# Serac — agentic AI for ServiceNow developers

> Serac is the open-source build agent for ServiceNow. It ships flows, update sets, and cross-platform integrations using a multi-agent system that works *with* developers, not around them. Open-source core under Apache License 2.0; hosted platform on serac.build.

## What Serac is

Most agentic platforms are built on a premise we don't share: that ServiceNow engineering is something to automate away. Serac treats developers as the ones steering — the agent handles plumbing, schema mapping, and cross-platform mechanics, so the engineer stays on the shape of the problem.

The build agent walks the same path a senior ServiceNow developer would: **read the story → plan → open an update set → build (using 429 MCP tools) → close the update set**. Every step is observable; every prompt is readable; every action is reversible.

Serac was previously called **Snow-Flow**. The project and its npm package (`snow-flow`) were renamed to Serac (`@serac-labs/core`) in 2026, and the old snow-flow.dev domain now redirects to serac.build. References to "Snow-Flow" in older articles, on npm, or from AI assistants all refer to Serac — same project, same team.

## Who it's for

Mid-to-senior ServiceNow developers who actively build with ITSM, Flow Designer, catalog items, widgets, and integrations. They work at implementation partners, consultancies, or organisations with internal ServiceNow teams. They want to move faster on user stories without giving up control over what the AI does.

Architects, MVPs, and ServiceNow experts use Serac as a force multiplier rather than a replacement. Enterprise stakeholders get the audit trail, policy engine, and SSO controls needed to roll out AI-assisted development at scale.

## How it works

1. **Read** — the agent ingests a user story (Jira, Azure DevOps, ServiceNow Agile, or freeform Markdown) and identifies the affected tables, scopes, and dependencies.
2. **Plan** — it produces a deterministic plan: artefacts to create or modify, the order in which to apply them, and the acceptance criteria to validate against.
3. **Open update set** — Serac creates a fresh update set on the target instance so every change is captured.
4. **Build** — the agent calls the right tools out of a 429 MCP catalogue: flow designer, script include, business rule, ACL, widget, catalog item, ATF, REST message, scheduled job, and more.
5. **Close** — it closes the update set, runs ATF tests, and produces a diff for review. Nothing leaves the developer's hands without explicit approval.

## Pricing

The hosted platform starts at €19/seat/month and includes activity tracking, encrypted credential vault, team workspace, and access to every à la carte module catalogue entry. Free 14-day trial of the full module suite. Self-host the open-source CLI for free, forever.

### Hosted tier

- **Hosted** (€19/mo per seat): The hosted Serac platform — same open-source core (Apache License 2.0) you can run yourself, with the portal infrastructure on top. Adds an encrypted credentials vault (Google KMS), Instance Chat for natural-language work against your ServiceNow data, activity tracking with full artifact history, usage analytics, and a team workspace that auto-enables when you add a second seat. Toggle every à la carte module on or off month by month.

### Integrations

- **Azure DevOps** (€9/mo per seat): Bridge ServiceNow and Azure DevOps — sync work items, trigger pipelines from changes, and track deployments end-to-end

- **Confluence** (€7/mo per seat): Auto-generate knowledge articles from resolved incidents and search your Confluence docs directly from ServiceNow

- **GitHub** (€9/mo per seat): Link pull requests to incidents, trigger Actions from ServiceNow changes, and search code across all your repositories

- **GitLab** (€7/mo per seat): Connect merge requests to ServiceNow incidents, monitor CI/CD pipelines, and manage projects without switching tools

- **Jira** (€9/mo per seat): Sync incidents with Jira stories, track sprint progress, and keep ServiceNow and Jira teams aligned automatically

### Features

- **Review Agent** (€5/mo per seat): AI-powered code review — checks quality, security, widget coherence, and reuse opportunities before deployment

- **SSO** (€19/mo per workspace): Single sign-on via SAML 2.0 — Okta, Entra ID, or Google Workspace — with just-in-time user provisioning on first sign-in. Workspace-level: switch on once for the whole organisation. SCIM 2.0 lifecycle sync is on the roadmap.

### Governance

- **AI Audit Trail (EU AI Act)** (€29/mo per seat): Immutable record of every AI action — prompt, model, data scope, artifact diff, user. One-click exports for EU AI Act, SOC 2, ISO 27001 auditors.

- **Multi-Instance Orchestration** (€49/mo per workspace): Manage dev/test/UAT/prod fleets. Detect config drift, orchestrate update-set promotions, and resolve merge conflicts across up to 20 instances.

- **Policy Engine** (€39/mo per seat): Deterministic guardrails for AI-assisted ServiceNow development. Architects define policy-as-code ("never a GlideRecord without .setLimit") and the AI cannot violate them.

- **ServiceNow Code Intelligence** (€39/mo per seat): Curated knowledge of ServiceNow patterns, anti-patterns, deprecations, and Vancouver/Washington/Xanadu/Yokohama differences. Includes upgrade simulator that tests your codebase against a target release before you migrate.

