Notify users before deactivating an Assignment Group used in published Flow Designer flow /subflow

[Kajal_123456]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to determine whether there's a way to notify administrators or prevent accidental changes when an Assignment Group is deactivated if that group is referenced in any published Flow Designer flow or subflow.

Scenario:

• An Assignment Group is used in one or more published flows or subflows.

• Someone attempts to deactivate that Assignment Group.

• We'd like to warn the user that the group is currently in use before the deactivation is completed.

Questions:

1. Is there any out-of-the-box functionality in ServiceNow that detects this dependency and displays a warning?

2. Has anyone implemented a custom solution to identify Flow Designer references to an Assignment Group before it is deactivated?

3. If so, what would be the recommended approach to check published flows/subflows for Assignment Group references and notify the user?

Any guidance, best practices, or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[Bhargavi Patel]

Hi @Kajal_123456 

There is no out-of-the-box feature that warns when an Assignment Group used in Flow Designer is deactivated.

A common custom approach is to:

• Create a Before Update Business Rule on sys_user_group.

• When active changes to false, check Flow Designer tables (published flows/subflows) for references to that group.

• If references exist, display an error (gs.addErrorMessage()) and prevent deactivation, or notify administrators.

This provides a safe way to avoid breaking published flows.

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[Kajal_123456]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. 

Could you also please confirm which Flow Designer tables and field should be queried to identify the Assignment Group references in published flows or subflows?

[Bhargavi Patel]

There isn't a single supported table or field that stores all Assignment Group references in Flow Designer. Start by checking sys_hub_flow and related Flow Designer definition tables for the group's sys_id. Keep in mind these are internal tables and may change across releases so a custom solution should be used with caution.

Please Accept the solution if it assisted you with your question & Mark this response as Helpful.

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @Kajal_123456 

• We have it but in Workflow  and notification -event : those compoents we had used.
• Workflow is legacy now.
• Trigger a custom notification using Flow Designer's built-in Send Email action targeting the Assignment Group Manager, service owners, and users with open tasks mapped to that group

1. NO

2 & 3: check below given video and add the Send email action in your custom flow.

Ref: 3 Ways to Notify with Flow Designer