Visibility domains and Contains domains

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Visibility Domains and Contains Domains

    Visibility domains and contains domains are essential features in ServiceNow that dictate user access to records across different domains. Visibility domains grant specific users or groups the ability to see records from other domains, while contains domains define relationships between domains independent of a hierarchical structure.

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    Key Features

    • Visibility Domains: Control what users can access based on their group memberships. When users belong to a group, they inherit the visibility domains associated with that group.
    • Contains Domains: Allow for a many-to-many relationship between domains, enabling users to see data from related domains without strict parent-child relationships.
    • Access Control: Both visibility and contains domains respect access control list (ACL) rules, determining the extent of data access users have.

    Key Outcomes

    By effectively utilizing visibility and contains domains, ServiceNow customers can enhance data security and user access management. Visibility domains ensure data segregation between different groups, while contains domains provide flexibility in data visibility across related domains, making it easier to manage user permissions and access requirements.

    Visibility domains control what a specific user or group of users can see. "Contains" domains control what an entire domain of users can see.

    Visibility domains

    The "Visibility domains" element determines whether users from one domain can access records from another domain. Associate this element with User [sys_user] and Group [sys_user_group] records in related lists on those records. Groups grant their members the visibility domains of the group. When a user leaves a group, they lose the group's visibility domains. Granting users a visibility domain grants all the rights to the records in that domain based on ACL (access control list) rules.

    A visibility domain:

    • Is a user-to-domain relationship and is explicitly granted.
    • Is not a child domain.
    • Is not controlled by the selection in the domain picker. Users with access to a visibility domain always see data in that domain and its child domains.
    Note:
    Using visibility domains excessively is not recommended. Although visibility is one method to allow users to access records, it's best to use contains domains for more robust control.

    Contains domains

    Normally parent-child relationships define the domain hierarchy. A contains domain lets you relate domains on an as-needed basis, independent of parent-child relationships. However, contains domains grant visibility only to domain data. Processes remain unaffected by contains relationships.

    A contains domain:

    • Is a many-to-many, domain-to-domain relationship.
    • May have child domains. When a domain is selected, you can see the data from that domain and its children.
    • Is controlled by the selection in the domain picker.
    Note:
    When you open the domain record, the scope is set to that record's domain, so you can see only child domains. Choose Toggle Domain Scope from the menu to populate the related list.

    Contains domain example

    When a user's home domain is A, and the A domain contains domains B and C, they all become peer domains. That means the user sees data from domains A, B, and C while in their home domain A. If users change domains with the domain picker to Domain B, they see only data in Domain B. When users interact with a record from Domain B or Domain C directly, they see only data for that domain.

    Visibility domain example

    Using domain visibility, if Don Goodliffe is in the Database domain, and Bow Ruggeri is in the Network domain, and no incidents are in the global domain, then Don cannot access Bow's incidents because of data separation.

    Inheriting visibility domains based on group membership

    If you set the domain table to the Group [sys_user_group] table, users can inherit visibility domains based on their group membership.