Deploying your Creator Studio app

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Deploying your Creator Studio app

    Once your app is built in a non-production instance, the next step is deployment to a production instance where customers can access it. Deployment involves publishing the app and all associated forms and playbooks using configured pipelines. If a pipeline is not set up, you will be alerted to request assistance from an admin.

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    Key Features

    • Testing in Non-Production: Ensure your app, forms, and playbooks are thoroughly tested in a non-production instance before requesting deployment.
    • Deployment Process: Admins use Pipelines and Deployments to deploy your app; direct deployment from Creator Studio is not available.
    • Selective Deployment: You can choose specific published forms and activated playbooks to include or exclude in the deployment request.
    • User Access Management: Post-deployment, admins are responsible for assigning user access to the app, as this cannot be done during deployment.
    • Versioning and Release Notes: Each deployed app requires a version number and release notes to facilitate tracking and management.

    Key Outcomes

    By following the deployment process, your app becomes accessible to users in a live environment. Proper testing and selective deployment enhance the app's functionality while ensuring that only relevant components are available to users. Admins play a crucial role in managing user access and app versioning, ensuring a smooth transition from development to production.

    Congrats, you’ve built your app and are ready to share the first version of it with the world. That’s great! Deployment is the next step in the process.

    Deployment is a term that describes the process of an app moving from a non-production instance like development or QA through to production. Production is the instance that your customers see, or your “live” instance. To kick this process off, you should build your app in a non-production instance, and request that an admin deploy it to a production instance when you're ready.

    Deploying an app automatically publishes the app, as well as all of the published forms and activated playbooks that you include, to a production instance.

    Deployment uses pipelines configured in Pipelines and Deployments. If you don't have a pipeline configured, the Creator Studio home page alerts you and suggests you ask an admin to set it up for you.

    The ServiceNow AI Platform uses the Application Repository to move apps between instances, so release notes and a version number are required. Find out more in App versioning and release notes for Creator Studio apps.

    Requesting app deployment to production

    You should test your app and all of its published forms and activated playbooks on a non-production instance. Once it's ready, you can submit the app for deployment to production. For more information, see Request deployment for your app from Creator Studio to production.

    Apps aren't deployed directly from Creator Studio. Instead, your admin uses Pipelines and Deployments. Admins should check out Managing deployments using Pipelines and Deployments.

    Deploying forms and automation with the app

    You may feel some hesitation at this point, perhaps wondering if your app is actually ready. Well, you can take small steps and include only the forms and activated playbooks that you want in your deployment request.

    When you submit an app for deployment, all of the app's published forms and activated playbooks are available to be deployed. When you request deployment though, you can specify:
    • Published forms that you don't want to appear in the catalog after the app is deployed to production.
    • Activated playbooks that you don't want to appear when users view records generated by the app after it's deployed to production.

    If you don't activate a playbook and its app is deployed to production, the automation won't run on the applicable records. However, your App Engine admin can activate the deployed playbook for you.

    Assigning users to a deployed app

    Your app is officially published and ready to be used, congratulations! But, who gets to use it, and do they have access? Your admin gets to take charge here.

    After your admin deploys the app to production, the admin must assign users and groups that can access the app. That is, you can't assign user access in the deployment/publishing process. See I've built my app in Creator Studio, now what? to find out more about where to access published parts of your app.