DISCLAIMER: The instructions in this article come with no support or warranty, implied or explicit.  Caveat emptor.

 

For those who missed the recent announcement, ServiceNow is releasing an MCP server specifically for working with the CMDB (see the Community article here).  This will provide a supported way to use AI tools to interact with the CMDB.  Here's an example of setting it up to work with Claude Code.

 

NOTE: The steps contained within were performed on an Australia Patch 5 instance.

 

1 - Install store app

CMDB MCP server is delivered via store app "sn_cmdb_mcp_server".  It will generally require one of the new AI-native SKUs to be entitled, such as ITOM Advanced.   At this writing, it is under a controlled availability program, so you should consult your account team for the specific path by which you can install it on your instance.

2 - Activate MCP server on platform

Before activating CMDB MCP Server, make sure your admin-level login and the user-level logins which will be connecting have the appropriate roles, per this diagram:

1. Once role assignments are verified, proceed to All > MCP Server Console

2. From the Configuration tab, select Servers.

3. Set your application scope to "CMDB MCP Server".

4. On the "CMDB MCP Server" tile, click the three vertical dots in the upper right corner, and select "Activate".

5. On a second tab , navigate to All > Machine Identity Console and select the Inbound Integrations tab

6. Locate and open the integration named sn_cmdb_mcp_server.cmdb_mcp_server

7. Set the Redirect URL to "http://localhost:8080/callback"

8. Set the Provider name to "Claude"

9. Ensure the "Active" box is checked

10. Under Auth scope, select existing scope named "service_mapping_mcp_auth_scope", if it exists.  If it does not exist, click "Create auth scope" and create a scope with that name, and assign the following APIs:

• Service Mapping MCP

• MCP Tools API

• CMDB Mcp Api

• CMDB MCP Tool API

1. Ensure the "Allow access only to APIs in selected scope" box is checked.

2. Save the record.

3. Keep the browser tab with the record open, you will need to paste values from the form into your Claude code command line.

3 - Configure MCP connection in Claude Code

1. On your Claude Code host, run the following command, filling in the connection nickname you want to use, Client ID from the  sn_cmdb_mcp_server.cmdb_mcp_server config page, and MCP server URL from the MCP Console page ( NOTE: command is split with backslashes for readability, depending on your target system, you may need to remove the backslashes and consolidate to one line):

   claude mcp add --transport http [connection nickname] \
   --client-id [client ID from Inbound integration page \
   --client-secret \
   --callback-port 8080 \
   [MCP server URL from MCP console]

4 - It's set up, what can it do?

One of the best ways to take a tour of the CMDB MCP server is to ask your AI assistant what it can do:

One of my favorite use cases is assessing impact, whether it is blast radius...

...or getting topology for a service

Claude Code can also render those dependency and topology maps into diagrams.

 

For the latest information on how to install CMDB MCP Server in your environment, contact your ServiceNow account team.