Look Up Record action

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 1 minute to read
  • Look up a record from any table based on defined conditions.

    Roles and availability

    Available as a Workflow Studio ServiceNow core action. Users with the flow_designer or admin role can add an action to a flow and define configuration details.

    Fields

    Field Description
    Table Select a table from the list.
    Conditions

    Conditions the returned record must meet.

    When building a condition that looks up the value of a reference field, use a data pill that explicitly provides the Sys ID value. Ensure the condition has the format [reference field][is][Reference type data pill->Sys ID]. For example, both the Change and Incident tables contain a reference field to the User table. To look up change records where the requester is the caller from an incident record, create the condition [Requested by][is][Trigger->incident record->Caller->Sys ID].

    Order by Determines how to sort results when more than one record matches the defined conditions. Select the field you want to use to sort results.
    Sort Type Select whether to sort alphabetically in ascending or descending order.
    If multiple records are found Determines what information to return when more than one record matches the defined conditions.
    • Return only the first record
    • Fail the step
    Don't fail on error Determines whether to fail the flow when the lookup can't find a record.

    Outputs

    These outputs appear in the Data panel. You can use them as inputs elsewhere in your flow.

    Record
    Data type: Record

    Record found based on the conditions you specified in the Conditions input.

    Table
    Data type: Table

    Name of the table associated with the returned record.

    Status
    Data type: Choice

    0 if a record was found successfully, and 1 if there was an error.

    Error Message
    Data type: String

    Message containing details about why the record could not be found.

    Note:
    This output's value is only populated if the Status output's value is 1.

    Example

    Example Look Up Record action in a flow.