Servicenow

Jace's ServiceNow CLI (jsn)

Explore and manage ServiceNow instances. Interactive paginated pickers with server-side search on all list commands.

Discovery

jsn --help                # All commands grouped by domain
jsn <command> --help      # Flags, subcommands, and examples

Interactive Picker

All list subcommands use a paginated interactive picker in TTY mode:

• Arrow through items (10 per page)
• Type to search (server-side LIKE query)
• Scroll past last loaded item to load next page
• Enter to select, Esc to cancel
• Falls back to table output with --json

Agent Rules

1. Output modes — --json when parsing data; text when presenting to humans
2. Use sys_id for updates — All update/delete operations require sys_id
3. Check auth first — Run jsn auth status before operations
4. NEVER logout — Only run jsn auth logout if the user explicitly asks
5. Use --profile <name> to target a specific instance, or jsn auth switch <name> to change the default
6. Before using eval or rest — Ask: "Is there a more specific jsn command?" Prefer specific over generic over escape hatch over eval.
7. CONFIRM before destructive operations — Show what will be created/updated/deleted and ask for approval.

Command Hierarchy

Pick the most specific tool for the job. Never default to eval — it's the last resort:

1. Specific commands — jsn flows, jsn rules, jsn catalogitems, etc.
2. jsn records --table <name> — generic CRUD on any table
3. jsn docs search <query> — offline ServiceNow documentation search (no instance needed)
4. jsn rest — raw Table API escape hatch
5. jsn eval — ⚠️ LAST RESORT ONLY
6. Ask the human — if none of the above work

Key Commands

jsn rest examples

# Query any table by name
jsn rest --table incident --query "active=true" --limit 5 --json

# GET a single record
jsn rest --table incident --sys-id abc123... --json

# Raw endpoint access
jsn rest "/api/now/table/incident?sysparm_limit=3" --json

jsn docs — offline documentation search

No ServiceNow instance required. Searches the full ServiceNow docs locally with FTS5 + semantic hybrid search.

# First run: download docs and build the index (~45k files, ~3-5 min)
jsn docs sync

# Check state
jsn docs status

# Search (keyword + semantic hybrid)
jsn docs search "GlideRecord query" --limit 5 --json

# Filter by bundle
jsn docs search "REST API" --bundle it-service-management --json

# Start the web UI
jsn docs serve

# Share on your network
jsn docs serve --expose

Re-running jsn docs sync does a smart incremental refresh — pulls latest docs and only rebuilds changed files (seconds, not minutes).

Troubleshooting Field Behavior

Check order (priority):

1. Before-query business rules — sys_script with when=before, action=query

   jsn b4rules list --query "collection=sys_user"
   

2. ACLs — jsn acls list --query "name=incident"
3. Dictionary overrides — jsn records list --table sys_dictionary --query "name=incident^element=caller_id"
4. Client scripts / UI policies — form-level field behavior

Configuration

~/.config/servicenow/
├── config.json               # Profiles and settings
└── credentials.json          # Auth tokens (fallback)