Playbooks roles

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Playbooks Roles

    Playbooks roles enable users to create triggers, playbooks, and activity definitions within ServiceNow. System administrators can assign these roles to manage user access effectively, enhancing workflow automation and management capabilities.

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    Key Features

    • playbook.admin: Full permissions to create, update, and delete triggers and playbooks, along with managing activity definitions and translations.
    • pdauthor: Access to create and manage playbooks and view all activity definitions.
    • pdcontentauthor: Permissions to manage both activity and trigger definitions alongside viewing shared activity tables.
    • pdtriggerauthor: Specific role for creating and editing trigger definitions.
    • pdoperator: Read-only access to process and activity execution logs.
    • pdshared.user: View permission for shared activity types and properties.
    • pdshared.admin: Edit access to shared activity types and properties.
    • pdcancel: Ability to cancel running playbooks without full admin rights, useful for agents needing limited control.
    • pdrestarter: Permission to restart active playbooks.
    • playbook.write: Access for users with content restrictions to manage playbooks while viewing shared activity types.
    • playbook.designeraccess: Limited access to view playbooks in Workflow Studio for users with restrictions.
    • playbook.activitydefread: View access to all activity definitions as long as there are no required role constraints.

    Key Outcomes

    By assigning appropriate Playbooks roles, organizations can tailor user permissions to streamline workflow processes, improve collaboration, and enhance operational efficiency. Note that access to Workflow Studio design environment is separate and should be managed accordingly.

    Grant users one or more Playbooks roles to enable them to create triggers, playbooks, and activity definitions.

    Roles

    To learn more about managing per-user subscriptions, see Managing per-user subscriptions in Subscription Management and contact your account representative.

    System administrators can grant users access to Playbooks by assigning delegated development permissions or directly assigning Roles. Additionally, playbook authors can create additional filters for runtime user access as they build a playbook in Workflow Studio. The following user roles are available for Playbooks:

    Role Description
    playbook.admin Enables users to:
    • Create, update, and delete trigger definitions.
    • Launch Workflow Studio to create, activate, edit, and delete playbooks.
    • Create, edit, and delete activity definitions.
    • View the Experience activity types (sys_pd_activity) and Experience activity properties (sys_pd_activity_type_prop) tables that are shared by Playbooks and Playbook Experience.
    • Add translations for a playbook.
    pd_author Enables users to:
    • Launch Workflow Studio to create, activate, edit, and delete playbooks.
    • View all activity definitions.
    • View the Experience activity types (sys_pd_activity) and Experience activity properties (sys_pd_activity_type_prop) tables that are shared by Playbooks and Playbook Experience.
    pd_content_author Enables users to:
    • Create, edit, and delete activity definitions.
    • Create, edit, and delete trigger definitions.
    • View the Experience activity types (sys_pd_activity) and Experience activity properties (sys_pd_activity_type_prop) tables that are shared by Playbooks and Playbook Experience.
    pd_trigger_author Enables users to create, update, and delete trigger definitions.
    pd_operator Enables users to view process executions, activity executions, and execution logs only.
    pd_shared.user Enables users to view the Experience activity types (sys_pd_activity) and Experience activity properties (sys_pd_activity_type_prop) tables that are shared by Playbooks and Playbook Experience.
    pd_shared.admin Enables users to edit the Experience activity types (sys_pd_activity) and Experience activity properties (sys_pd_activity_type_prop) tables that are shared by Playbooks and Playbook Experience.
    pd_cancel Enables users to cancel running playbooks without the playbook.admin role or write access to the parent record. For example if you want to grant an agent manager the ability to cancel playbooks, but not an agent.
    pd_restarter Enables users to restart active playbooks.
    playbook.write Enables users who have content filtering restrictions to:
    • Launch Workflow Studio to create, activate, edit, and delete playbooks.
    • View the Experience activity types (sys_pd_activity) and Experience activity properties (sys_pd_activity_type_prop) tables that are shared by Playbooks and Playbook Experience.
    To learn more about content access filtering, see Content filtering for Playbook
    playbook.designer_access Enables users who have content filtering restrictions to launch Workflow Studio to view playbooks. To learn more about content access filtering, see Content filtering for Playbook.
    playbook.activity_def_read Enables users to view all activity definitions as long as there aren't Required Roles.
    Note:
    Granting users Playbooks roles does not automatically allow them to access the Workflow Studio design environment. Granting users access to Workflow Studio may be helpful when creating activity definitions. For more information on Workflow Studio roles, see user access to Flow Designer.