Data Commands

Contents

snow table

Table API CRUD operations. Output defaults to a terminal-friendly table; use --json for raw JSON.

# Query records (table format by default)
snow table get incident -q "active=true^priority=1" -l 20
snow table get incident -q "active=true" -f "number,short_description,assigned_to" -l 50

# Output as JSON array
snow table get incident -q "active=true" -l 5 --json

# Fetch a single record by sys_id
snow table fetch incident <sys_id>
snow table fetch incident <sys_id> -f "number,state,short_description"

# Create a record
snow table create incident -d '{"short_description":"VPN issue","urgency":"2","category":"network"}'

# Update a record
snow table update incident <sys_id> -d '{"state":"6","close_notes":"Resolved"}'

# Delete a record (prompts for confirmation)
snow table delete incident <sys_id>
snow table delete incident <sys_id> --yes   # skip confirmation

snow table get flags

Flag Description
-q, --query <sysparm_query> ServiceNow encoded query string
-f, --fields <fields> Comma-separated field list to return
-l, --limit <n> Max records (default: 20)
-o, --offset <n> Pagination offset (default: 0)
--display-value Return display values instead of raw values
--json Output as a JSON array instead of a table

Output behaviour: When a query returns more fields than can fit in the terminal, the CLI automatically switches to a card layout (one record per block). Use -f to select specific fields for tabular output.

snow schema

Inspect field definitions for any table, or generate a full cross-table schema map.

Field inspection 

snow schema incident
snow schema sys_user --filter email         # filter fields by name or label
snow schema cmdb_ci_server --format json    # JSON output

Output columns: field name, label, type, max length, and flags (M = mandatory, R = read-only, ref=<table> for reference fields).

snow schema map

Crawl a table’s reference and M2M fields to generate a complete relational schema diagram. Outputs Mermaid (.mmd) or DBML (.dbml) to disk.

# Mermaid diagram, depth 2 (default)
snow schema map incident

# DBML format, custom filename, saved to a directory
snow schema map incident --format dbml --out ./diagrams --name incident-full

# Follow 3 levels of references
snow schema map incident --depth 3

# Include glide_list (M2M) relationships
snow schema map incident --show-m2m

# Also crawl tables that reference incident (inbound — keep depth low)
snow schema map incident --inbound --depth 1

# Include choice field enum blocks in DBML output
snow schema map incident --format dbml --enums

# Generate the diagram then have the AI explain the data model
snow schema map incident --explain

Options:

Flag Default Description
-d, --depth <n> 2 How many levels of reference fields to follow
--show-m2m off Include glide_list fields as many-to-many relationships
--format <fmt> mermaid Output format: mermaid or dbml
--out <dir> . Directory to write the output file(s)
--name <name> <table>-schema Base filename — extension added automatically
--inbound off Also crawl tables that have reference fields pointing to this table
--enums off Fetch sys_choice values and emit Enum blocks (DBML) or %% comments (Mermaid)
--explain off Use the active AI provider to generate a plain-English explanation of the schema

Output files:

Format File Open with
Mermaid <name>.mmd VS Code Mermaid Preview, GitHub, mermaid.live
DBML <name>.dbml dbdiagram.io, any DBML-compatible tool
Explanation <name>.explanation.md Any Markdown viewer (--explain only)

How the crawl works:

  1. Fetches all fields for the root table from sys_dictionary, plus label and sys_scope via sys_db_object
  2. For every reference-type field, records the relationship and queues the target table
  3. Repeats for each discovered table until --depth is reached
  4. With --show-m2m: also follows glide_list fields, shown as many-to-many edges
  5. With --inbound: additionally queues tables that have reference fields pointing to the current table
  6. Tables referenced outside the crawl depth are rendered as stub placeholders so all references resolve without broken links

Cardinality notation:

Relationship Mermaid Meaning
Reference field }o--\|\| Many records → one target
Glide list (M2M) }o--o{ Many records ↔ many targets

AI explanation (--explain): Requires a configured AI provider (snow provider set). After writing the schema file, the CLI sends the schema content to the active LLM and saves the Markdown response to <name>.explanation.md.

snow bulk

Bulk update multiple records in one command. Fetches matching records, shows a preview, asks for confirmation, then patches each record.

# Preview affected records without making changes
snow bulk update incident -q "active=true^priority=1" --set state=2 --dry-run

# Update with confirmation prompt
snow bulk update incident -q "active=true^priority=1" --set state=2 --set assigned_to=admin

# Skip confirmation (useful in scripts)
snow bulk update sys_user -q "department=IT^active=true" --set location=NYC --yes

# Cap the number of records updated
snow bulk update incident -q "active=true" --set impact=2 --limit 50

Options:

Flag Description
-q, --query <query> ServiceNow encoded query to select records (required)
-s, --set <field=value> Field assignment — repeat for multiple fields (required)
-l, --limit <n> Max records to update (default: 200)
--dry-run Show preview without making changes
--yes Skip confirmation prompt

The preview table shows the sys_id, display name, and new values for every record that will be updated.

snow-cli — MIT License