Reading Flows

Point flowctl at a flow and it reconstructs the entire structure from the SN API.

flowctl --instance https://myco.service-now.com \
  --sys-id a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4 \
  --user admin

Output Formats

Flag	What you get
`--format full`	Text description + tree diagram (default)
`--format text`	Prose description with all metadata
`--format tree`	ASCII flow diagram with icons
`--format yaml`	Structured YAML

Full prose output: flow name, trigger, inputs/outputs, every step with its configured values. Good for reading through the flow logic.

flowctl --instance https://myco.service-now.com --sys-id <id> --format text

ASCII flow diagram with box-drawing characters and step icons. Shows the flow structure at a glance.

flowctl --instance https://myco.service-now.com --sys-id <id> --format tree

Machine-readable output. Display/value JSON objects are expanded as nested YAML. Useful for piping into other tools.

flowctl --instance https://myco.service-now.com --sys-id <id> --format yaml

--values — shows configured input values on each step (conditions, field mappings, scripts).

--inputs — shows the action type’s input schema per step. Triggers extra API calls to fetch input definitions.

--no-color — disable ANSI colors. Also respects NO_COLOR env var.

--debug — prints every API call to stderr. Useful when something looks wrong.

--output json — wraps the result in JSON for scripting (see JSON Output).

Need to create or update flows? See Pro features