NLU Workbench properties

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  • Updated March 12, 2026
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    Summary of NLU Workbench properties

    This document outlines the system properties for the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) application in ServiceNow. These properties allow users to configure and optimize the NLU Workbench effectively. Access requires the admin or nluadmin role through the application navigator.

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    Key Features

    • Maximum Number of Utterances per Intent: Set to 200. Keeping it under this limit ensures a balanced model.
    • Vocabulary Source Limits:
      • Table vocabulary source: Maximum 100,000 records.
      • List vocabulary source: Maximum 1,000 values.
    • Pre-built Vocabulary: Options to enable for software and hardware names to enhance recognition capabilities.
    • Intent Discovery Settings:
      • Maximum classification limit: 300,000 records (keep under 500,000).
      • Minimum classification limit: 10,000 records for quality results.
    • NLU Performance Analysis: Minimum of 5,000 records for effective performance analysis.
    • Conflict Detection Thresholds: Moderate threshold (0.85) and critical threshold (0.95) must be set correctly.
    • Batch Test Import Limit: Maximum of 10,000 rows in import files.
    • Expert Feedback Loop: Display no more than 300 utterances for feedback; at least 100 must be reviewed for model tuning.
    • Virtual Agent Chat Logs: Fetch limit set to 3,000 records, with options to increase up to 50,000 for better data filtering.
    • Data Size Limits: For label candidate and labeled data tables, keep at 10,000 records.
    • Scheduled Model Training: Can be enabled to schedule training during off-peak times, with notifications when completed.

    Key Outcomes

    Configuring these properties allows ServiceNow customers to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of their NLU models, ensuring better performance and accuracy in understanding user intents. Proper usage of the settings facilitates improved feedback mechanisms and data management for ongoing optimization in the NLU Workbench application.

    Refer to these system properties for the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) application.

    NLU Workbench properties and their usage

    To access your system properties, use the admin or nlu_admin role and the following path in the application navigator: All > NLU Workbench > Settings.

    Table 1. Model Settings
    Label and Name Default value Plugin Recommended usage
    Maximum number of utterances per intent

    glide.nlu.utterances_per_intent.value_limit

    		 200 NLU Workbench Use fewer than 200 utterances per intent to keep your model well balanced in terms of intent size.
    Note:
    Value must be greater than 5 and less than or equal to 300.
    Maximum number of records in a Table vocabulary source

    glide.platform_ml.api.max_nlu_lookupsource_records

    		 100,000 NLU Workbench Keep the value under 100,000.
    Maximum number of values in a List vocabulary source

    glide.nlu.static_lookup.value_limit

    		 1,000 NLU Workbench Keep the value under 1,000.
    Enable pre-built vocabulary for software names

    glide.mlpredictor.option.nlu.@LookupSources:software

    		 enabled NLU Workbench Enable pre-built vocabulary so the system can recognize software names.
    Enable pre-built vocabulary for hardware names

    glide.mlpredictor.option.nlu.@LookupSources:hardware

    		 enabled NLU Workbench Enable pre-built vocabulary so the system can recognize hardware names.
    Table 2. Advanced Settings
    Label and Name Default value Plugin Recommended usage
    Maximum number of records for Intent Discovery classification

    sn_nlu_discovery.intent_discovery_max_classification_limit

    		 300,000 Intent Discovery Keep the number of records less than 500,000.
    Minimum number of records for Intent Discovery classification

    sn_nlu_discovery.intent_discovery_min_classification_limit

    		 10,000 Intent Discovery Use at least 10,000 records to get high quality results.
    Minimum number of records for NLU performance analysis

    sn_nlu_workbench.glide.nlu.performance.min_clustering_records

    		 5,000 NLU Workbench - Advanced Features Use at least 5,000 records to get high quality results.
    NLU Conflict Detection - Moderate Threshold

    sn_nlu_workbench.glide.nlu.conflict.moderate_threshold

    		 .85 NLU Workbench - Advanced Features Must be a decimal between 0 and 1. Keep this threshold less than the Critical Threshold.
    NLU Conflict Detection - Critical Threshold

    sn_nlu_workbench.glide.nlu.conflict.critical_threshold

    		 .95 NLU Workbench - Advanced Features Must be a decimal between 0 and 1. Keep this threshold greater than the Moderate Threshold.
    The maximum number of rows in a batch test import file

    sn_nlu_workbench.glide.nlu.batch_test.max_import_rows

    		 10,000 NLU Workbench - Advanced Features Make sure your batch test import file has no more than 10,000 rows.
    The maximum number of utterances to display for feedback in the expert feedback loop

    glide.mlpredictor.option.nlu.activeLearning.label_candidate_table.max_response_size

    		 300 NLU Workbench - Advanced Features Pull no more than 300 utterances from your users' Virtual Agent chat logs to display for feedback in the Expert Feedback Loop application.The minimum umber of utterances a user should review before tuning the model
    The minimum number of utterances a user should review before tuning the model

    sn_nlu_workbench.glide.nlu.optimize.min_labeled_data

    		 100 NLU Workbench - Advanced Features Provide and save feedback for at least 100 utterances from your users' Virtual Agent chat logs so you can execute the Tune Model feature in the Expert Feedback Loop application.
    The maximum number of records to fetch from Virtual Agent chat logs

    glide.mlpredictor.option.nlu.activeLearning.va_chat_logs.max_row_limit - 3000

    		 3,000 NLU Workbench - Advanced Features If there is high NLU usage, increasing the default value to a maximum of 50,000 records will increase the data available for the active learning job to filter up on and display in the Expert Feedback Loop application to give feedback on.
    Size limit on Label Candidate Table (used for pruning the table)

    glide.mlpredictor.option.nlu.activeLearning.label_candidate_table.max_data_size - 10000

    		 10,000 NLU Workbench - Advanced Features The recommended usage for this property is the same as the property above.
    Size limit on Labeled Data Table (used for pruning the table)

    glide.mlpredictor.option.nlu.activeLearning.label_table.max_data_size - 10000

    		 10,000 NLU Workbench - Advanced Features The recommended usage for this property is the same as the property above.
    Enable this property to unblock your instance during NLU model training. The training will be scheduled for an off-peak time, and we will notify you when it's done.

    glide.mlpredictor.scheduled.nlu.model.training

    		 False NLU Workbench - Advanced Features False

    To get more feedback data from Virtual Agent (VA) chat logs, refer to the Procuring additional VA feedback data on demand section in the Expert Feedback Loop documentation.