ServiceNow MCP — VS Code extension

Drive a ServiceNow instance from VS Code Copilot Chat (agent mode). This extension registers the servicenow-mcp-ai MCP server automatically — install it and the ServiceNow tools appear in Chat, with no manual .vscode/mcp.json.

What you get

100 tools over the full ServiceNow REST surface (Table, Aggregate, Attachment, Import Set, Batch, CMDB/IRE, Catalog, Change, Knowledge, Email), plus:

Plan-and-apply write safety — writes preview a before/after diff by default (SN_WRITE_MODE=plan); execute only with apply: true. Every applied change is journalled locally.
Capability preflight — reports which sys_* tables your user can actually read, so the script/code tools never return a silently empty result.
ACL security scan, where-used / impact graph, field redaction, CSV export, and a CI drift gate.

Setup

Install this extension. The ServiceNow MCP server is registered for Copilot Chat (it runs via npx -y servicenow-mcp-ai@3.x — pinned to the server major this extension was built for — so Node.js 22.12+ is required).
Open the Get started with ServiceNow MCP walkthrough (Command Palette → Welcome: Open Walkthrough...). It takes you through four steps: sign in, pick the tool packages, run the doctor, and try a first prompt.
Or do it by hand: run ServiceNow MCP: Sign In, then open Copilot Chat, switch to agent mode, and ask — e.g. "Using ServiceNow, list the 5 most recent active incidents with their priority."

Start read-only and safe: set SN_READONLY=true in your env file and keep the default discovery package set until you trust the workflow.

Credentials

Sign In (recommended) — ServiceNow MCP: Sign In asks for the instance, the method (Basic, API key, OAuth client credentials or Bearer token) and the secret. They are kept in VS Code SecretStorage (the OS keychain), never in settings or on disk, and are handed to the server process through its environment only. A sign-in takes precedence over the env file's values. ServiceNow MCP: Sign Out clears it.
Env file — ~/.config/servicenow-mcp-ai/.env by default, or the file named in servicenowMcp.envFile:
```
SN_INSTANCE=your-instance.service-now.com
SN_USER=your.username
SN_PASSWORD=your-password
```
Browser (PKCE) OAuth — run npx servicenow-mcp-ai login once in a terminal; it stores the tokens in the env file.
At runtime, ask Chat to run servicenow_set_credentials.

Settings

Setting	Default	Meaning
`servicenowMcp.envFile`	empty	Env file the server reads and writes (`SN_ENV_FILE`). Supports `~`, `${userHome}` and `${workspaceFolder}`; a relative path resolves against the first workspace folder. Empty = the server default.
`servicenowMcp.packages`	`[]`	Tool packages or profiles (`SN_TOOL_PACKAGES`), e.g. `["discovery", "flows"]`. Empty = `discovery`. ServiceNow MCP: Choose Tool Packages picks them from a list.
`servicenowMcp.transport`	`stdio`	`stdio` (recommended) or `http`: the extension starts the server's Streamable HTTP transport on a free `127.0.0.1` port with a random per-launch bearer token and VS Code connects to it.

Changing a setting, signing in or signing out re-registers the server definition, and VS Code offers to restart the server. In an untrusted workspace, the workspace values of these settings are ignored.

Doctor and status bar

ServiceNow MCP: Run Doctor runs servicenow-mcp-ai doctor --json through the same launcher, settings and credentials as the server. The verdict (healthy, degraded, not configured, or failed) shows in a notification and in the ServiceNow MCP status-bar item; click the item to run it again. The full report goes to the ServiceNow MCP output channel (ServiceNow MCP: Show Output).

Commands

Command	What it does
ServiceNow MCP: Sign In	Store the instance and a secret in SecretStorage.
ServiceNow MCP: Sign Out	Remove the stored secret.
ServiceNow MCP: Choose Tool Packages	Pick packages and profiles for `servicenowMcp.packages`.
ServiceNow MCP: Run Doctor	Check configuration, connectivity and capabilities.
ServiceNow MCP: Try a First Prompt	Open Copilot Chat in agent mode with a read-only question.
ServiceNow MCP: Add Agent Skills to Workspace	Copy the `sn-*` workflow skills into `.agents/skills/`, `.github/skills/` or `.claude/skills/`; existing ones are kept unless you choose Replace.
ServiceNow MCP: Show Output	Show the extension's output channel.

After install

MCP tools are only surfaced in agent mode, so open Copilot Chat and switch its mode selector to Agent — the servicenow_* tools become available there. To confirm everything is wired up, ask the model to run a connection check, e.g. "Run servicenow_test_connection and show me the result."

ServiceNow MCP

Ivan Baev