Every 5 minutes

Post new high-priority ServiceNow incidents to Slack

Every new priority 1 or 2 incident appears in your IT Slack channel within minutes, with its number, short description and a link.

Runs: Every 5 minutes
Apps: ServiceNow, Slack
AI: Not needed
Access: ServiceNow itil read; Slack chat:write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every 5 minutes, post new ServiceNow incidents with priority 1 or 2 to #it-ops with the number, short description, assignment group and a link.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

The IT team at a mid-sized logistics company logs everything in ServiceNow, but nobody sits watching the incident queue. When the warehouse scanning system goes down at 7am, the incident is logged by the service desk and then waits for someone to refresh a list. Meanwhile the team is chatting in Slack, unaware.

This automation brings urgent incidents to where the team already is. Every 5 minutes it checks ServiceNow for new priority 1 and 2 incidents and posts each one to #it-ops with the number, short description, assignment group and a link. The right people see it straight away and can swarm on it in a thread.

What you get out of it

Faster response to outages
Minutes matter in a major incident. Seeing it in Slack as soon as it is logged means the response starts sooner and the business loses less time.
Only the incidents that need attention
Filtering to priority 1 and 2 keeps the channel focused. People take the alerts seriously because they are not drowned in routine tickets.
A place to coordinate
Each incident gets its own Slack message, so the team can discuss it in a thread. Updates stay together and anyone joining late can catch up quickly.
One click to the full record
The link opens the incident in ServiceNow. Updates and resolution notes still go where they belong.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every 5 minutes, ClickRuntime asks ServiceNow for incidents created since its last check with priority 1 or 2.
It remembers the time of the newest incident it has seen, so each one is only posted once.
Each new incident is posted to your #it-ops Slack channel with its number, priority, short description, assignment group and a link.

Before it runs live

Connect ServiceNow
Connect Slack, then invite the app to the channel (type /invite @ClickRuntime there)

What you get

RunsEvery 5 minutes

Post new high-priority ServiceNow incidents to Slacktoday, 9:00Succeeded

Slack · #it-ops🚨 INC0012345 (1 - Critical): Warehouse scanners offline at Dock 3. Group: Network Operations

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Google Sheets
Combine it with other ServiceNow and Slack steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

post_new_servicenow_incidents_to_slack.pyexample

from datetime import datetime, timezone
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state, notify, report_fetched

INSTANCE = "northwind.service-now.com"

def sn(method, path, **kw):
    r = http.request(method, f"https://{INSTANCE}/api/now/table/{path}", auth=(credentials.secret("SERVICENOW_USER"), credentials.secret("SERVICENOW_PASSWORD")),
                     headers={"Accept": "application/json"}, **kw)
    r.raise_for_status()
    return r.json()["result"]

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    since = state.get("since") or datetime.now(timezone.utc).strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
    incidents = sn("GET", "incident", params={"sysparm_query": f"sys_created_on>{since}^priorityIN1,2^ORDERBYsys_created_on",
                                              "sysparm_display_value": "true", "sysparm_fields": "sys_id,number,priority,short_description,assignment_group,sys_created_on"})
    report_fetched(len(incidents))
    if not incidents:
        return {"posted": 0}
    for inc in incidents:
        group = (inc.get("assignment_group") or {}).get("display_value", "unassigned")
        notify.slack(f"🚨 {inc['number']} ({inc['priority']}): {inc['short_description']}\nGroup: {group}\nhttps://{INSTANCE}/incident.do?sys_id={inc['sys_id']}", channel="#it-ops")
    state.set("since", incidents[-1]["sys_created_on"])
    return {"posted": len(incidents)}

FAQ

Common questions

Can I change which incidents are posted?

Yes. Filter by any field, such as priority, category or assignment group. You can also send different groups' incidents to different channels.

Does it post updates when an incident changes?

This automation posts each new incident once. Status changes can be added as replies in the same thread if you want them.

Can ServiceNow send incidents instantly instead?

Yes. A ServiceNow business rule can send each new incident to a trigger link, which removes the 5-minute wait. Checking every 5 minutes needs no changes in ServiceNow.

What permissions does it need?

ServiceNow itil read; Slack chat:write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

On a schedule