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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

  1. manage_change - Bundled CRUD for change requests (table: change_request)
  2. action (required): one of create / update / add_task
  3. For action="create": short_description, type (normal/standard/emergency), plus optional description, risk, impact, category, requested_by, assignment_group, start_date, end_date
  4. For action="update": change_id plus at least one updatable field (short_description, description, state, risk, impact, category, assignment_group, start_date, end_date, work_notes); supports dry_run=True for a preview

  5. For action="add_task": change_id, task_short_description, plus optional task_description, task_assigned_to, task_planned_start_date, task_planned_end_date

  6. sn_query (with table=change_request) - List change requests with arbitrary filters

  7. Use the generic table-query primitive for listing change requests. See Tool Inventory for sn_query parameters.

  8. manage_change(action="get") - Get detailed information about a specific change request

  9. Parameters:
    • change_id (required): Change request ID or sys_id

Change Approval Workflow

  1. submit_change_for_approval - Submit a change request for approval

  2. Parameters:

    • change_id (required): Change request ID or sys_id
    • approval_comments: Comments for the approval request

  3. approve_change - Approve a change request

  4. Parameters:

    • change_id (required): Change request ID or sys_id
    • approver_id: ID of the approver
    • approval_comments: Comments for the approval

  5. reject_change - Reject a change request

  6. 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 ManageChangeParams, manage_change
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 via the bundled manage_change tool
params = ManageChangeParams(
    action="create",
    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 = manage_change(server_config, auth_manager, 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:

  1. 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"
      }
    }
  }
}
  1. 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.