Flow Designer

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Flow Designer

    Flow Designer is a key feature of the ServiceNow AI Platform that provides advanced process automation within a unified design interface. It enables process owners to automate approvals, tasks, notifications, and record operations using natural language, eliminating the need for coding. ServiceNow recommends using Flow Designer for new process flow requirements instead of legacy workflows in most scenarios.

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    Flow Designer should generally replace Business Rules unless specific sequencing of business logic or immediate execution relative to database writes is required, or when the logic only calls a Script Include.

    Design Principles

    • Single Purpose: Each flow should target one clear objective.
    • Reusability: Design flows with reusable sub-flows, such as approvals.
    • Clarity: Use clear language and layout to define each action’s purpose.

    Start designing on a whiteboard and build flows action-by-action to align with processes. Multiple flows may be necessary to maintain these principles.

    Best Practices for Using Flow Designer

    • Use records instead of SysIDs for clarity and maintainability.
    • Provide inline documentation to guide users effectively.
    • Utilize template objects for handling both static and dynamic inputs.
    • Avoid passing large, unstructured data blobs unless absolutely necessary.
    • Only pass data that the flow will actually use to optimize performance.

    Best Practices for Flow Designer Actions

    • Create actions within the scope of the application’s spoke to ensure proper encapsulation.
    • Set actions to be accessible from all scopes to promote reuse across applications.
    • Protect actions as read-only to prevent unwanted modifications.
    • Define specific input types and mark mandatory inputs clearly.
    • Provide default values for choice-type inputs to enhance usability.

    Best Practices for IntegrationHub

    • Create one spoke per integration system to maintain clarity and modularity.
    • Group actions related to a single system within the same spoke.
    • Adopt meaningful version naming conventions for scoped applications.
    • Use connection aliases instead of inline connections for flexibility and ease of management.
    • Leverage connection attributes under the alias to handle versioning in REST resource paths.
    • Use “Save as Attachment” to efficiently handle response content storage.
    • If aliases are dynamic, input them via data pills for flexibility.

    Error Handling Practices

    • Implement error handling through Script Includes for centralized management.
    • Write concise, clear error messages covering all possible API errors.
    • Validate outputs from integration steps before processing them further.
    • Adopt a “fail early” approach by checking input availability before calling integrations.

    Training

    ServiceNow offers self-paced training resources for Flow Designer and IntegrationHub to help customers build expertise and apply best practices effectively.

    Flow Designer is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that enables rich process automation capabilities in a consolidated design environment. Flow Designer enables process owners to use natural language to automate approvals, tasks, notifications, and record operations without having to code.

    Flow Designer and IntegrationHub

    For any new process flow requirements, ServiceNow recommends using Flow Designer over the legacy workflow for almost all circumstances.

    Flow Designer and Business Rules

    You should use Flow Designer instead of Business Rules unless:

    • Business logic needs to run in a specific sequence with other Business Rules. For example, new business logic needs to run after one Business Rule but before another.
    • Logic needs to execute immediately before or after writing to the database in the same thread.
    • The logic only calls a Script Include.

    When designing a flow, follow these design principles:

    • Single Purpose: Each flow should have a singular goal.
    • Reusability: Design with reusable sub-flows in mind (approval is a great example).
    • Clarity: The language and layout of a flow should make each action’s purpose clear.

    Start with a white board design of a business flow. Then build the flow action by action to align with the process. More than one flow may be required for a for a single process to keep to the design principles.

    Use the following practices when working with Flow Designer:

    • Use records, not SysIDs. Provide a guided experience with inline documentation.
    • Learn how to use template objects to work with both static and dynamic inputs.
    • Avoid passing around blobs of data unless absolutely necessary.
    • Only pass information to a flow that the flow is going to use.

    Use the following practices when working with Flow Designer Actions:

    • Always create actions under the scope of the application’s spoke, if applicable.
    • Set access to Accessible from all scopes in actions to be able to reuse actions across other apps and scopes in the future.
    • Set Protection to Read-only to avoid any unwanted edits to the actions by users.
    • Make sure inputs have a specific type.
    • Ensure that Mandatory is selected where required.
    • If using a choice input type, use a default value.

    Use the following practices when working with IntegrationHub:

    • Create one spoke per integration system. Only put actions for a single system in a spoke.
    • When creating the scoped app for the spoke, use a version naming convention that makes sense.
    • Use a connection alias instead of an inline connection. The Base URL will be automatically extracted.
    • Use connection attributes under the Alias to pass the version in a REST step giving future flexibility for versioning in the resource path.
    • Use Save as Attachment to save the content in the response instead of creating another step to save the data.
    • If the Alias is dynamic, make Alias one of the inputs and use the data pill to provide the Alias.

    Use the following practices in Flow Designer and IntegrationHub for Error Handling:

    • Create a Script Include to handle errors.
    • Write short and understandable error messages.
    • Incorporate all of the possible error messages the API returns.
    • Ensure that the outputs from the integration step are validated before using them.
    • Fail Early: If the inputs are not available, do not call the integration.

    Self-Paced Training: Flow Designer

    Self-Paced Training: IntegrationHub