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Investigate a ServiceNow incident
Report

Find the likely cause of a ServiceNow incident, fast

For incident managers who want SLAs, affected CIs, recent changes, alerts and known errors checked in one pass, by asking their AI assistant.

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Investigate a ServiceNow incident
What caused INC0012345 in ServiceNow? Checkout has been failing since 09:40.
Strongest lead: a change on the payment gateway landed 40 minutes before the incident. - Exposure: P1 resolution SLA at 62 percent, outage linked - Lead 1: CHG0031245 on pay-gw-01 closed at 09:00, high confidence - Lead 2: CPU alert on pay-gw-01 at 09:25, medium confidence - Known error: none matches Next step: ask Jordan Lee whether CHG0031245 can be rolled back.
ServiceNow
Sample figures. Your results come from your own account.
servicenow-get-incident
servicenow-get-task-sla
servicenow-get-outages-task-link
servicenow-get-ci-affected
servicenow-get-impacted-ci
servicenow-get-change-request
servicenow-get-alert
servicenow-get-problem

On this page

The problem

The problem

The prompt

Who it's for

How it works

Tools used

Connector

ServiceNow

ServiceNow
Run it on your own ServiceNow data.

Connect ServiceNow, pick your AI tool and paste the prompt.

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The problem

Missing the change that landed an hour before it broke

Investigating a serious incident means checking SLAs, outages, affected CIs, recent changes, alerts, known errors and similar tickets across several ServiceNow tables. Under pressure analysts check the obvious places and miss the change that landed just before.

Without PopdockAI

  • Open the incident, SLAs and outages separately
  • Look up affected CIs and services
  • Search changes, alerts and known errors one by one
  • Miss the change that caused it

With PopdockAI

  • Exposure from SLAs, outages and affected CIs is read first
  • Recent changes, earlier alerts, known errors and similar incidents are checked in order
  • Leads are ranked with a confidence level
  • Read only, and it says when timing is the only evidence

The prompt

Use this prompt

Copy it into any AI tool connected to PopdockAI. Swap the values in braces for your own.

Prompt
**Objective:** Build a full picture of incident `{incident-number}` and suggest the most likely cause, in the order an experienced analyst would look.

**Step 1: Read the incident**

Call `servicenow-get-incident` with number `{incident-number}`. Note state, priority, opened, caller, category, configuration-item, service and short-description.

**Step 2: SLA and outage exposure**

* Call `servicenow-get-task-sla` with task `{incident-number}`: is anything breached or close?
* Call `servicenow-get-outages-task-link` with task `{incident-number}`: is an outage already recorded?

**Step 3: What else is affected**

* Call `servicenow-get-ci-affected` with task `{incident-number}` for the affected configuration items.
* Call `servicenow-get-impacted-ci` with task `{incident-number}` for the impacted services.

**Step 4: Look for a cause, in this order**

1. Recent change: for each configuration item from the incident and Step 3, call `servicenow-get-ci-affected` with configuration-item set to its name. Every task number starting CHG is a change; read it with `servicenow-get-change-request` by number and keep changes whose planned window ended within 7 days before the incident opened, or is still open. A change landing just before the incident is the strongest lead.
2. Monitoring: call `servicenow-get-alert` with configuration-item set to the same name and created.from 2 days before the incident opened. Open alerts that predate the incident point at the failing component.
3. Known problem: call `servicenow-get-problem` with short-description.contains set to two or three distinctive words from the incident, and known-error true. A match means there may already be a workaround.
4. Similar incidents: call `servicenow-get-incident` with short-description.contains using the same words and opened.from 30 days back. Several matches suggest a problem record is needed.

**Step 5: Report**

* Summary: one paragraph on the incident and its current state.
* Exposure: SLA status, outage links, impacted services.
* Leads, strongest first: each with the evidence (record numbers and dates) and a confidence of High, Medium or Low.
* Next steps: at most three concrete actions.