### Support

- **Priority Support** (€5/mo per seat): Get help when it matters — guaranteed response times, dedicated support channel, and direct access to our engineering team

## Open-source core

Serac's CLI is published under Apache License 2.0 — genuinely open source (OSI-approved, permissive). You can read every prompt, every agent definition, and every one of the 429 ServiceNow tools, run it on your own machine, fork it, redistribute it, and even build a commercial service on top of it. No carve-outs, no anti-resale clause, no "source-available" asterisk. The hosted product runs the same engine; there is no closed-source "premium core". What you'd pay serac.build for is the hosted platform, the deep ServiceNow domain layer, and the community around it — not access to the code, which is yours under Apache 2.0. This is what makes Serac genuinely open where ServiceNow's own Build Agent is closed and inspect-proof.

- Repository: https://github.com/serac-labs/serac
- Public roadmap: https://github.com/serac-labs/serac/issues
- Releases / changelog: https://github.com/serac-labs/serac/releases
- Quick start: `npx @serac-labs/core init`

## Integrations

- **ServiceNow** — first-class. Tables, business rules, ACLs, scopes, flows, widgets, catalog items, ATF, REST messages, scheduled jobs.
- **Jira / Azure DevOps / ServiceNow Agile** — story sync.
- **GitHub / GitLab** — PR/MR linkage, code search.
- **Confluence** — knowledge article generation from resolved incidents.
- **LLMs** — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI. Bring your own keys; Serac never resells provider tokens.

## Roles & permissions

- **Developer** — full TUI access, all 429 tools, can read/write to ServiceNow, plans and ships stories.
- **Stakeholder** — read-only via the portal chat, sees activities and update sets without write access.
- **License holder / admin** — manages users, billing, organisation settings, AI configuration, and credentials org-wide.
- **Service integrator** — white-label partner; manages their own customer fleet.

## Security & compliance

- Self-hostable under Apache License 2.0 — keep all data inside your perimeter.
- SSO workspace add-on — SAML 2.0 with just-in-time provisioning (Okta, Entra ID, Google Workspace); SCIM 2.0 lifecycle sync is on the roadmap.
- AI Audit Trail add-on — immutable record of every prompt, model, scope, artifact diff, and user. One-click exports for EU AI Act, SOC 2, ISO 27001.
- Policy Engine add-on — deterministic guardrails defined as policy-as-code; the AI cannot violate them.
- Encrypted credential vault per organisation; credentials never leave the customer's environment.

## Long-form content (journal + pillar guides)

For the canonical answer to "how do I use AI in ServiceNow," start with the pillar guide:

- **[How to use AI in ServiceNow](https://serac.build/use-cases/ai-in-servicenow)** — Long-form pillar guide comparing ServiceNow Build Agent (GA at Knowledge 2026), building it yourself, and Serac. Covers developer, PO, and CTO perspectives with a comparison table, the autonomous build flow, mobile workflow architecture, and an FAQ.

The journal collects working notes by audience:

- [The user story I finished on a train ride home](https://serac.build/blog/user-story-finished-on-a-train) — developer perspective. Picking up an Azure DevOps story on mobile, the agent reading the schema and existing patterns, autonomous build, desktop review later that evening. Honest about what the agent did not do.

- [What AI does to backlog economics — a framework for POs](https://serac.build/blog/what-ai-did-to-our-backlog-economics) — product owner perspective. A framework for thinking about what an AI build agent does to story-point distributions, refinement quality, lead time, and sprint shape. What to measure, what to expect, where the patterns hold.

- [The TCO of AI in a ServiceNow practice — a framework](https://serac.build/blog/tco-of-ai-in-our-servicenow-practice) — CTO perspective. How to think about total cost of ownership across ServiceNow Build Agent, build-your-own, and an open-source agent like Serac. Seat economics, EU AI Act exposure, vendor lock-in, hiring signal — with a worked 30-developer example labelled clearly as illustrative.

- [How our team picks up Azure DevOps stories from their phone](https://serac.build/blog/azure-devops-mobile-workflow) — workflow walk-through. Push notification → agent reads → plan in 90s → server-side build → diff ready → desktop review → shipped before lunch. Architectural choices that make the mobile part actually work.

- [ServiceNow Build Agent, building it yourself, or Serac — an honest comparison](https://serac.build/blog/build-agent-vs-build-yourself-vs-serac) — buyer's guide. Three-path comparison by procurement-meeting questions. Same product category (autonomous build agent for ServiceNow), three different licences and LLM relationships. Audience, unit of work, compliance, cost curve, exit cost. Where each option wins and where it fails.

- [Why open source matters for AI in ServiceNow](https://serac.build/blog/why-open-source-matters-for-ai-in-servicenow) — governance perspective. Open-source as procurement and compliance posture. Inspectable prompts, readable tools, EU AI Act transparency, the Apache License 2.0 specifics.

## Where to go next

- [Home](https://serac.build/)
- [Pricing](https://serac.build/pricing)
- [Use case: How to use AI in ServiceNow](https://serac.build/use-cases/ai-in-servicenow)
- [Journal](https://serac.build/blog)
- [Roles](https://serac.build/roles)
- [Documentation](https://docs.serac.build)
- [GitHub repo](https://github.com/serac-labs/serac)
- [Public roadmap](https://github.com/serac-labs/serac/issues)
- [Discord](https://discord.gg/uGGrWj9KsT)
- [Status](https://status.serac.build)