Deployment¶

Deployment Options¶

servicenow-api supports local stdio, a loopback-only development listener, a least-privilege stdio container, and a remote authenticated HTTPS boundary. Provider endpoint, credential, selector, identity, and trust material are supplied at runtime through AgentConfig; none is stored in this repository.

Installed stdio process¶

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "servicenow": {
      "command": "servicenow-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {"MCP_TOOL_MODE": "intent"}
    }
  }
}

Loopback development listener¶

servicenow-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

Do not expose this listener beyond loopback. Network deployments require direct TLS or an explicitly trusted TLS-terminating ingress, configured authentication, exact MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS, and an exact trusted-proxy CIDR policy.

Least-privilege local container¶

docker run -i --rm \
  --read-only \
  --cap-drop=ALL \
  --security-opt=no-new-privileges \
  --pids-limit=256 \
  --tmpfs /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=64m \
  -e TRANSPORT=stdio \
  registry.example.invalid/servicenow-api@sha256:<digest> servicenow-mcp

The operator projects the selected AgentConfig profile into the process at runtime; the image remains immutable and contains no environment connection profile.

Remote authenticated HTTPS endpoint¶

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "servicenow": {"url": "https://service.example.invalid/mcp"}
  }
}

Store the real remote URL, outbound identity reference, and TLS-profile reference in AgentConfig, not in MCP client JSON or documentation.

This page covers running servicenow-api as a long-lived server: the transports, a Docker Compose stack, the companion A2A agent server, putting it behind a Caddy reverse proxy, and giving it a DNS name with Technitium.

servicenow-api ships an MCP server (console script servicenow-mcp) and a companion A2A agent server (console script servicenow-agent). The MCP server is a typed, deterministic tool surface a policy router / agent calls; the agent server is a Pydantic-AI graph agent that consumes those tools.

Run the MCP server¶

The transport is selected with --transport (or the TRANSPORT env var):

stdio (default)streamable-httpsse

servicenow-mcp

For IDE / desktop MCP clients that launch the server as a subprocess.

servicenow-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

A network server with a /health endpoint and /mcp route.

servicenow-mcp --transport sse --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Health check (HTTP transports):

curl -s http://localhost:8000/health        # {"status":"OK"}

Configuration (environment)¶

servicenow-api is configured entirely from the environment. The required set to connect to ServiceNow:

Var	Default	Meaning
`SERVICENOW_INSTANCE`	(unset)	ServiceNow instance URL (alias `SERVICENOW_URL`)
`SERVICENOW_USERNAME`	(unset)	User id (basic auth)
`SERVICENOW_PASSWORD`	(unset)	Password (basic auth)
`SERVICENOW_CLIENT_ID`	(unset)	OAuth client id (optional)
`SERVICENOW_CLIENT_SECRET`	(unset)	OAuth client secret (optional)
`SERVICENOW_TLS_PROFILE`	`system`	Named outbound TLS policy from AgentConfig
`HOST` / `PORT` / `TRANSPORT`	`0.0.0.0` / `8000` / `stdio`	HTTP transport binding

Each ServiceNow tool domain (incidents, change management, CMDB, DevOps, …) is gated by its own *TOOL toggle (for example INCIDENTSTOOL, CMDBTOOL, CHANGE_MANAGEMENTTOOL), all defaulting to True. The full set, including telemetry (ENABLE_OTEL) and access-governance (EUNOMIA_*) variables, is documented in .env.example. Copy it to .env and populate only what you use.

Backing Service (ServiceNow)¶

ServiceNow is a managed SaaS platform — there is no local backing system to provision. Point SERVICENOW_INSTANCE at your tenant (for example a personal developer instance from the ServiceNow Developer Program) and supply credentials via the variables above. Because the backing system is hosted, only connection configuration is required; no platform.md recipe applies.

