Configure crawl settings for a Cornerstone external content connector

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated December 18, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
  • Specify the you want your Cornerstone external content connector to crawl. Define inclusion or exclusion filters to dictate the types of content the crawl retrieves and feeds to AI Search for indexing.

    Before you begin

    A connector administrator must have already created the Cornerstone external content connector that you want to configure crawl settings for. To learn about this procedure, see Create a Cornerstone external content connector.

    Role required: sn_ext_conn.xcc_admin

    About this task

    This task is optional. By default, the Cornerstone external content connector crawls your Cornerstone Learning Management System (LMS) and sends all Catalogue and Learning objects and binary files with all supported file extensions to AI Search for indexing. Only perform this task if you want the connector to use any of the following non-default settings:
    • Inclusion or exclusion filters for the to crawl when running content crawls
    • Inclusion or exclusion filters for the Catalogue and Learning objects to retrieve content from when running content crawls
    • Inclusion or exclusion filters for the binary file extensions to retrieve when running content crawls

    Content is only retrieved from the source system if it passes all of your configured crawl setting filters. If any crawl setting filter excludes a content item, the external content connector doesn't retrieve it.

    Important:

    By default, an external content connector can index up to one million (1,000,000) documents from its source system. When a connector exceeds this limit, it continues to crawl the source system, but only sends document deletions and updates to AI Search for indexing, ignoring new documents. The connector logs an error message for every 10,000 documents it crawls beyond the indexing limit.

    When a connector's indexed document count exceeds 800,000, a warning message appears in the connector's UI to indicate that it's approaching the indexing limit. If the connector reaches the indexing limit, an error message appears in its UI.

    If one of your connectors reaches the indexing limit, you can update its crawl settings and file inclusion/exclusion filters to reduce the number of documents it retrieves. Alternately, if you need to index more than 1,000,000 documents, you can create a Customer Service and Support case at https://support.servicenow.com/now to request a limit increase for the connector.

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > External Content Connectors > External Content Admin Home.
    2. In the Connectors list, select the record for the Cornerstone external content connector whose settings you want to modify.
    3. In the connector editor's Settings tab, select Crawl settings.
    4. Select one of the following [[[ SOMETHING ]]] options:
      • To crawl all from the source system, select Crawl all [[[ CRAWL LOCATION ]]]s.
      • To crawl only a specified set of from the source system, select Include only these [[[ CRAWL LOCATION ]]]s, then use the Add [[[ IDENTIFIER ]]]s to include field and Add button to enter for you want the connector to include when crawling.

        As an example, you might enter to only retrieve searchable content from this .

      • To crawl all but a specified set of from the source system, select Exclude only these [[[ CRAWL LOCATION ]]]s, then use the Add [[[ IDENTIFIER ]]]s to exclude field and Add button to enter for you want the connector to exclude when crawling.

        As an example, you might enter to exclude searchable content from this .

    5. Select one of the following Filetype filtering options:
      • To retrieve all attachments with supported file extensions from the source system, select Crawl all attachments.
      • To retrieve only attachments with specified file extensions from the source system, select Include only these file extensions, then use the File extensions to include field to enter attachment file extensions you want the connector to include when crawling.

        As an example, you might enter .docx to retrieve only attachments with the Microsoft Word file format.

      • To retrieve all attachments except those with specified file extensions from the source system, select Exclude only these file extensions, then use the File extensions to exclude field to enter attachment file extensions you want the connector to exclude when crawling.

        As an example, you might enter .csv to exclude attachments with the Comma-Separated Values (CSV) file format.

      For details on the supported attachment file extensions, see Binary file extensions supported in External Content Connectors.
    6. Select Save and validate.

    Result

    The Cornerstone external content connector is updated with your modified crawl settings.

    What to do next

    To retrieve content from your Cornerstone source system using your modified crawl settings, create and run a one-time content crawl for your Cornerstone external content connector. To learn about creating and running one-time content crawls, see Create a content crawl for an external content connector.