ServiceNow CMDB MCP Server

A Python MCP server that connects AI assistants (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor) to a ServiceNow CMDB instance via natural language. Enables querying, dependency analysis, health auditing, CI lifecycle management, and configurable inspection — all through the Model Context Protocol.

What makes this different

• Deep CMDB focus with relationship traversal, impact analysis, path finding, and dependency mapping

• display_value support — reference fields return human-readable names, not opaque sys_ids

• ASCII tree visualization for dependency graphs directly in the terminal

• Dynamic schema powered by the Data Model Navigator plugin (no hardcoded class hierarchies)

• Full configurable inspection (business rules, flows, flow logic, client scripts, script includes, ACLs) with credential redaction

• Discovery, IRE rules, and import set visibility

• Two-phase write confirmation for safe CI mutations

• Rich server instructions that guide LLM behavior (workflow patterns, smart defaults, disambiguation)

• Tool annotations for smart auto-approval in Claude Code

Requirements

• Python 3.11+

• uv package manager

• ServiceNow instance (Xanadu+) with an OAuth 2.0 application and service account

Setup

1. Clone the repository and install dependencies:

uv sync

2. Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your ServiceNow credentials:

cp .env.example .env

SN_INSTANCE_URL=https://your-instance.service-now.com
SN_CLIENT_ID=your-oauth-client-id
SN_CLIENT_SECRET=your-oauth-client-secret
SN_USERNAME=your-service-account
SN_PASSWORD=your-password

3. Run the server:

uv run servicenow-cmdb-mcp

Claude Code integration

Add to your .mcp.json in the project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "servicenow-cmdb": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "servicenow-cmdb-mcp"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/mcp-cmdb",
      "env": {
        "SN_INSTANCE_URL": "https://your-instance.service-now.com",
        "SN_CLIENT_ID": "your-oauth-client-id",
        "SN_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-oauth-client-secret",
        "SN_USERNAME": "your-service-account",
        "SN_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Recommended ServiceNow roles

The service account needs these roles for full functionality:

Optional roles for deeper inspection:

Tools (38 total)

Key features

Display values

Query tools support display_value="true" to return human-readable names instead of sys_ids for reference fields (location, assigned_to, company, etc.).

Tree visualization

get_dependency_tree supports format="ascii_tree" to return pre-rendered text trees, and class_filter to show only specific CI types (e.g., servers only, no disks/memory).

Flow inspection

get_flow_details parses the internal label_cache from Flow Designer to show flow triggers, steps, referenced tables, and data flow — without needing admin access.

Path finding

find_ci_path finds the shortest relationship path between any two CIs using BFS traversal.

Development

# Run unit tests
uv run pytest tests/ -v

# Run smoke tests (requires live ServiceNow instance)
uv run python smoke_tests/smoke_test.py

# Type check
uv run mypy src/

# Lint
uv run ruff check src/

# Fallback if uv run fails with "file in use" on Windows
.venv/Scripts/python.exe -m pytest tests/ -v

Architecture

See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full design document covering authentication, security, tool patterns, and API usage.

Tech stack

• FastMCP (mcp[cli]) — MCP server framework with decorator-based tool registration

• httpx — Async HTTP client for ServiceNow REST APIs

• pydantic / pydantic-settings — Configuration and validation

• OAuth 2.0 — Password grant against ServiceNow /oauth_token.do

• STDIO transport — Local deployment for Claude Code / Claude Desktop / Cursor