Docker Compose¶

The repo ships docker/mcp.compose.yml. It reads a sibling .env and publishes the HTTP server on :8000:

services:
  servicenow-api-mcp:
    image: example/servicenow-api@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: servicenow-api-mcp
    hostname: servicenow-api-mcp
    restart: always
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "python3", "-c", "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/health')"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3

cp .env.example .env          # then edit SERVICENOW_* values
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml up -d
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml logs -f

ServiceNow SDK CLI (`now-sdk`)¶

Both the mcp and agent image targets also ship the official ServiceNow SDK CLI — Node.js LTS plus a global @servicenow/sdk install, built in its own discarded builder-node stage (see docker/Dockerfile) so no separate Node install is required to author, build, and deploy a Studio scoped app. It is reachable two ways:

Inside the container — now-sdk --version, now-sdk init, now-sdk build, etc. are on PATH next to the Python console scripts:
```
docker run --rm --entrypoint now-sdk example/servicenow-api:local --version
```
Through MCP tools — the servicenow_sdk tool family (servicenow_api/sdk_client.py) wraps the same CLI as init / auth / build / deploy / transform / dependencies actions, so an operator can scaffold → build → deploy a scoped app entirely through MCP without a shell into the container. See servicenow_api/mcp_server.py (register_sdk_tools) and the SDK_WORKDIR / SDKTOOL env vars.

A2A agent server¶

servicenow-api also ships a Pydantic-AI agent server (console script servicenow-agent). It consumes the MCP tool surface over MCP_URL, exposes an A2A / web interface on port 9004, and is published in the same image. docker/agent.compose.yml runs the MCP server and the agent together:

services:
  servicenow-api-mcp:
    image: example/servicenow-api@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: servicenow-api-mcp
    hostname: servicenow-api-mcp
    restart: always
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"

  servicenow-api-agent:
    image: example/servicenow-api@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: servicenow-api-agent
    hostname: servicenow-api-agent
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - servicenow-api-mcp
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    command: [ "servicenow-agent" ]
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=9004
      - MCP_URL=http://servicenow-api-mcp:8000/mcp
      - PROVIDER=${PROVIDER:-openai}
      - MODEL_ID=${MODEL_ID:-gpt-4o}
      - ENABLE_WEB_UI=True
    ports:
      - "9004:9004"

docker compose -f docker/agent.compose.yml up -d
curl -s http://localhost:9004/health        # {"status":"OK"}

The agent reaches the MCP server by container name through MCP_URL; set PROVIDER and MODEL_ID to select the backing LLM.

Behind a Caddy reverse proxy¶

Expose the HTTP server on a hostname with automatic TLS. Add to your Caddyfile:

# Internal (self-signed) — homelab .example.invalid zone
servicenow-api.example.invalid {
    tls internal
    reverse_proxy servicenow-api-mcp:8000
}

# Public — automatic Let's Encrypt
servicenow-api.example.com {
    reverse_proxy servicenow-api-mcp:8000
}

Reload Caddy:

docker compose -f services/caddy/compose.yml exec caddy caddy reload --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

DNS with Technitium¶

Point the hostname at the host running Caddy. Via the Technitium API:

curl -s "http://technitium.example.invalid:5380/api/zones/records/add" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "domain=servicenow-api.example.invalid" \
  --data-urlencode "zone=arpa" \
  --data-urlencode "type=A" \
  --data-urlencode "ipAddress=192.0.2.10" \
  --data-urlencode "ttl=3600"

…or add an A record servicenow-api.example.invalid → <caddy-host-ip> in the Technitium web console (http://technitium.example.invalid:5380). The ecosystem technitium-dns-mcp automates this as a tool.

Register with an MCP client¶

Add to your client's mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "servicenow-api": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--with", "servicenow-api", "servicenow-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SERVICENOW_INSTANCE": "https://your-instance.service-now.com",
        "SERVICENOW_USERNAME": "admin",
        "SERVICENOW_PASSWORD": "your_password"
      }
    }
  }
}

For a remote HTTP server, point the client at http://servicenow-api.example.invalid/mcp instead.