Build Agent release notes
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Summary of Build Agent Release Notes - Zurich Release
The ServiceNow Build Agent application empowers developers to create, edit, and deploy full-stack applications and metadata through a conversational interface. The Zurich release introduces substantial enhancements to improve developer productivity and integration capabilities within ServiceNow Studio and the broader ServiceNow AI Platform.
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Key Features
- Integration with ServiceNow Studio: Build Agent is now accessible directly within ServiceNow Studio, providing a consolidated development environment for conversational app building and editing.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP) Support: Expanded MCP server connectivity allows Build Agent to connect to external MCP servers, extending tool and data source integration into the build workflow and reducing context switching.
- Expanded Metadata Support: Support now includes flows, Service Catalog configurations, inbound email actions, dictionary overrides, choice lists, UI components, UI policies, and more, enabling broader application customization and development.
- Enhanced File and Data Handling: Supports uploading additional file types such as images, documents, text, and code files to better describe build requirements.
- UI Validation Tool: Integrated UI validation using Playwright-based checks is available in both ServiceNow Studio and IDE to validate interface output during app creation, surfacing diagnostic information directly in the Build Agent panel.
- Search Retrieval and Semantic Search: Enables agents to fetch and present relevant knowledge articles, catalog items, and instance artifacts based on meaning rather than keywords, streamlining discovery during build and edit tasks.
- Agentic Workflows and Skills Creation: Converts business requirements into fully configured agents, skills, and workflows tailored to existing app metadata, enhancing automation and customization.
- Test Agent Integration: Facilitates execution of Automated Test Framework (ATF) tests directly from the Build Agent chat panel, with automatic saving and scheduling of test results for regression testing.
- Generated Artifact Preview: Allows developers to review and approve generated tables, flows, and scripts inline before committing changes to the application.
- Contextual Launch and UI Enhancements: Includes contextual launch from Studio tabs and a new Add AI button to guide skill or agent creation, streamlining the development experience.
- Expanded Model Support: Offers choices among providers and models including Anthropic Claude on AWS Sonnet 4.6 and Azure OpenAI GPT 5.4 to fit organizational needs.
- Global Scope Support: Enables building apps and metadata in the global scope for broader application availability.
Key Outcomes
- Improved Developer Efficiency: Access to Build Agent within ServiceNow Studio and enhanced tools reduces manual effort and context switching, accelerating app development cycles.
- Greater Flexibility and Integration: MCP connectivity and expanded metadata support allow integration of diverse data sources and richer application features.
- Enhanced Quality and Validation: UI validation tools and integrated testing capabilities improve application reliability and streamline troubleshooting.
- Consistent Experience Across Instances: Personal development instances (PDIs) are updated to match production Build Agent versions, ensuring uniform capabilities during development and testing.
- Improved User Interaction Limits: Increased prompt limits provide developers more opportunity to iterate and refine application builds within Build Agent.
Activation and Licensing
Build Agent is enabled by default as part of the ServiceNow AI Platform but requires a Now Assist for Creator license to access certain features such as the Add AI button and advanced conversational capabilities.
Related Applications
- ServiceNow Studio: Central environment for app building and deployment.
- ServiceNow IDE: Source code development with integrated generative AI support.
- ServiceNow AI Platform: Supports agentic development using natural language for app creation and workflow automation.
The ServiceNow® Build Agent application enables developers to create, edit, and deploy full-stack applications and metadata through a conversational interface. Build Agent was enhanced and updated in the Zurich release.
Build Agent highlights for the Zurich release
- Use Build Agent in ServiceNow Studio.
- Work with additional Model Context Protocol (MCP) support.
- Create apps and metadata in the global scope.
- Choose from newly supported models.
See Build Agent for more information.
New in the Zurich release
- Zurich Patch 9
- MCP Client integration
- Connect Build Agent to external MCP servers to bring tools and data sources directly into your build workflow. External resources participate alongside Build Agent on the ServiceNow AI Platform, which helps reduce context switching and manual data transfer between tools.
- Create agentic workflows, agents, and skills
- Turn business requirements into fully configured agents, skills, and agentic workflows for your custom applications. Build Agent inspects the existing tables, roles, business rules, and metadata in your app to create tailored in-app agents and tools.
- Test Agent for Build Agent
- Use Test Agent to execute Automated Test Framework (ATF) tests right from the Build Agent chat panel for test artifacts created in the same session. When tests fail, the generated tests and test results are saved in the standard ATF record tables and can be scheduled for continued regression testing for the app. If tests are edited by the test agent after troubleshooting, those edits are automatically saved to the test records.
- UI validation tool
- Validate user interface output during Build Agent app creation in the ServiceNow IDE using the integrated UI validation, which runs Playwright-based UI checks on Cloud Runner and surfaces failures with diagnostic context directly in the Build Agent panel.
- Semantic search for instance artifact discovery
- Use semantic search in Build Agent to locate relevant instance artifacts, including tables, scripts, and business rules during build and edit tasks. Find files, applications, and knowledge on your instance based on meaning instead of exact keywords.
- Additional model support
- Choose the provider and model that fits your organizational needs in Build Agent, which now supports Anthropic Claude on AWS Sonnet 4.6 and Azure OpenAI GPT 5.4.
- Expanded metadata support
- Work with more metadata types in Build Agent, which now supports flows, Service Catalog configurations, inbound email actions, dictionary overrides, choice lists, condition builder query conditions, and enhanced Service Portal capabilities.
- Contextual launch for Build Agent
- Include context from ServiceNow Studio tabs and component preview screens when you open Build Agent, which helps reduce the need to manually search for and specify context in the chat panel.
- Zurich Patch 8
- Additional metadata support
- Work with more metadata types in Build Agent, which now supports email.
- Zurich Early Availability
- Build Agent in ServiceNow Studio
- Access Build Agent in ServiceNow Studio to build apps conversationally in a consolidated development environment.
- Improved LLM support
- Use AWS Claude Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.5 in Build Agent for contextual conversations.
- New metadata support
- Work with more metadata types, as Build Agent now supports the following:
- Email integration
- List controls
- Service Catalog items
- UI components
- UI policies
- UI views
- Workspaces
UI changes
- Zurich Patch 9
- Generated artifact preview
- Preview generated tables, flows, and scripts that Build Agent creates in ServiceNow Studio so you can review and approve changes inline before saving or committing them to the application.
Changed in this release
- Zurich Patch 8
- Build Agent version parity for PDIs
- Personal development instances (PDIs) are now updated to match the latest Build Agent version, delivering a consistent experience across both personal and production-track instances. Developers testing and building on PDIs have access to the same capabilities available in production environments.
- Updated interaction limits
- To provide developers more room to iterate, the following Build Agent limits have been increased:
- Build Agent (Trial): 100 prompts per instance per 30-day cycle
- PDIs: 25 prompts per instance per cycle
Note:Limits are per-instance, not per-user. Only submitted prompts, which doesn't include plan approvals, contribute to the limit.
- Zurich Early Availability
- Support for global scope
- Build apps and metadata in the global scope.
Activation information
Build Agent is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default.
Note:
Build Agent is dependent on Now Assist for Creator. For more information, see Now Assist for Creator release notes.