Set Up a Ticket Queue
Setting up ticketing has two halves. A System Admin creates the ticketing connection once (skip this for the Ema Ticketing Desk, which needs no connection), and then a group admin binds each group to a queue and writes its routing guidance.
Before you start
- Ticketing is enabled for your Workspace, and so are user groups. Without user groups there is nothing to own a queue, and ticketing refuses to work rather than falling back to a Workspace-wide list.
- The group exists and you are a group admin on it, or a System Admin.
- For a ServiceNow queue: an instance you can reach, and a service account on it. See ServiceNow-Backed Queues for the roles that account needs.
Step 1: create a ticketing connection
Ticketing connections live on their own tab so they are never mixed up with the credentials your AI Employees use for Tools.
- Go to Integrations in admin settings and open the Ticketing tab. It lists one section per approved ticketing backend, with the connections already created for it.
- Add a connection on the backend you want, and fill in its details. For ServiceNow that is the instance URL (
https://<instance>.service-now.com, no trailing slash) and the service account's username and password. Credentials are stored encrypted and are used to read and write tickets for every queue bound to this connection. - Save. Ema connects, then prepares the instance for ticketing and reports anything it could not do as a warning on the connection.
Ticketing connections are shared, by design. A connection created here is Workspace-level: one service account, used by every queue bound to it. It is also the only kind a queue may bind, so a personal or Tool-purpose credential for the same app will not appear in the queue picker. The same app's general-purpose credentials stay on its integration detail page.
If you see "Tag endpoint not detected". The connection works, but Ema could not find the endpoint it uses to label tickets with their queue, so tickets may be created and then not appear in the queue that owns them. Either connect with an account that can write system tables, or have an instance admin install the endpoint and paste its base path into the warning. See ServiceNow-Backed Queues.
Step 2: give the group a queue
Two ways in, both ending at the same queue configuration.
When you create the group. The group form has a This group has a ticket queue toggle. Turn it on if real people work requests in this group, choose the ticketing system, and describe what should route there.
On an existing group. Open the group, go to its Settings tab, and find the Ticketing queue card. It holds everything about the queue: the system and connection it runs on, and its routing guidance. Both fields save together.
The card is visible only to group admins and System Admins. A member never sees it, since repointing a queue is not something they can act on.
Choose the system
| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| Ema Ticketing Desk | Ema is the system of record. Tickets, comments, and history live in Ema, there is no connection to pick, and the card shows Tickets live in Ema. Preselected unless your Workspace already has a ServiceNow ticketing connection. |
| ServiceNow | A pass-through to your instance. Pick the ticketing connection it should run on. Preselected when a ServiceNow ticketing connection already exists. |
| Jira | Listed in the picker and not selectable yet. |
The queue takes the group's name, and that name also fixes the reserved queue label Ema stamps on every ticket. The label never changes afterwards, so two groups cannot run queues under the same name: renaming the group first is the way out of that conflict.
Write the routing guidance
What should route to this group? is the field that decides what Autopilot escalates here. It is free text, up to 2000 characters, and Autopilot receives it verbatim every time it reads the queue directory, so treat it as standing instruction for the queue rather than a description of the team.
Cover, in plain language:
- The kinds of request that belong here, and any that clearly do not.
- How to set priority, for example high priority for outages or leadership asks.
- Any labels or request types the group expects on incoming tickets.
The app asks for guidance whenever you set up a queue, and rejects an empty value: without it Ema has nothing to route on. Editing it later replaces the whole value rather than appending, so read the current text before you rewrite it.
Step 3: check it works
Open the group's Tickets tab and raise one ticket with New ticket. A successful create is the real test of a ServiceNow queue: it exercises the credentials, the queue label, and the request-type list in one go.
Changing the queue later
Everything on the card can be changed by a group admin:
- Repoint the connection. Pick another connection in the picker and save. Use this when an instance is retired or a connection was deleted.
- Change the system. Change reopens the system picker. Existing tickets stay where they are: switching a queue from ServiceNow to the Ema desk does not migrate the tickets already in ServiceNow, it changes where new work is filed and read.
- Edit the routing guidance at any time. It takes effect on the next escalation.
Reading the queue's state
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Connected or Active | The queue has a system and a working connection. | Nothing. |
| Needs attention or Not connected | The connection behind the queue is unhealthy or missing. | Repoint the queue at a working connection, or fix the connection on the Integrations page. |
| "This group has no ticket queue" | The group exists but was never bound. | Set up queue, then follow step 2. |
| "Ticketing isn't connected for your tenant" | Your Workspace has no ticketing connection at all. | An admin completes step 1. |
| "Ticketing connection disconnected" | The connection was disconnected or is unreachable, so tickets cannot be loaded. | Reconnect, or bind the queue to another connection. |
| "You can't use this queue's ticketing connection" | The connection is restricted to a group you are not in, or the action is not enabled on it. | Join that group, or have an admin assign a connection everyone in this queue can use. |
| "Couldn't reach ticketing" | The ticketing service did not respond. Nothing was lost. | Retry. |
A queue outlives its group. Archiving or deleting a group does not delete its tickets. They stay readable to the people who can already see them, and the group shows as deleted in ticket lists and filters. Restoring the group brings the queue back into normal use.
What's next
- Work a Ticket Queue for what the group does with the queue once it exists.
- ServiceNow-Backed Queues for instance prerequisites, field mapping, and connect warnings.
- Ticket Tools for how Autopilot uses routing guidance to pick a queue.