ServiceNow Workflow Studio playbooks appear read-only primarily because they are Out-of-the-Box (OOTB) baseline records shipped by ServiceNow, which cannot be modified directly. To fix this, you must click Copy or Duplicate to create a custom, editable version of the playbook.
Other common causes include insufficient roles (lacking admin or process authoring permissions), an application scope mismatch where your current scope doesn't match the playbook's application, or state locks. Checking the top header banner of the interface will usually display a specific warning explaining why editing is restricted.
