publish_flow

What publish_flow does on ServiceNow MCP Server

AI agents use publish_flow to create or update resources in ServiceNow MCP Server, usually the action step of a workflow, after the agent has gathered context. Every call changes real data in your ServiceNow MCP Server environment.

Why publish_flow is rated Medium

Publishing a flow activates automation that can affect business processes and data handling. This is reversible (flows can be unpublished/deactivated) and modifies the state of system workflows rather than deleting or executing arbitrary code. The severity is medium because activated flows can have broad effects depending on their configuration, but the action itself is non-destructive and can be undone.

From the tool's definition Tool name 'publish_flow' with description 'Publish (activate) a draft flow or subflow' indicates creation/modification of active automation workflows. The explicit **[Write]** tag in the description confirms this classification.

The rule that runs publish_flow safely

PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and ServiceNow MCP Server, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For publish_flow, this is the rule to start with:

{
  "version": "1",
  "default": "deny",
  "tools": {
    "publish_flow": {
      "limits": [
        {
          "counter": "publish_flow_rate",
          "window": "minute",
          "max": 30,
          "scope": "grant"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Questions about publish_flow