Checklist Task activity

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
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    Summary of Checklist Task activity

    The Checklist Task activity in ServiceNow Playbooks prompts agents to complete all items in a task checklist, helping to ensure thorough task management. This activity requires key inputs such as Checklist Owner, Checklist Items, and Checklist Name, allowing clear definition and ownership of checklist tasks within a playbook.

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    Key Features

    • Role Access: Available as a common activity; can be added by users with admin, playbook.admin, or pdauthor roles.
    • Configurable Inputs: Includes essential inputs like Checklist Owner, Checklist Items, Checklist Name, and associated Task record. Optional inputs include Skip Assignment Group/User, Show SLA countdown, and Can Skip to enable skipping the checklist.
    • Scheduling Controls: Allows setting start rules for when the activity or stage runs, such as "when the process starts" or "after specific activities/stages," with optional delay settings.
    • Skip Functionality: Can configure which users or groups are permitted to skip the checklist, ensuring flexibility in workflow execution.
    • Task Association: Associates the checklist with a specific task record, displaying the checklist within that task and maintaining its state across playbook runs, or creates a new private task record if no specific task is referenced.
    • Outputs: Provides a reference to the updated task record upon completion, enabling data flow to subsequent playbook activities.
    • UI Layouts: Supports configurable rendering properties for the activity’s appearance during playbook execution.

    Key Outcomes

    By implementing the Checklist Task activity, ServiceNow customers can standardize task completion processes, improve task accountability by clearly assigning checklist ownership, and enhance workflow automation with flexible scheduling and skip options. This activity integrates tightly with task records, maintaining checklist state and providing SLA visibility to support timely task completion. The outputs facilitate downstream playbook logic, enabling seamless orchestration of complex workflows.

    Prompt an agent to complete all items in a task checklist.

    The key inputs for this activity are the Checklist Owner, Checklist Items, and Checklist Name fields under the Inputs section.

    Roles and availability

    This activity is available as a common activity. Users with the admin, playbook.admin, or pd_author can add this activity to a playbook.

    Common properties

    These properties are common to all to activities in Playbooks.

    Open the activity properties panel and configure your activity to add values for the following inputs. If the input value varies, use the pill-picker to show where to get the value. To learn more about the pill-picker, see Dot-walking examples.
    Input Type Description
    Label String Title to display as activity and playbook card.
    Description String Information to display about activity usage or outcome.
    Run condition Condition Builder Conditions that must be met to run an activity or stage. You can use data from prior activities to build conditions.
    Note:
    Select Show additional options to see this field.
    Start Rule Choice Under Schedule > Start Rule, select a start rule for when your stage should start running:
    • When process starts: Your stage starts running as soon as the playbook starts.
    • After specific stages: Your stage starts running after specified stage(s) have finished running.
    Under Schedule > Start Rule, select a start rule for when your activity should start running:
    • When stage starts: Your activity starts running as soon as its stage starts running. Your stage starts running when your playbook is triggered.
    • After specific activities: Your activity starts running after specified activities have finished running.
    Start with delay True/False Option to wait for a duration of time before running an activity or stage. When enabled, this input displays the Start with delay input properties.
    Note:
    Select Show additional options to see this field.

    Inputs

    After configuring the required inputs for your activity, you can also choose to configure additional inputs. In the side panel, select Show additional options to display these advanced inputs. For more information, see Activity experience.
    Input Type Description
    Skip Assignment Group Reference.Group [sys_user_group] Group that is allowed to skip this activity when Can Skip is enabled.
    Note:
    If Can Skip is enabled, and you do not specify a Skip Assignment Groupor Skip Assigned To, all users will be able to skip this activity.
    Skip Assigned To Reference.User [sys_user] User that is allowed to skip this activity when Can Skip is enabled.
    Note:
    If Can Skip is enabled, and you do not specify a Skip Assignment Groupor Skip Assigned To, all users will be able to skip this activity.
    Checklist Owner Reference.User [sys_user] The user who owns this checklist.
    Checklist Items String The items you want display in your checklist.
    Checklist Name String The name to display for the checklist.
    Task Reference.Task [task]

    Reference a record to associate with the checklist activity. The checklist is also displayed in the associated task record.

    Note:
    When a specific task record is associated with the checklist, the state of the checklist does not change if you run the playbook again. When you don't provide a specific task record, a new private task record is created for each run.

    Checklist in a task record
    Show SLA True/False Option to show SLA countdown details for the task.
    Note:
    Select Show additional options to see this field.
    Can Skip True/False Option to allow agents to skip the checklist and to continue through the playbook.

    Additional properties

    Move stuff here.

    Outputs

    These outputs can provide data to other activities in your playbook. You can access this data as activity inputs when you configure your activity:
    Output Type Description
    Checklist Task Reference.Task [task] Task record that updates when this activity completes.

    UI Layouts

    Set properties for how the activity renders during a playbook run.