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For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. This page is also available as Markdown.

Managing Spark settings and data inputs

Configure Spark to incorporate organization-specific data inputs into its response generation. This ensures it provides responses aligned with your internal processes and knowledge, increasing automated resolution rates, reducing escalations and rework, and shortening resolution time.

Use the Settings tab on the Manage Spark page to configure data inputs, along with general settings such as the assistant name and whether Spark can search the web.

Keeping these sources connected and up to date improves answer quality and helps reduce unnecessary escalations.

Accessing Spark Settings

To access the Spark Settings page, navigate to Spark > Manage Spark and select the Settings tab.

Some settings, such as the assistant name and web search, you configure directly on this page. Others link out to where you configure them. Each setting shows its configuration status.

Click on the blue configuration item label to open details in the right-side panel.

Customizing the assistant name

Customize the name Spark uses to identify itself during conversations. When employees interact with Spark, it introduces itself using the name you provide here.

To customize the assistant name:

  1. Open the Spark module from the main menu and select Manage Spark from the navigation panel.

  2. Under General, enter a name in the Assistant name field.

  3. Click Save settings.

For a consistent employee experience across channels, also customize the display name and logo Spark uses in Microsoft Teams. Refer to Spark Microsoft 365 app security for more information.

Enabling web search in Spark

If Spark cannot find sufficient information in customer-specific sources, such as knowledge base articles or past ticket resolution data, it can search external web sources for additional guidance. These include documentation sites of relevant device manufacturers, application providers, and related parties.

Spark always prioritizes customer-provided content and does not override high-confidence internal guidance with external information. It also records the accessed URLs in its reasoning logs to support monitoring and troubleshooting.

Spark trusted websites

To ensure control and trust, Spark only searches the Nexthink-defined allowlist of trusted domains.

The following allowlist criteria are designed to ensure that approved domains provide trustworthy, relevant, and actionable information that supports Spark’s troubleshooting and support capabilities.

Security

  • Domain reputation is verified and not associated with malware, phishing, or known CVEs.

  • HTTPS is enforced with a valid, non-expired certificate.

  • No known history of domain hijacking or typosquatting activity.

Legitimacy & Ownership

  • The domain is owned by a known and trusted vendor or official organization, such as Microsoft, Cisco, or NIST.

  • Domain ownership can be verified through WHOIS records.

  • The domain is not recently registered or anonymized.

Necessity

  • The domain serves a clear and documented purpose tied to a specific troubleshooting use case.

  • The domain is included according to the principle of least privilege and only when required for Spark to perform a specific task.

Data Exposure Risk

  • The domain does not unintentionally receive sensitive telemetry or credentials.

  • The domain does not aggregate or resell access logs.

Stability

  • The domain is stable, long-lived, and maintained by an established provider.

  • The domain is not ephemeral or anonymously proxied through unmanaged infrastructure.

  • The domain hosts official documentation or API references rather than unofficial mirrors or reposted content.

Auditability

  • Each allowed domain has a documented justification and assigned owner.

  • Allowed domains are reviewed on a defined schedule, such as quarterly

Usefulness

  • The domain is relevant to technologies and services used by the company.

  • The domain contains actionable troubleshooting content, such as how-to guides, knowledge base articles, error code references, CLI references, configuration steps, or API documentation.

  • The domain provides information relevant to the IT support scope, such as endpoints, SaaS applications, identity providers, networking, security tools, or hardware.

  • The domain includes operational or incident-related information, such as status pages, incident reports, known issues, or Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) advisories.

  • The content is well-structured, versioned, stable, and suitable for automated processing.

  • Access to the domain helps reduce manual escalations and improve autonomous issue resolution.

Only domains that meet all allowlist criteria can be used by Spark to provide external troubleshooting guidance in conversations with employees.

For the complete and up-to-date list of approved domains, log in to Nexthink Community and open Trusted web domains for Spark web search.

Spark web search is enabled by default. To turn it off or back on:

  1. Open the Spark module from the main menu and select Manage Spark from the navigation panel.

  2. Navigate to the Settings tab.

  3. Under Tools, select or deselect Web search.

  4. Click Save settings.

Spark searches trusted external websites when internal sources do not provide enough guidance.

Managing knowledge sources

Knowledge base articles help Spark provide guidance aligned with company policies and recommended practices, whether uploaded manually or synced from ServiceNow. They cover both employee-facing and IT support content, and Spark classifies them by intended audience to determine how to use them during search and resolution.

The Knowledge sources section shows how many articles and records each source contributes to Spark's answers. Its status label reflects the configuration progress of these sources. A single knowledge source, manual or connector, is enough for Spark to use it.

Manual articles

Manual articles are knowledge base articles you upload directly as CSV files.

Click Manage knowledge sources to open the Knowledge management page in the Administration module, where you upload and manage these articles.

Knowledge base connector

The knowledge base connector syncs knowledge articles automatically from ServiceNow every day, keeping Spark's answers current without manual uploads.

Refer to ServiceNow Knowledge Base connector for configuration instructions.

Enabling Tickets connector for Spark

The tickets connector uses resolution notes from past ServiceNow incidents and requests to suggest fixes for similar issues. This helps Spark assist employees in complex scenarios by leveraging previously applied solutions and expert knowledge, reducing manual intervention and escalations over time.

The page displays the Tickets connector status, based on whether a connector instance exists in the Nexthink web interface. If complete, enable it for Spark using the toggle.

Refer to ServiceNow Tickets connector for configuration instructions.

Enabling Request Catalog connector for Spark

The request catalog connector ingests the ServiceNow catalog structure, forms, and request metadata. Spark uses this to guide employees to the right service request and submission process.

The page displays the Request Catalog connector status, based on whether a connector instance exists in the Nexthink web interface. If complete, enable it for Spark using the toggle.

Refer to ServiceNow Request Catalog connector for configuration instructions.

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