Create a playbook

Create a playbook to set up an automated business process. Use Playbook builder in Workflow Studio to add stages, activities, triggers, and runtime permissions, then activate the playbook to make it available to agents and fulfillers.

Before you begin

• Activate the Playbook application for your instance. See Activate Playbooks.
• Familiarize yourself with the tables and relationships that your application uses for the playbook that you want to create.
• Familiarize yourself with any features that your business uses to automate operations on the ServiceNow AI Platform, such as flows, subflows, and actions.
• Role required: admin, playbook.admin, or playbook.write.

About this task

Use this procedure to build a new playbook from scratch. You can create a playbook with no trigger, a single trigger, or multiple triggers. If you change a playbook after activating it, the system saves your changes but deactivates the playbook. You must activate the playbook again to publish any new changes.

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > Workflow Studio > Playbooks.
   The Workflow Studio landing page opens with the Playbooks list displayed by default.
2. In the upper-right corner, under New, select Playbook.
3. Fill in the following fields.

   Table 1. Playbook fields

   Field	Description
   Playbook name	Unique, user-facing name for the playbook. Appears to agents and fulfillers at runtime.
   Application	Application scope for the playbook. Select Global to run the playbook in any application scope.
   Description	Descriptive details about the playbook.

   The builder displays in Diagram view by default, but you can select Board view to switch views. Switch between views anytime as you build your playbook.
   
   
4. Select the Start node.
   The Playbook properties side panel opens.
5. Under the Details tab, fill in the fields.
   You can also update the Playbook name and Description.

   Table 2. Playbook properties: Details tab fields

   Field	Description
   Limit playbook executions for each parent record to	Maximum number of times the playbook can run for a single parent record.
   Execution type	Type of playbook to create. Record driven: Playbook tied to a record. Triggered on demand or automatically based on record operations. Data from the playbook is stored on that record. Standalone: Single-session playbook that does not store data to a record. Must be manually triggered or called from another playbook.
   Parent table	Table that provides trigger records and other playbook inputs. Required for Knowledge and Email activities.
   Allow this playbook to be restarted during runtime	When selected, runtime users can restart the entire playbook during a run.

6. Under the Inputs tab, add inputs for a playbook to launch with.
   Inputs defined here are accessible throughout the playbook via dot-walking and dot notation, for example inputs.inputName, and can be used in activity fields, conditions, and UI elements.

   Tip:

   To trigger a playbook with API inputs instead of trigger records, use the triggerPlaybook(String scopedName, GlideRecord parentRecord) API to trigger a playbook. For more information about the API, search triggerplaybook on the ServiceNow Developer Site: Playbook Experience APIs.
7. Under the Runtime permissions tab, configure permissions for users, user groups, user criteria, and roles.
8. Configure a trigger for the playbook.

   You can create a playbook with no trigger, a single trigger, or multiple triggers. For more information, see Add and configure a trigger in a playbook.

9. Add activities, stages, decision nodes, and parallel branches as required to automate your process.
   Continue adding stages and activities until your playbook reflects the full business process. For more information, see Stages and activities.
10. Optional: Add a variant to your playbook.
    You can use one playbook in multiple use cases by using variants. For more information, see Playbook variants.
11. After adding all stages and activities, test the playbook.
12. After testing the playbook, select Activate in the header.
    The playbook is published and runs when its trigger conditions are met.

Result

When the trigger conditions of the playbook are met, the system creates a Process Execution record and renders user-facing configurations for Playbook Experience. For an example of how to digitize a manual business process, see Create a sample playbook.

What to do next

Set up the Playbook Experience for your agents and fulfillers.