ServiceNow MCP Server

What is ServiceNow MCP Server?

ServiceNow MCP Server is a community-built servicenow mcp server, written in Python, that lets Claude and other MCP clients query and change records on your ServiceNow instance. It covers incidents, the service catalog, change requests, agile work, knowledge bases, users and more.

The project is open source under the MIT license and is not published by ServiceNow. It talks to your instance through the ServiceNow API using Basic, OAuth or API key authentication, and it runs locally over stdio or as a small web server over Server-Sent Events (SSE).

How to use ServiceNow MCP Server?

You need Python 3.11 or higher and a ServiceNow instance with credentials that have the access you want the AI to have.

Clone the repository and install it into a virtual environment (the mcp.so listing points at osomai/servicenow-mcp, which redirects to this repository):

git clone https://github.com/echelon-ai-labs/servicenow-mcp.git
cd servicenow-mcp
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e .

Create a .env file with your instance URL and credentials:

SERVICENOW_INSTANCE_URL=https://your-instance.service-now.com
SERVICENOW_USERNAME=your-username
SERVICENOW_PASSWORD=your-password
SERVICENOW_AUTH_TYPE=basic  # or oauth, api_key

Start the server in stdio mode with python -m servicenow_mcp.cli, or run it as an SSE web server:

servicenow-mcp-sse --instance-url=https://your-instance.service-now.com --username=your-username --password=your-password

The SSE server listens on 0.0.0.0:8080 by default (change it with --host and --port) and exposes /sse and /messages/ endpoints.

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or the matching file for your OS, point command at the Python inside your virtual environment, then restart Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ServiceNow": {
      "command": "/Users/yourusername/dev/servicenow-mcp/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["-m", "servicenow_mcp.cli"],
      "env": {
        "SERVICENOW_INSTANCE_URL": "https://your-instance.service-now.com",
        "SERVICENOW_USERNAME": "your-username",
        "SERVICENOW_PASSWORD": "your-password",
        "SERVICENOW_AUTH_TYPE": "basic"
      }
    }
  }
}

The README also documents registering the server with the MCP CLI: mcp install src/servicenow_mcp/server.py -f .env.

Claude Code

Register the same command with environment variables:

claude mcp add servicenow \
  -e SERVICENOW_INSTANCE_URL=https://your-instance.service-now.com \
  -e SERVICENOW_USERNAME=your-username \
  -e SERVICENOW_PASSWORD=your-password \
  -e SERVICENOW_AUTH_TYPE=basic \
  -- /path/to/servicenow-mcp/.venv/bin/python -m servicenow_mcp.cli

Cursor

Add the same mcpServers block shown for Claude Desktop to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json in a project), using the absolute path to your virtual environment's Python.

Key features of ServiceNow MCP Server

• Three authentication modes: Basic (SERVICENOW_USERNAME/SERVICENOW_PASSWORD), OAuth (SERVICENOW_CLIENT_ID, SERVICENOW_CLIENT_SECRET, SERVICENOW_TOKEN_URL) and API key (SERVICENOW_API_KEY).
• Query, create, update and delete ServiceNow records across ITSM and platform areas.
• Service Catalog access plus catalog analysis and optimization recommendations.
• Change management lifecycle, including tasks, approval submission, approve and reject.
• Script include, workflow and changeset (update set) management for platform developers.
• Role-based tool packages via MCP_TOOL_PACKAGE to limit how many tools the model sees.
• stdio and SSE transports, and a debug mode for troubleshooting.

ServiceNow MCP Server tools

By default the full package loads every tool. Tools are grouped by area:

• Incident management: create_incident, update_incident, add_comment, resolve_incident, list_incidents.
• Service catalog and optimization: list_catalog_items, create_catalog_category, move_catalog_items, create_catalog_item_variable, get_optimization_recommendations.
• Change management: create_change_request, add_change_task, submit_change_for_approval, approve_change, reject_change.
• Agile: stories, epics, scrum tasks and projects, for example create_story and create_story_dependency.
• Platform development: workflows, script includes (create_script_include) and changesets (commit_changeset, publish_changeset).
• Knowledge base: create_knowledge_base, create_article, publish_article, list_articles.
• Users, groups and UI policies: create_user, add_group_members, create_ui_policy, create_ui_policy_action.

To shrink the list, set MCP_TOOL_PACKAGE to one of service_desk, catalog_builder, change_coordinator, knowledge_author, platform_developer, system_administrator or agile_management. Packages are defined in config/tool_packages.yaml, and list_tool_packages shows which package is loaded.

Use cases of ServiceNow MCP Server

• Service desk triage: "List all active P1 incidents assigned to the Network team."
• Ticket updates: "Resolve incident INC0010001 with a note that the server was restarted."
• Change coordination: "Create a change request for server maintenance to apply security patches tomorrow night", then submit it for approval.
• Catalog building: "Add a dropdown field for selecting laptop models to catalog item."
• Knowledge authoring: "Write an article about VPN setup in the Network Troubleshooting category" and publish it.
• Platform development: "Commit changeset 'sys_update_set_123' with message 'Fixed login issue'."

ServiceNow MCP Server vs alternatives

ServiceNow itself offers MCP Server Console, an official application (introduced in the Australia release, available with a Now Assist application) where administrators define MCP servers and tools on the instance, with OAuth 2.0 for clients. Choose it if you want a vendor-supported, governed servicenow mcp option and have the licensing. This community server needs no extra ServiceNow license and gives you ready-made ITSM and developer tools, but you run and secure it yourself.

Other community options exist, such as the separate Servicenow MCP Server listing on mcp.so, which is a different project.

Troubleshooting ServiceNow MCP Server

• Missing required parameter 'type' when creating a change: create_change_request requires both short_description and type.
• Invalid value for parameter 'type': use normal, standard or emergency.
• No tools appear: an invalid MCP_TOOL_PACKAGE name loads the none package (only list_tool_packages) and logs a warning. Unset it to load full.
• Claude Desktop cannot start the server: command must be the absolute path to the Python in the virtual environment where you ran pip install -e .. Restart Claude Desktop after editing the config.
• Need more detail: enable debug mode with --debug or SERVICENOW_DEBUG=true.