What is Grafana MCP Server?

Grafana MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Grafana that provides access to your Grafana instance and its ecosystem. It allows users to search dashboards, query datasources, investigate incidents, and more through a standardized protocol.

How to use Grafana MCP Server?

Create a Grafana service account with the necessary permissions and generate an API key.
Install the MCP server using one of the following methods:
- Docker image
- Download a pre-built binary
- Build from source
Configure the server in your client application (like Claude Desktop or VSCode) with appropriate environment variables.
Use the available tools and commands to interact with Grafana.
Optionally, enable debug mode for troubleshooting or configure TLS for secure connections.

Key features of Grafana MCP Server

Dashboard Management: Search, retrieve, update, and create dashboards
Datasource Interaction: List and fetch information about datasources (Prometheus, Loki)
Query Execution: Run PromQL, LogQL, and Pyroscope queries
Incident Management: Search, create, update, and resolve incidents
Sift Investigations: Create and manage investigations for log and trace analysis
Alerting: List and fetch alert rules and statuses
OnCall Management: View schedules, shifts, and teams in Grafana OnCall
Admin Tools: List teams and users
Configuration Options: Disable specific tool categories to optimize context window usage

Use cases of Grafana MCP Server

Automating dashboard management and monitoring workflows
Building custom incident response systems
Creating advanced log and trace analysis tools
Developing Grafana integration into AI assistants
Securely connecting to Grafana instances behind mTLS

FAQ from Grafana MCP Server

What is the default transport mode?

The Docker image defaults to SSE mode, but CLI/binary use defaults to STDIO mode.
**How do I override the default transport mode? **

Use the -t flag with Docker (e.g., -t stdio) or specify the transport mode directly in the command-line.
What datasources are supported?

Currently, Prometheus, Loki, and Pyroscope datasources are supported, with more coming in future updates.
How do I configure TLS for secure connections?

Use the TLS configuration flags (--tls-cert-file, --tls-key-file, etc.) when starting the server.
What should I do if I encounter authentication issues?

Ensure your Grafana service account has the correct permissions and that the API key is properly set in the environment variables.

Grafana MCP server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Grafana.

This provides access to your Grafana instance and the surrounding ecosystem.

Features

The following features are currently available in MCP server. This list is for informational purposes only and does not represent a roadmap or commitment to future features.

Dashboards

Search for dashboards: Find dashboards by title or other metadata
Get dashboard by UID: Retrieve full dashboard details using its unique identifier
Update or create a dashboard: Modify existing dashboards or create new ones. Note: Use with caution due to context window limitations; see issue #101
Get panel queries and datasource info: Get the title, query string, and datasource information (including UID and type, if available) from every panel in a dashboard

Datasources

List and fetch datasource information: View all configured datasources and retrieve detailed information about each.
- Supported datasource types: Prometheus, Loki.

Prometheus Querying

Query Prometheus: Execute PromQL queries (supports both instant and range metric queries) against Prometheus datasources.
Query Prometheus metadata: Retrieve metric metadata, metric names, label names, and label values from Prometheus datasources.

Loki Querying

Query Loki logs and metrics: Run both log queries and metric queries using LogQL against Loki datasources.
Query Loki metadata: Retrieve label names, label values, and stream statistics from Loki datasources.

Incidents

Search, create, update, and close incidents: Manage incidents in Grafana Incident, including searching, creating, updating, and resolving incidents.

Sift Investigations

Create Sift investigations: Start a new Sift investigation for analyzing logs or traces.
List Sift investigations: Retrieve a list of Sift investigations, with support for a limit parameter.
Get Sift investigation: Retrieve details of a specific Sift investigation by its UUID.
Get Sift analyses: Retrieve a specific analysis from a Sift investigation.
Find error patterns in logs: Detect elevated error patterns in Loki logs using Sift.
Find slow requests: Detect slow requests using Sift (Tempo).

Alerting

List and fetch alert rule information: View alert rules and their statuses (firing/normal/error/etc.) in Grafana.
List contact points: View configured notification contact points in Grafana.

Grafana OnCall

List and manage schedules: View and manage on-call schedules in Grafana OnCall.
Get shift details: Retrieve detailed information about specific on-call shifts.
Get current on-call users: See which users are currently on call for a schedule.
List teams and users: View all OnCall teams and users.

Admin

List teams: View all configured teams in Grafana.

The list of tools is configurable, so you can choose which tools you want to make available to the MCP client. This is useful if you don't use certain functionality or if you don't want to take up too much of the context window. To disable a category of tools, use the --disable-<category> flag when starting the server. For example, to disable the OnCall tools, use --disable-oncall.

