Playbooks release notes

---
title: Playbooks release notes
description: The ServiceNow Playbook helps you automate complex business processes. See the following sections for release notes by version.This release introduces the ability to view conditional activities and the preferred execution path of playbooks.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/release-notes/playbooks-rn.html
release: australia
topic_type: topic
last_updated: "2026-09-10"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Workflow Studio release notes, App development and low-code release notes, Features and changes by product, Release notes for upgrading from Australia, Learn about the Brazil release, Brazil release notes]
---

# Playbooks release notes

The ServiceNow® Playbook helps you automate complex business processes. See the following sections for release notes by version.

## About Playbook

-   Playbooks are structured, guided workflows that lead users, agents, or technicians through the steps required to complete a business process, such as case resolution or work order fulfillment.
-   Playbooks consist of sequential stages, each containing activities that can be manual tasks, automated actions, or guided decisions, ensuring consistency and conformance across records.
-   Benefits include eliminating the need to memorize processes, providing real‑time guidance, automating routine steps, and enabling administrators to update processes centrally, which applies to all users.
-   Playbooks support use cases across multiple domains.

See  for more information.

## Activation and other requirements

-   **Activation information**

    The Playbook application comes with the Workflow Studio ServiceNow® Store app. Workflow Studio is part of the ServiceNow AI Platform® and is available by default. Get the latest Workflow Studio features by downloading the latest Workflow Studio app in the ServiceNow® Store, as well as related applications like Process Automation Content and Process Automation Experience Demo. The Playbook application can be downloaded for patch fixes.

    To use playbook generation features in Workflow Studio, download the ServiceNow Otto for Creator application.

-   **Upgrade information**

    After you upgrade to Brazil, update the Workflow Studio application in the ServiceNow® Store.


**Parent Topic:**[Workflow Studio release notes](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/release-notes/workflow-studio-rn-landing.md)

## Brazil Early Availability

This release introduces the ability to view conditional activities and the preferred execution path of playbooks.

### What's new

-   **Ideal path for a playbook**

    Use ideal path to identify the intended execution path or view upcoming work hidden behind conditions. Ideal Path enables playbook authors to define and visualize the preferred process route. The end users of a playbook gets runtime visibility into the expected workflow path, improving process clarity, usability, and observability.