ServiceNow ITSM MCP server for AI agents

The ServiceNow MCP server provides a bridge between Claude and ServiceNow instances, allowing you to interact with ServiceNow data and functionality directly through natural language. This server implements the Model Completion Protocol (MCP) to enable seamless integration with Claude.

Installation

Prerequisites

Python 3.11 or higher
A ServiceNow instance with appropriate access credentials

Setup

Clone the repository and set up the environment:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/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 ServiceNow 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

Usage

Standard Mode (stdio)

Start the MCP server with:

python -m servicenow_mcp.cli

Or with inline environment variables:

SERVICENOW_INSTANCE_URL=https://your-instance.service-now.com SERVICENOW_USERNAME=your-username SERVICENOW_PASSWORD=your-password SERVICENOW_AUTH_TYPE=basic python -m servicenow_mcp.cli

Server-Sent Events (SSE) Mode

You can also run the server using SSE for more flexible integration:

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

Customize host and port if needed:

servicenow-mcp-sse --host=127.0.0.1 --port=8000

Authentication Methods

Basic Authentication

SERVICENOW_AUTH_TYPE=basic
SERVICENOW_USERNAME=your-username
SERVICENOW_PASSWORD=your-password

OAuth Authentication

SERVICENOW_AUTH_TYPE=oauth
SERVICENOW_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
SERVICENOW_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret
SERVICENOW_TOKEN_URL=https://your-instance.service-now.com/oauth_token.do

API Key Authentication

SERVICENOW_AUTH_TYPE=api_key
SERVICENOW_API_KEY=your-api-key

Tool Packages

The server supports loading specific subsets of tools using packages. Control this with the MCP_TOOL_PACKAGE environment variable:

export MCP_TOOL_PACKAGE=catalog_builder

Available packages include:

service_desk: Incident handling and user/knowledge lookup
catalog_builder: Service catalog management
change_coordinator: Change request management
knowledge_author: Knowledge base management
platform_developer: Server-side scripting and workflow development
system_administrator: User/group management and system logs
agile_management: User stories, epics, and scrum tasks
full: All available tools (default)
none: No tools (except list_tool_packages)

Integration with Claude

Using the MCP CLI

Install the ServiceNow MCP server with the MCP CLI:

mcp install src/servicenow_mcp/server.py -f .env

Integration with Claude Desktop

Edit your Claude Desktop configuration file:

{
  "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"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example Queries for Claude

Incident Management

"Create a new incident for a network outage in the east region"
"Update the priority of incident INC0010001 to high"
"List all active P1 incidents assigned to the Network team"

Service Catalog

"Show me all items in the service catalog"
"List all service catalog categories"
"Create a new variable named 'department_code' for the 'New Hire Setup' catalog item"

Change Management

"Create a normal change request to upgrade the production database server"
"Schedule a database upgrade for next Tuesday from 2 AM to 4 AM"
"List all emergency changes scheduled for this week"

Knowledge Base

"Create a new knowledge base for the IT department"
"Write an article about VPN setup in the Network Troubleshooting category"
"Find knowledge articles containing 'password reset' in the IT knowledge base"

User Management

"Create a new user Dr. Alice Radiology in the Radiology department"
"List all users in the Radiology department"
"Create a new group called 'Biomedical Engineering' for managing medical devices"

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "ServiceNow" '{"command":"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"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "ServiceNow": {
            "command": "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"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "ServiceNow": {
            "command": "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"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect