Each record in the instance is identified with a unique 18-character ID called a sys_id.
Record ID must be unique within the same table (including records in parent/child tables).
Record ID value cannot be changed.

How to get a record ID

The record ID can be obtained in several ways, manually and automatically (via API).

Getting the sys_id from the record URL

The record sys_id is always a part of the URL that leads to this record, so you can retrieve the sys_id from the URL.

For example, an article record with the URL as in the example below has a sys_id equal to '158815469913225806'. 

https://<instance_url>/record/article/158815469913225806

It can be obtained either from the browser address bar or by copying the URL of the item at the navigation panel or on the list view.

Getting the sys_id from the script

The sys_id can be retrieved not only manually but using scripting, too.

• The sys_id of the record can be found by a server-side script (like business rule) from the SimpleRecord object:

ss.addInfoMessage(current.sys_id);

• The sys_id of a record can be found in client-side script using s_form.getUniqueValue() method.