Combined Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio release notes for upgrades from Yokohama to Zurich

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated August 11, 2026
  • 9 minutes to read
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    Summary of Combined Flows, Subflows, and Actions in Workflow Studio Release Notes for Upgrades from Yokohama to Zurich

    This consolidated release note provides ServiceNow customers with a comprehensive overview of the new features, enhancements, and important upgrade information for Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio from the Yokohama release up to Zurich. It is designed to simplify preparation for upgrades by combining cross-family updates and highlighting key changes that impact Workflow Studio usage within the ServiceNow AI Platform.

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    Important Upgrade Instructions

    • Before upgrading to Zurich, customers should review and complete pre- and post-upgrade tasks related to Workflow Studio features.
    • For upgrades from Washington DC, a previously withdrawn "save as you go" feature may require manual restoration via system property adjustments.
    • Workflow Studio is active by default, but customers should update the app from the ServiceNow Store to access the latest features.

    Key Features Introduced from Yokohama to Zurich

    • Now Assist Integration: Ability to create and edit flows during app generation using Now Assist, including generating flows or subflows from an image and running published Now Assist skills as actions.
    • Conversational Compatibility: Tools to check if actions and subflows are compatible with conversational interfaces, with support for additional input data types like Dynamic Choice and Array of Objects.
    • Generative AI Enhancements: Use of generative AI to generate natural language descriptions for data, conversational skill and input descriptions, and flow/subflow summarization.
    • Flow Debugging and Management: Dedicated debugging tab for flows and subflows, setting breakpoints, pausing flows for messages or email replies, and managing flow history to restore or copy past configurations.
    • Reusable Components: Ability to save flow triggers for reuse, create reusable scheduled triggers, and domain-separated saved external triggers.
    • External Event Sources: Create and manage external event sources that listen to events outside the ServiceNow AI Platform to trigger flows based on those external events.
    • Conversational Skill Creation: Create multiple skills for conversational subflows and actions, making them discoverable within conversations, with improved error message specificity and input filtering.
    • Automatic Save: Flows, subflows, and actions now save automatically as you work on them, reducing the risk of data loss.
    • Support for Now LLM Long Term Stable Models (LTS): Enhanced flow generation and summarization using stable language models.
    • AI Agent Integration: Use flow data to run AI agents and configure expected outputs within flows.

    Enhancements for Accessibility and Usability

    • Improved ARIA labels and keyboard navigation for better accessibility when working with Workflow Studio components.
    • Support for zooming canvas headers and footers up to 400% without loss of content or functionality, aiding users with low vision.

    Changes, Removals, and Deprecations

    No significant removals, deprecations, or changes were made to Flows, subflows, and actions features from Yokohama to Zurich, ensuring continuity and stability of existing workflows.

    Activation and Additional Requirements

    • Workflow Studio is active by default in all noted releases.
    • No new browser or additional requirements were introduced between Yokohama and Zurich releases.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Streamlined flow creation and management with enhanced AI capabilities and Now Assist integration accelerates automation development.
    • Improved debugging and trigger reuse enable faster troubleshooting and consistent workflow design.
    • Conversational interface compatibility helps extend automation to chatbots and virtual assistants with richer data type support and skill customization.
    • External event source support allows integration of workflows with systems beyond ServiceNow, broadening automation scope.
    • Automatic saving and flow history management reduce risks of lost work and enable easier rollback or version comparison.

    Consolidated page of all release notes for Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio from Yokohama to Zurich.

    How to use this page

    To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Yokohama to Zurich.

    Tip:
    If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release."

    Important information for upgrading Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio to Zurich

    Before you upgrade to Zurich, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    An earlier version of the save as you go feature was released and withdrawn from the Washington DC release. If you're upgrading from the Washington DC release, you might have manually turned off the save as you go features by setting a system property. To restore the save as you go features, see Restore save as you go functionality.

    New features

    Between your current release family and Zurich, new features were introduced for Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    Yokohama Patch 3
    Add and edit flows in Now Assist for app generation
    Create a flow when creating an application in Now Assist for app generation. Enhance an existing application by adding a flow.
    Call a Now Assist skill from an action
    Run a published Now Assist skill from an action. Configure the Now Assist skill inputs and skill outputs from the step inputs and step outputs.
    Check for conversational compatible actions
    Run a compatibility check on new or all actions to determine if they are conversational compatible. Review the inputs of an action to determine if their data types are compatible.
    Check for conversational compatible subflows
    Run a compatibility check on new or all subflows to determine if they are conversation compatible. Review the inputs of a subflow to determine if their data types are compatible.
    Create a flow or subflow from an image
    Create a flow or a subflow from an image by using Now Assist. Capture the detailed process in an image and attach the image to Workflow Studio. Now Assist generates a preview of the flow that you can modify and regenerate.
    Display text descriptions of the data used by actions and flow logic
    See a natural language description of the data each component of a flow uses. Understand what data flow triggers, actions, and flow logic blocks use without having to open their configuration details.
    Generate skill and input descriptions for conversational actions
    Configure conversational settings for conversational actions by generating skill and input descriptions with generative AI.
    Generate skill and input descriptions for conversational subflows
    Configure conversational settings for conversational subflows by generating skill and input descriptions with generative AI.
    Set default values for action inputs
    Set a default value for a conversational action input. Hide action inputs that have a default value if you don't want users to change the input value in a conversation.
    Set default values for subflow inputs
    Set a default value for a conversational subflow input. Hide subflow inputs that have a default value if you don't want users to change the input value in a conversation.
    Summarize a flow or subflow
    Summarize what a flow or subflow does by using generative AI.
    Support additional input data types for conversational actions
    Support conversational actions that have Dynamic Choice and Array of Objects input types.
    Support additional input data types for conversational subflows
    Support conversational subflows that have Dynamic Choice and Array of Objects input types.
    Create the recommended automation type
    Answer a few questions about your automation and Workflow Studio displays recommendations on whether you should create a playbook, flow, subflow, action, or a data stream.
    Yokohama Patch 1
    Configure conversational settings
    View the subflows and actions that are conversational compatible. Configure conversational settings to make a subflow or action available to conversational interfaces.
    Yokohama Early Availability
    Debug flows and subflows
    Debug flows and subflows from a dedicated Workflow Studio tab. Set breakpoints and step through a paused flow to review configuration and runtime values.
    Save a flow trigger for reuse in other flows
    Save a set of trigger definitions as a reusable trigger. Enable flow authors to select the saved trigger from some or all application flows. Specify whether flow authors can see the trigger details or add conditions to the trigger.
    Use the Flow API to send a message to a paused flow
    Send a specific message and payload response to a flow that is paused and waiting for a message.
    Wait for a specific message from the Flow API
    Pause a flow until it receives a specific message from the flow API. Specify the string message that resumes running the flow, and optionally provide a time out value to resume the flow if no message is received after a specific amount of time.

