---
title: Delegated development access
description: Delegated development scopes playbook access to edit Playbook content within a single application, including Playbooks and Activity Definitions. Users can still use activity definitions from other scopes within their playbooks.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/build-workflows/workflow-studio/delegated-development-access.html
release: australia
product: Workflow Studio
classification: workflow-studio
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-09-10"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Managing playbook permissions, Configure, Playbooks, Workflow Studio, Build workflows]
---

# Delegated development access

Delegated development scopes playbook access to edit Playbook content within a single application, including Playbooks and Activity Definitions. Users can still use activity definitions from other scopes within their playbooks.

Delegated development grants playbook access within one application rather than across the instance. Create an application, assign users as developers on it, and grant them Playbooks permission. Delegated development controls whether playbook authors reach features that are otherwise restricted to admin users.

For general information about delegated development, see [Delegated development and deployment](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/application-development/c_DelegatedDevelopment.md) and [Developer and deployment permissions](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/application-development/developer-permissions.md).

## Roles granted

A user added as a delegated developer for Playbooks receives two roles automatically: the delegated\_developer role and an application-specific role generated by the delegated development framework in the form sn\_dd\_\[appname\]\_processautomationdesigner. Granting delegated admin access instead produces sn\_dd\_\[appname\]\_delegatedadmin.

## Application scope

A delegated developer must switch from the Global application scope to the scope of their assigned application. Until they do, Workflow Studio isn't available. Access checks resolve against the current application scope.

## Access to activity definitions

Delegated developers reach all activity definitions by default, through the out-of-box content filtering rule that grants access to users with the delegated\_developer role. For more information, see [Content filtering for Playbook](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/build-workflows/workflow-studio/content-filtering-playbooks.md).

-   **[Grant delegated access to playbooks](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/build-workflows/workflow-studio/grant-delegated-access-to-playbooks.md)**  
Assign a user as a delegated developer so they can build playbooks within one application.

**Parent Topic:**[Managing playbook permissions](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/build-workflows/workflow-studio/playbook-permissions.md)