**Rules & Guidelines:**

* Read-only. Do not call `servicenow-update-incident`, `servicenow-add-problem`, `servicenow-update-alert` or any other add- or update- tool.
* Correlation in time is a lead, not proof. Say so when the only evidence is timing.

**Validation:**

* If `{incident-number}` is not found, say so and stop.
* If the incident has no configuration-item, skip the CI-based checks in Step 4 and say that the missing CI limited the investigation.

Who it's for

One answer, three teams that use it

Incident managers

Find the cause while the clock runs

Get ranked leads with record numbers and confidence for a major incident.

What is the likely cause of INC0020871? Payments have been timing out since 14:10.

Site reliability engineers

Check recent changes first

See changes on the affected CIs in the week before and alerts that came first.

Were there changes or alerts on the CIs behind INC0020934 before it started?

Service desk leads

Know the exposure straight away

See SLA status, linked outages and affected services for an incident in one summary.

Investigate INC0021015: what is affected, which SLAs are at risk and what are the leads?

How it works

What PopdockAI does when you ask

You give the incident number, and your AI assistant works through the likely causes the way an experienced analyst would. It only reads.

01

Ask

You give the incident number.

Your AI tool

02

Read

It reads the incident, its SLAs, outage links and the CIs and services it affects.

servicenow-get-incident
servicenow-get-task-sla
servicenow-get-outages-task-link
servicenow-get-ci-affected
servicenow-get-impacted-ci

03

Search

It checks recent changes, earlier alerts, known errors and similar incidents.

servicenow-get-change-request
servicenow-get-alert
servicenow-get-problem
servicenow-get-incident

04

Report

You get the exposure, ranked leads with confidence and up to three next steps.

Your AI tool

What PopdockAI provides

The tools behind the answer

Ready made tools for ServiceNow and one secure connection to your AI tool. No code, no exports.

get-data

servicenow-get-incident

Returns incident records (number, state, priority, caller, assignment and dates) from ServiceNow. Filter by number, state, priority, caller, assignment group, assignee, short description text and opened date range.
get-data

servicenow-get-task-sla

Returns the SLAs attached to tasks (stage, breach status, elapsed percentage and breach time) from ServiceNow. Filter by task, SLA definition, stage, whether it is active or breached, elapsed percentage and breach time range.
get-data

servicenow-get-outages-task-link

Returns links between tasks and the outages they caused or relate to from ServiceNow. Filter by task or outage text.
get-data

servicenow-get-ci-affected

Returns the configuration items affected by each task from ServiceNow. Filter by task, configuration item and whether the link is applied.
get-data

servicenow-get-impacted-ci

Returns the services impacted by each task from ServiceNow. Filter by task or configuration item.
get-data

servicenow-get-change-request

Returns change request records (type, state, risk, approval and planned window) from ServiceNow. Filter by number, type, state, risk, assignment group, assignee, short description text and planned start date range.
get-data

servicenow-get-alert

Returns event management alerts (severity, state, source, node and the linked task) from ServiceNow. Filter by number, state, severity, source, node, configuration item, whether it is acknowledged, and created date range.
get-data

servicenow-get-problem

Returns problem records (number, state, priority, known error, related incidents and dates) from ServiceNow. Filter by number, state, priority, known error, assignment group, assignee, short description text and opened date range.
Read only.Nothing in ServiceNow Changes

This report is built from Get data tools only. PopdockAI applies the row, field and parameter rules your admin sets, and every query is written to the audit trail.

How Popdock AI secures your data

The outcome

Reach the likely cause faster, with evidence

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Related use cases

More ways to put this data to work

All Ramp use cases

One prompt template with infinite possibilities.

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Your AI assistant adapts its approach, tone, and capabilities to match each unique context while you maintain a single, manageable workflow.

Join forward-thinking companies that are transforming their operations with intelligent, secure AI automation.

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