alphanumeric content and metadata from text and string fields on ServiceNow AI Platform records. It includes a unique name and a reference to a ServiceNow AI Platform table with records that you want to make searchable. AI Search extracts and indexes searchable alphanumeric content and metadata from text and string fields on records in this table and in any of its child tables that you configure for indexing.
- External indexed source
- An external indexed source retrieves alphanumeric content and metadata from text and string fields of documents in an external repository or a remote table. It includes a unique name and a reference to an external content schema table instead of a ServiceNow AI Platform table. For more details on configuring indexed sources for external content, see Indexing and searching external content in AI Search.
Indexed source retention policies and filter conditions
Indexed source attributes and field settings
You can configure attributes and field settings for an indexed source to control indexing behavior for source records. Attributes control the indexed source's behavior at the record level, while field settings define its behavior for individual fields on indexed records. For more information, including lists of available attributes and field settings, see Indexed source attributes for AI Search and Field settings for AI Search.
Indexing content from an indexed source
Indexing content from knowledge articles
When indexing content from records in the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table, AI Search defaults to including content defined in knowledge blocks. Administrators can override this default behavior and configure AI Search to exclude content from knowledge blocks when indexing knowledge articles. For details on making this change, see Exclude knowledge block content from the AI Search index.