ServiceNow MCP Change Management Tools¶

This document provides information about the change management tools available in the ServiceNow MCP server.

Overview¶

The change management tools allow Claude to interact with ServiceNow's change management functionality, enabling users to create, update, and manage change requests through natural language conversations.

Available Tools¶

The ServiceNow MCP server provides the following change management tools:

Core Change Request Management¶

create_change_request - Create a new change request in ServiceNow
Parameters:
- short_description (required): Short description of the change request
- description: Detailed description of the change request
- type (required): Type of change (normal, standard, emergency)
- risk: Risk level of the change
- impact: Impact of the change
- category: Category of the change
- requested_by: User who requested the change
- assignment_group: Group assigned to the change
- start_date: Planned start date (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
- end_date: Planned end date (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
update_change_request - Update an existing change request
Parameters:
- change_id (required): Change request ID or sys_id
- short_description: Short description of the change request
- description: Detailed description of the change request
- state: State of the change request
- risk: Risk level of the change
- impact: Impact of the change
- category: Category of the change
- assignment_group: Group assigned to the change
- start_date: Planned start date (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
- end_date: Planned end date (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
- work_notes: Work notes to add to the change request
list_change_requests - List change requests with filtering options
Parameters:
- limit: Maximum number of records to return (default: 10)
- offset: Offset to start from (default: 0)
- state: Filter by state
- type: Filter by type (normal, standard, emergency)
- category: Filter by category
- assignment_group: Filter by assignment group
- timeframe: Filter by timeframe (upcoming, in-progress, completed)
- query: Additional query string
get_change_request_details - Get detailed information about a specific change request
Parameters:
- change_id (required): Change request ID or sys_id
add_change_task - Add a task to a change request
Parameters:
- change_id (required): Change request ID or sys_id
- short_description (required): Short description of the task
- description: Detailed description of the task
- assigned_to: User assigned to the task
- planned_start_date: Planned start date (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
- planned_end_date: Planned end date (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)

Change Approval Workflow¶

submit_change_for_approval - Submit a change request for approval
Parameters:
- change_id (required): Change request ID or sys_id
- approval_comments: Comments for the approval request
approve_change - Approve a change request
Parameters:
- change_id (required): Change request ID or sys_id
- approver_id: ID of the approver
- approval_comments: Comments for the approval
reject_change - Reject a change request
Parameters:
- change_id (required): Change request ID or sys_id
- approver_id: ID of the approver
- rejection_reason (required): Reason for rejection

Example Usage with Claude¶

Once the ServiceNow MCP server is configured with Claude Desktop, you can ask Claude to perform actions like:

Creating and Managing Change Requests¶

"Create a change request for server maintenance to apply security patches tomorrow night"
"Schedule a database upgrade for next Tuesday from 2 AM to 4 AM"
"Create an emergency change to fix the critical security vulnerability in our web application"

Adding Tasks and Implementation Details¶

"Add a task to the server maintenance change for pre-implementation checks"
"Add a task to verify system backups before starting the database upgrade"
"Update the implementation plan for the network change to include rollback procedures"

Approval Workflow¶

"Submit the server maintenance change for approval"
"Show me all changes waiting for my approval"
"Approve the database upgrade change with comment: implementation plan looks thorough"
"Reject the network change due to insufficient testing"

Querying Change Information¶

"Show me all emergency changes scheduled for this week"
"What's the status of the database upgrade change?"
"List all changes assigned to the Network team"
"Show me the details of change CHG0010001"

Example Code¶

Here's an example of how to use the change management tools programmatically:

from servicenow_mcp.auth.auth_manager import AuthManager
from servicenow_mcp.tools.change_tools import create_change_request
from servicenow_mcp.utils.config import ServerConfig

# Create server configuration
server_config = ServerConfig(
    instance_url="https://your-instance.service-now.com",
)

# Create authentication manager
auth_manager = AuthManager(
    auth_type="basic",
    username="your-username",
    password="your-password",
    instance_url="https://your-instance.service-now.com",
)

# Create a change request
create_params = {
    "short_description": "Server maintenance - Apply security patches",
    "description": "Apply the latest security patches to the application servers.",
    "type": "normal",
    "risk": "moderate",
    "impact": "medium",
    "category": "Hardware",
    "start_date": "2023-12-15 01:00:00",
    "end_date": "2023-12-15 03:00:00",
}

result = create_change_request(auth_manager, server_config, create_params)
print(result)

The sample above shows the programmatic request shape and the key imports needed to integrate change management into your own automation.

Integration with Claude Desktop¶

To configure the ServiceNow MCP server with change management tools in Claude Desktop:

Edit the Claude Desktop configuration file at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or the appropriate path for your OS:

{
  "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"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop to apply the changes

Customization¶

The change management tools can be customized to match your organization's specific ServiceNow configuration:

State values may need to be adjusted based on your ServiceNow instance configuration
Additional fields can be added to the parameter models if needed
Approval workflows may need to be modified to match your organization's approval process

To customize the tools, modify the change_tools.py file in the src/servicenow_mcp/tools directory.