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Version: v2.0

Development setup

Goal: from clone to a green build in under ten minutes, with the same toolchain CI uses. You have two paths — the dev container gives you everything preconfigured in one click; the local path is for people who prefer their own environment.

Prerequisites​

  • Git, and a GitHub account for your fork.
  • A ServiceNow instance — only needed for integration/e2e work, not for building or unit tests. A free Personal Developer Instance is enough.

The repository ships a dev-container definition with Go, golangci-lint, just, and the editor extensions already installed — the environment CI runs is the environment you develop in.

  1. Install Docker or Podman, plus the Dev Containers extension for VS Code.
  2. Fork and clone: 
    git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/servicenow-sdk-go.git
  3. Open the folder in VS Code and click "Reopen in Container" when prompted. First launch builds the image; later launches are instant.

Path 2: Local toolchain​

  • Go 1.25 or higher.
  • golangci-lint — the lint gate CI enforces (config: .golangci.yml).
  • just (optional) — a command runner wrapping the common tasks (just build, just lint, just fmt).
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/servicenow-sdk-go.git
cd servicenow-sdk-go
go mod download

The moment of success​

Three commands, three green results — after this you're ready to make changes:

go build ./...            # compiles every package
go test ./...             # unit tests (fast, no network, no instance)
golangci-lint run ./...   # the same lint gate as CI

If all three pass on a fresh clone, your environment is correct. If you'll be editing docs too, just setup-docs then just serve-docs runs this site locally (Node 20+).

Credentials for integration and e2e tests​

Unit tests never need credentials. The integration suite mocks HTTP too — but its configuration, and the e2e suite's real connections, read a .env file in the project root (git ignores it):

SN_INSTANCE=your_instance_name
SN_USERNAME=your_username
SN_PASSWORD=your_password

The testing guide covers when each suite runs and how to invoke them.

Next steps​

Environment ready — where next depends on what you came to do:

  • Shipping your first contribution? Go straight to Your first PR — it picks up exactly here, with the timer already running.
  • Building features? Read the architecture page to follow one request through the codebase before you start changing it.
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