    Zurich

    Create and manage external event sources
    Create an external event source on your ServiceNow instance that listens to events occurring in an application or system outside of the ServiceNow AI Platform®. Based on the external event source, you can define one or more external trigger definitions in your instance and then associate the external trigger definitions with the external event source. When an event that you specified in the external trigger definition occurs, the external trigger definition executes one or more flows. You can update or remove external event sources that you create.
    Create a domain-separated saved external trigger
    Create a domain-separated saved external trigger. Configurations that you make to the trigger are auto-saved. After the trigger is published, you can edit only the Label field values.
    Create a reusable scheduled trigger
    Create a scheduled trigger that starts your flow when you need. Use the trigger across your flows.
    Create a skill for conversational subflows and actions
    Create a skill for the conversational subflow and action and make the skill discoverable in conversations. You can have multiple skills for the same subflow or action.
    Enhancements in the subflow and action conversational settings
    To make the error messages more useful in a conversation, you can show specific error messages from the subflow or action rather than showing generic error messages. Additionally, if you override an input with reference, you can apply a filter to limit the number of records in the Reference field.
    Make a flow wait for an email reply
    Pause a flow until an email reply is received to an outbound email record
    Show subflow stages in a parent flow
    Show subflow stages as part of the execution details of a parent flow.
    Save flows, subflows, and actions automatically
    Save flows, subflows, and actions automatically as you work on them.
    Support Now LLM Long Term Stable models (LTS) with Flow generation
    Support the Now LLM Long Term Stable models (LTS) for Flow generation.
    Support Now LLM Long Term Stable models (LTS) with Flow summarization
    Support the Now LLM Long Term Stable models (LTS) for Flow summarization.
    Use an AI agent action
    Use flow data to run an AI agent and configure the expected agent output for use later in the flow.
    Use your preferred LLM to generate descriptions for subflow or action skill, input, and output
    Leverage generative AI to generate descriptions for the subflow or action skill, inputs, and outputs. You can configure a default LLM to generate the descriptions.
    View flow history
    View and manage the history of a flow. See past configurations of a flow to copy, restore, or remove them.
    View subflow history
    View and manage the history of a subflow. See past configurations of a subflow to copy, restore, or remove them.

    Changes

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some changes were made to existing Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio features.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Removed

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio features or functionality were removed.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Deprecations

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio features or functionality were deprecated.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Activation information

    Review information on how to activate Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    Workflow Studio is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default.

    Get the latest Workflow Studio features by updating the app from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Zurich

    Workflow Studio is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default.

    Get the latest Workflow Studio features by updating the app from the ServiceNow Store.

    Additional requirements

    If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Browser requirements

    If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Accessibility information

    Review details on accessibility information for Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio, such as specific requirements or compliance levels.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    ARIA label improvements
    Added and updated ARIA labels to support screen readers.
    Keyboard navigation improvements
    Improved keyboard navigation with working with actions, flows, and subflows in Workflow Studio.
    Reflow improvements of canvas headers and footers

    Added support for the reflow of canvas headers and footer content in Workflow Studio actions, flows, and subflows. These components can be zoomed up to 400% through your browser settings without loss of content or functionality.

    This enhancement helps users with low vision or who have trouble seeing web content in a browser due to monitor size, device type, poor lighting, or other situations.

    Zurich

    Reflow improvements of canvas headers and footers

    • Workflow Studio canvas header
    • Workflow Studio canvas footer

    Localization information

    If there are specific localization considerations for Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    No updates for this release.

    Highlight information

    If there are specific highlight considerations for Flows, subflows, and actions in Workflow Studio we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    • Create a flow or a subflow from an image by using Now Assist.
    • Debug flows and subflows from a dedicated debugging tab.
    • Pause a flow until it receives a specific message from the flow API.
    • Run a published Now Assist skill from an action.
    • Save flow triggers for reuse in other flows.

    See Exploring flows for more information.

    Zurich

    • Create a scheduled trigger that you can use across your flows.
    • Save flows, subflows, and actions automatically as you work on them.
    • View and manage the history of flows and subflows to copy, restore, or remove past configurations.
    • Create multiple skills for conversational subflows and actions from the conversational settings.
    • Configure a default LLM for generating metadata for conversational subflows and actions.

    See Flows, Subflows, and Actions for more information.