Retrieve attached file on a record from ServiceNow

Question

Retrieve attached file on a record from ServiceNow

Morris, Josh 0

We are looking at building a contract agent that can give info about contracts. I have the agent set up in co pilot to look at the contracts table and use the information there. However it seems it only uses values in fields and not from an attached document. So is there a way for it to look also at an attached document on the contract record?

Ashlesha Pawar (Tata Consultancy Services Limited) 315 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2026-05-29T09:04:40.17+00:00

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We will look into it and get back to you shortly.
Ashlesha Pawar (Tata Consultancy Services Limited) 315 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2026-05-29T10:26:48.3233333+00:00

Yes — but not automatically from the attachment itself.

Copilot agents only read structured field values from ServiceNow. Attachments are stored separately in sys_attachment and aren't indexed as conversational knowledge by default. You need to extract and expose the content first.

Three approaches:

Option 1 — Extract text into a field (simplest) Power Automate flow triggers on attachment upload → pulls file via ServiceNow REST API → extracts text via Azure AI Document Intelligence or AI Builder → writes to a long-text field on the contract record. Your existing agent reads it like any other field. No agent changes needed.

Option 2 — Custom action at runtime Copilot Studio custom action that queries sys_attachment, downloads and parses the file, returns content to the agent on demand. More complex but better if documents change frequently.

Option 3 — Index into a knowledge source Export attachments into SharePoint or Azure AI Search, connect as a Copilot knowledge source. Best for large contracts — adds semantic search, clause extraction, and citations.