Creator Studio roles and personas

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Creator Studio roles and personas

    Creator Studio roles regulate permissions for configuring and using Creator Studio within your ServiceNow instance. These roles help control who can create apps, collaborate on app development, and manage approval workflows, preventing redundant or unused apps from filling your environment. Administrators assign these roles based on user responsibilities and persona types.

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    Key Personas and Their Roles

    • Low-code/Citizen Developer: Tech-savvy users without formal development training who can submit app ideas and build approved apps. They hold either the sncreatorstudio.user or sncreatorstudio.restricteduser role.
    • App Engine Admin: Manage app development processes, review app ideas, approve deployments, and handle collaborators, typically via the App Engine Management Center. They hold the appengineadmin role and belong to the appengineadmin group.
    • Security Admin: Responsible for creating and modifying roles and access control lists at the platform level, necessary for managing Creator Studio roles.
    • System Administrator: Has unrestricted access to all system features and data and should be assigned cautiously, especially when sensitive information is involved.

    Creator Studio Roles and Permissions

    • Creator Studio User (sncreatorstudio.user): Can create apps and is automatically delegated as the app owner with development permissions.
    • Creator Studio Restricted User (sncreatorstudio.restricteduser): Cannot create apps but can request app creation and work on apps they’re designated developers for, gaining delegated developer access for those apps.
    • App Engine Admin (appengineadmin): Approves app creation requests and collaboration invitations. Has access to additional write permissions necessary for administration.
    • Now Assist for Creator (now.assist.creator): Enables access to Now Assist skills to create forms within Creator Studio.

    User Groups and Access Management

    User groups simplify managing Creator Studio access by bundling roles:

    • Creator Studio Users: Automatically approved to create apps; includes the sncreatorstudio.user role.
    • Creator Studio Restricted Users: Must request app creation on their behalf; includes the sncreatorstudio.restricteduser role.

    App Development and Testing Considerations

    • Users with Creator Studio roles cannot test apps in the non-production instance’s Request App Workspace but can use app previews in Creator Studio for testing.
    • Users can fulfill requests only if assigned the appropriate roles (e.g., xacmeuserapp.agent), which administrators must assign separately.

    Collaboration and Version Compatibility

    • Collaboration workflows may be impacted if production and non-production instances are on different versions of the ServiceNow AI Platform.
    • To ensure collaboration approval workflows function across versions, administrators must assign the catalogbuildereditor role to Creator Studio user groups.
    • Collaborator permissions are managed on a per-app basis; users must be invited or request access to work on specific apps.

    Roles control what everyone you work with can do in Creator Studio. Administrators assign roles to give team members permission to configure or use Creator Studio.

    The two roles for Creator Studio are used to restrict access from creating new apps, which helps make sure your instance isn't overfilled with redundant, unplanned, or unused apps.

    Personas that use Creator Studio

    Personas aren’t explicitly part of Creator Studio, but administrators assign roles to give team members permission to configure or use Creator Studio.

    Low-code/citizen developer
    Low-code/citizen developers are tech savvy and interested in creating apps. Though they might not have formal coding or app development training, citizen developers can submit ideas for new apps and, if approved, build them using Creator Studio.

    Low-code/citizen developers have either the sn_creatorstudio.user or sn_creatorstudio.restricted_user role.

    App Engine admin
    App Engine admins manage all processes related to app development in Creator Studio. They review new app ideas, handle app deployment, and manage collaborators, usually in the App Engine Management Center.

    App Engine admins have the app_engine_admin role and must be in the app_engine_admin group.

    Security admin
    The security admin creates and modifies roles and access control lists for apps. This role is set on the platform level, and it is required for making updates to roles in Creator Studio.
    System administrator
    The system administrator has access to all system features, functions, and data, regardless of security constraints. Grant this privilege carefully. If you have sensitive information, such as HR records, that you must protect, create a custom admin role for that area and train a person who is authorized to see those records to act as the administrator.

    Roles and what they can do in Creator Studio

    In addition to the roles in the following table, users with the admin and delegated_developer roles can also access Creator Studio.

    For complete details on which roles each role contains, see Components installed with Creator Studio.

    Table 1. Creator Studio roles
    Role Name Description
    Creator Studio User sn_creatorstudio.user
    • Users can create apps in Creator Studio.
    • The user is automatically delegated as the app owner. For more information, see Delegated development and deployment.
    • Contains sn_g_app_creator.app_creator.
    Note:
    This role gets assigned the delegated_developer role when they create or get access to an app.
    Creator Studio Restricted User sn_creatorstudio.restricted_user
    • Users can't create apps in Creator Studio.
    • Users can request apps to be created for them, and to work on an app.
    • Users can work on apps that they've been designated as developers for.
    • When assigned to work on an app, this user gets the delegated_developer role for that app.
    App Engine Admin app_engine_admin
    • Approve requests from restricted users to create an app.
    • Approve collaboration requests.
    • Select other development environments from the experience switcher.
    • Contains sn_creator_studio.admin_write and sn_creator_studio.basic_write to enable admins to see the apps they need to approve.
    Now Assist for Creator now.assist.creator Grants users access to Now Assist for Creator skills to create forms in Creator Studio.
    Note:

    To ensure that users can use the Collaboration Approval Workflow regardless of instance versions, admins must assign the catalog _builder_editor role to Creator Studio user groups.

    User groups and what they can do in Creator Studio

    Groups are a standard functionality that help you quickly control people's access to Creator Studio by adding them to a group.

    Table 2. Creator studio user groups
    Group Description
    Creator Studio Users
    • Users are automatically approved to create apps in Creator Studio.
    • Contains sn_creatorstudio.user.
    Creator Studio Restricted Users
    • Users in this group need to request applications be created in Creator Studio on their behalf.
    • Contains sn_creatorstudio.restricted_user.

    Developer roles and testing apps on instances

    If you have a Creator Studio role of sn_creatorstudio.user or sn_creatorstudio.restricted_user, you won't be able to test the apps you build on the non-production instance's Request App Workspace. You should be able to test the app on the non-production instance using Creator Studio's app previews. You will be able to test the apps as a fulfiller in the workspace on the app that's been deployed to production.

    Use case:

    Let's say that a user is in the Creator Studio Users group, so when that user builds an app, that user gets delegated development permissions for that app. That user can then publish a request form, and if there are no roles required for the form, that user can submit requests with the form.

    However, that user won't be able to fulfill requests or access the Request App Workspace because that user won't have the x_acme_user_app.agent role, and that user can't give that role to themself. Administrators must assign additional roles as necessary.

    Collaboration roles and instances on different versions

    As admins implement Creator Studio, they may have it installed on a non-production instance while their production instance is on a previous version of the ServiceNow AI Platform that doesn't have Creator Studio. This mis-match of instance versions affects the Collaboration Approval Workflow, which specifies the non-production instance as the source and the production instance as the controller. If the controller doesn't have the version of the collaboration plugin that supports Creator Studio, collaboration is unsupported.

    To ensure that users can use the Collaboration Approval Workflow regardless of instance versions, admins must assign the catalog _builder_editor role to Creator Studio user groups.

    Roles and app development collaboration

    Roles define user access to Creator Studio. Permission to work on individual apps is controlled on an app-by-app basis. That is, you must manage the collaborators for each app by inviting other citizen developers to work on the app with you, or request to join someone else's app. For more information, see Collaborating with others to build apps in Creator Studio.