Tools

Tool	Category	Description
`list_teams`	Admin	List all teams
`search_dashboards`	Search	Search for dashboards
`get_dashboard_by_uid`	Dashboard	Get a dashboard by uid
`update_dashboard`	Dashboard	Update or create a new dashboard
`get_dashboard_panel_queries`	Dashboard	Get panel title, queries, datasource UID and type from a dashboard
`list_datasources`	Datasources	List datasources
`get_datasource_by_uid`	Datasources	Get a datasource by uid
`get_datasource_by_name`	Datasources	Get a datasource by name
`query_prometheus`	Prometheus	Execute a query against a Prometheus datasource
`list_prometheus_metric_metadata`	Prometheus	List metric metadata
`list_prometheus_metric_names`	Prometheus	List available metric names
`list_prometheus_label_names`	Prometheus	List label names matching a selector
`list_prometheus_label_values`	Prometheus	List values for a specific label
`list_incidents`	Incident	List incidents in Grafana Incident
`create_incident`	Incident	Create an incident in Grafana Incident
`add_activity_to_incident`	Incident	Add an activity item to an incident in Grafana Incident
`resolve_incident`	Incident	Resolve an incident in Grafana Incident
`query_loki_logs`	Loki	Query and retrieve logs using LogQL (either log or metric queries)
`list_loki_label_names`	Loki	List all available label names in logs
`list_loki_label_values`	Loki	List values for a specific log label
`query_loki_stats`	Loki	Get statistics about log streams
`list_alert_rules`	Alerting	List alert rules
`get_alert_rule_by_uid`	Alerting	Get alert rule by UID
`list_oncall_schedules`	OnCall	List schedules from Grafana OnCall
`get_oncall_shift`	OnCall	Get details for a specific OnCall shift
`get_current_oncall_users`	OnCall	Get users currently on-call for a specific schedule
`list_oncall_teams`	OnCall	List teams from Grafana OnCall
`list_oncall_users`	OnCall	List users from Grafana OnCall
`get_investigation`	Sift	Retrieve an existing Sift investigation by its UUID
`get_analysis`	Sift	Retrieve a specific analysis from a Sift investigation
`list_investigations`	Sift	Retrieve a list of Sift investigations with an optional limit
`find_error_pattern_logs`	Sift	Finds elevated error patterns in Loki logs.
`find_slow_requests`	Sift	Finds slow requests from the relevant tempo datasources.
`list_pyroscope_label_names`	Pyroscope	List label names matching a selector
`list_pyroscope_label_values`	Pyroscope	List label values matching a selector for a label name
`list_pyroscope_profile_types`	Pyroscope	List available profile types
`fetch_pyroscope_profile`	Pyroscope	Fetches a profile in DOT format for analysis

Usage

Create a service account in Grafana with enough permissions to use the tools you want to use, generate a service account token, and copy it to the clipboard for use in the configuration file. Follow the Grafana documentation for details.
You have several options to install mcp-grafana:
- Docker image: Use the pre-built Docker image from Docker Hub.
  
  Important: The Docker image's entrypoint is configured to run the MCP server in SSE mode by default, but most users will want to use STDIO mode for direct integration with AI assistants like Claude Desktop:
  1. STDIO Mode: For stdio mode you must explicitly override the default with -t stdio and include the -i flag to keep stdin open:
```
docker pull mcp/grafana
docker run --rm -i -e GRAFANA_URL=http://localhost:3000 -e GRAFANA_API_KEY=<your service account token> mcp/grafana -t stdio
```
  1. SSE Mode: In this mode, the server runs as an HTTP server that clients connect to. You must expose port 8000 using the -p flag:
```
docker pull mcp/grafana
docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 -e GRAFANA_URL=http://localhost:3000 -e GRAFANA_API_KEY=<your service account token> mcp/grafana
```
  1. Streamable HTTP Mode: In this mode, the server operates as an independent process that can handle multiple client connections. You must expose port 8000 using the -p flag: For this mode you must explicitly override the default with -t streamable-http
```
docker pull mcp/grafana
docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 -e GRAFANA_URL=http://localhost:3000 -e GRAFANA_API_KEY=<your service account token> mcp/grafana -t streamable-http
```
- Download binary: Download the latest release of mcp-grafana from the releases page and place it in your $PATH.
- Build from source: If you have a Go toolchain installed you can also build and install it from source, using the GOBIN environment variable to specify the directory where the binary should be installed. This should also be in your PATH.
```
GOBIN="$HOME/go/bin" go install github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana/cmd/mcp-grafana@latest
```

Add the server configuration to your client configuration file. For example, for Claude Desktop:

If using the binary:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "mcp-grafana",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "GRAFANA_API_KEY": "<your service account token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: if you see Error: spawn mcp-grafana ENOENT in Claude Desktop, you need to specify the full path to mcp-grafana.

If using Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "GRAFANA_URL",
        "-e",
        "GRAFANA_API_KEY",
        "mcp/grafana",
        "-t",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "GRAFANA_API_KEY": "<your service account token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: The -t stdio argument is essential here because it overrides the default SSE mode in the Docker image.

Using VSCode with remote MCP server

If you're using VSCode and running the MCP server in SSE mode (which is the default when using the Docker image without overriding the transport), make sure your .vscode/settings.json includes the following:

"mcp": {
  "servers": {
    "grafana": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/sse"
    }
  }
}

Debug Mode

You can enable debug mode for the Grafana transport by adding the -debug flag to the command. This will provide detailed logging of HTTP requests and responses between the MCP server and the Grafana API, which can be helpful for troubleshooting.

