Configure crawl settings for the Slack external content connector

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated May 29, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read

    • Specify the public channels you want your Slack external content connector to crawl. Define inclusion or exclusion filters for file extensions to dictate the types of documents the crawl retrieves and feeds to AI Search for indexing.

    Before you begin

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

    Role required: sn_ext_conn.xcc_admin

    About this task

    This task is optional. By default, the Slack external content connector crawls all public channels from its specified source system and sends attachments 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 public channels to crawl when running content crawls
    • Inclusion or exclusion filters for the attachment file extensions to retrieve when running content crawls
    Important:

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

    When a connector's indexed content item 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.

    External content connectors that support user permissions crawls can handle permissions for up to five hundred thousand (500,000) users and their groups. If a connector retrieves users in excess of this limit, user and group permissions may not be correctly applied to the connector's retrieved content. As a result, the content may not be searchable.

    If one of your connectors reaches the content indexing limit, you can update its crawl settings and file inclusion/exclusion filters to reduce the number of content items it retrieves. Alternatively, if you need a connector to index more than 1,000,000 content items, 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 Slack 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 Content filtering options:
      • To crawl all public channels from the source system, select All, then optionally select Exclude channels and use the Add URL field and Add button to enter URLs for any public channels that you want to exclude from the crawl.
      • To crawl only a specified set of public channels from the source system, select Specify, then use the Add URL field and Add button to enter URLs for the public channels that you want to include in the crawl.
      Important:

      When specifying URLs for Slack channels, always use the format that includes your Slack workspace's hostname followed by /archives/ and a channel ID, as in this example: https://example.slack.com/archives/C69S1L3SS. You can obtain the URL for a channel by long-pressing (or right-clicking) the channel in Slack and then selecting Copy > Copy link from the context menu.

      Don't use channel URLs that include app.slack.com as the hostname, such as https://app.slack.com/client/TP6U2MGFM/C69S1L3SS, as these aren't supported by the Slack external content connector.

    5. Optional: To apply inclusion or exclusion filters to a crawl based on file extensions, perform the following steps:
      1. Select Filter by file extension.
      2. To specify the type of filter, select Include or Exclude.
        Select Include if you want the crawl to only retrieve documents that have one of the specified file extensions. Select Exclude if you want the crawl to retrieve all documents except those that have one of the specified file extensions.
      3. In the File extension field, select the file extensions that you want to include or exclude.
        For details on the supported file extensions, see Binary file extensions supported in External Content Connectors.
    6. Select Save.

    Result

    The Slack external content connector is updated with your crawl scope and file extension filter settings.

    What to do next

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