To use debug mode with the Claude Desktop configuration, update your config as follows:

If using the binary:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "mcp-grafana",
      "args": ["-debug"],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "GRAFANA_API_KEY": "<your service account token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

If using Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "GRAFANA_URL",
        "-e",
        "GRAFANA_API_KEY",
        "mcp/grafana",
        "-t",
        "stdio",
        "-debug"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "GRAFANA_API_KEY": "<your service account token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: As with the standard configuration, the -t stdio argument is required to override the default SSE mode in the Docker image.

TLS Configuration

If your Grafana instance is behind mTLS or requires custom TLS certificates, you can configure the MCP server to use custom certificates. The server supports the following TLS configuration options:

--tls-cert-file: Path to TLS certificate file for client authentication
--tls-key-file: Path to TLS private key file for client authentication
--tls-ca-file: Path to TLS CA certificate file for server verification
--tls-skip-verify: Skip TLS certificate verification (insecure, use only for testing)

Example with client certificate authentication:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "mcp-grafana",
      "args": [
        "--tls-cert-file", "/path/to/client.crt",
        "--tls-key-file", "/path/to/client.key",
        "--tls-ca-file", "/path/to/ca.crt"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "https://secure-grafana.example.com",
        "GRAFANA_API_KEY": "<your service account token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-v", "/path/to/certs:/certs:ro",
        "-e", "GRAFANA_URL",
        "-e", "GRAFANA_API_KEY",
        "mcp/grafana",
        "-t", "stdio",
        "--tls-cert-file", "/certs/client.crt",
        "--tls-key-file", "/certs/client.key",
        "--tls-ca-file", "/certs/ca.crt"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "https://secure-grafana.example.com",
        "GRAFANA_API_KEY": "<your service account token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

The TLS configuration is applied to all HTTP clients used by the MCP server, including:

The main Grafana OpenAPI client
Prometheus datasource clients
Loki datasource clients
Incident management clients
Sift investigation clients
Alerting clients
Asserts clients

Direct CLI Usage Examples:

For testing with self-signed certificates:

./mcp-grafana --tls-skip-verify -debug

With client certificate authentication:

./mcp-grafana \
  --tls-cert-file /path/to/client.crt \
  --tls-key-file /path/to/client.key \
  --tls-ca-file /path/to/ca.crt \
  -debug

With custom CA certificate only:

./mcp-grafana --tls-ca-file /path/to/ca.crt

Programmatic Usage:

If you're using this library programmatically, you can also create TLS-enabled context functions:

// Using struct literals
tlsConfig := &mcpgrafana.TLSConfig{
    CertFile: "/path/to/client.crt",
    KeyFile:  "/path/to/client.key",
    CAFile:   "/path/to/ca.crt",
}
grafanaConfig := mcpgrafana.GrafanaConfig{
    Debug:     true,
    TLSConfig: tlsConfig,
}
contextFunc := mcpgrafana.ComposedStdioContextFunc(grafanaConfig)

// Or inline
grafanaConfig := mcpgrafana.GrafanaConfig{
    Debug: true,
    TLSConfig: &mcpgrafana.TLSConfig{
        CertFile: "/path/to/client.crt",
        KeyFile:  "/path/to/client.key",
        CAFile:   "/path/to/ca.crt",
    },
}
contextFunc := mcpgrafana.ComposedStdioContextFunc(grafanaConfig)

Development

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request if you have any suggestions or improvements.

This project is written in Go. Install Go following the instructions for your platform.

To run the server locally in STDIO mode (which is the default for local development), use:

make run

To run the server locally in SSE mode, use:

go run ./cmd/mcp-grafana --transport sse

You can also run the server using the SSE transport inside a custom built Docker image. Just like the published Docker image, this custom image's entrypoint defaults to SSE mode. To build the image, use:

make build-image

And to run the image in SSE mode (the default), use:

docker run -it --rm -p 8000:8000 mcp-grafana:latest

If you need to run it in STDIO mode instead, override the transport setting:

docker run -it --rm mcp-grafana:latest -t stdio

Testing

There are three types of tests available:

Unit Tests (no external dependencies required):

make test-unit

You can also run unit tests with:

make test

Integration Tests (requires docker containers to be up and running):

make test-integration

Cloud Tests (requires cloud Grafana instance and credentials):

make test-cloud

Note: Cloud tests are automatically configured in CI. For local development, you'll need to set up your own Grafana Cloud instance and credentials.

More comprehensive integration tests will require a Grafana instance to be running locally on port 3000; you can start one with Docker Compose:

docker-compose up -d

The integration tests can be run with:

make test-all

If you're adding more tools, please add integration tests for them. The existing tests should be a good starting point.

Linting

To lint the code, run:

make lint

This includes a custom linter that checks for unescaped commas in jsonschema struct tags. The commas in description fields must be escaped with \\, to prevent silent truncation. You can run just this linter with:

make lint-jsonschema

See the JSONSchema Linter documentation for more details.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

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