MCP Server For Grafana

What is MCP Server For Grafana about?

The server exposes Grafana’s core functionality—dashboards, datasources, alerts, incidents, OnCall schedules, Sift investigations, and more—via a set of RPC‑style tools. Each tool maps to Grafana REST endpoints and returns structured data that can be consumed by LLM‑driven workflows without the need for custom API handling.

How to use MCP Server For Grafana?

1. Installation
   • Binary: Download the latest release from the GitHub releases page and place mcp-grafana in your $PATH.
   • Docker: Pull the official image mcp/grafana and run it with the desired transport (STDIO, SSE, or streamable‑HTTP).
   • From source: go install github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana/cmd/mcp-grafana@latest.
2. Authentication
   • Create a Grafana service‑account token with the required RBAC permissions (or use a username/password). Export it as GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN (preferred) or the deprecated GRAFANA_API_KEY.
3. Running the server
   • STDIO (default for local AI clients): mcp-grafana -t stdio
   • SSE: mcp-grafana (default Docker entrypoint) – accessible at http://localhost:8000/sse.
   • Streamable‑HTTP: mcp-grafana -t streamable-http -addr :8000 (add TLS flags for HTTPS if needed).
4. Client configuration
   • Add a block to your AI‑assistant config (e.g., Claude Desktop) pointing to the binary or Docker command, supplying GRAFANA_URL and GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN.

Key Features

• Dashboard tools: search, retrieve by UID, summary, property extraction via JSONPath, create/update, patch, panel query extraction.
• Datasource enumeration for Prometheus and Loki.
• Prometheus querying: instant and range queries, metric/label metadata.
• Loki querying: log and metric queries, label enumeration, stream statistics.
• Incident management: list, create, update, and add activities.
• Sift investigations: list, retrieve, error‑pattern detection, slow‑request detection.
• Alerting: list rules, fetch rule details, list contact points.
• Grafana OnCall: schedules, shifts, current on‑call users, teams, users.
• Admin utilities: list teams and users.
• Deeplink generation: deterministic URLs for dashboards, panels, Explore, with time‑range and custom parameters.
• Fine‑grained RBAC: each tool lists required permissions and scopes; supports both broad (*) and resource‑specific access.
• Transport flexibility: STDIO, Server‑Sent Events, or streamable‑HTTP with optional TLS.

Use Cases

• LLM‑driven troubleshooting: An AI assistant can fetch a dashboard summary, locate offending panels, and suggest query adjustments without loading full JSON payloads.
• Automated incident response: Detect error spikes via Sift, automatically create a Grafana Incident, and add context logs.
• Continuous monitoring pipelines: Periodically query Prometheus/Loki metrics, evaluate alert rule statuses, and push results to external systems.
• OnCall roster automation: Generate real‑time links to current on‑call users for escalation workflows.
• Secure delegated access: Issue service‑account tokens with scoped permissions, allowing third‑party tools to interact with only needed Grafana resources.

FAQ

Q: Which Grafana version is required? A: Version 9.0 or newer; earlier versions lack the /datasources/uid/{uid} endpoint used by datasource tools.

Q: Do I need to expose all tools? A: No. Use --disable-<category> flags (e.g., --disable-oncall) to reduce context size and limit surface area.

Q: How do I enable debug logging? A: Add the -debug flag; the server will log full HTTP request/response details.

Q: Can I run the server behind TLS? A: Yes. Use client TLS flags (--tls‑cert-file, --tls‑key‑file, --tls‑ca‑file, --tls‑skip‑verify) for Grafana connections, and server TLS flags (--server.tls‑cert-file, --server.tls‑key‑file) for streamable‑HTTP transport.

Q: What environment variables are required? A: At minimum GRAFANA_URL and GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN. Optional GRAFANA_USERNAME/GRAFANA_PASSWORD for basic auth.

Grafana MCP server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Grafana.

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

Requirements

• Grafana version 9.0 or later is required for full functionality. Some features, particularly datasource-related operations, may not work correctly with earlier versions due to missing API endpoints.

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. Warning: Large dashboards can consume significant context window space.
• Get dashboard summary: Get a compact overview of a dashboard including title, panel count, panel types, variables, and metadata without the full JSON to minimize context window usage
• Get dashboard property: Extract specific parts of a dashboard using JSONPath expressions (e.g., $.title, $.panels[*].title) to fetch only needed data and reduce context window consumption
• Update or create a dashboard: Modify existing dashboards or create new ones. Warning: Requires full dashboard JSON which can consume large amounts of context window space.
• Patch dashboard: Apply specific changes to a dashboard without requiring the full JSON, significantly reducing context window usage for targeted modifications
• 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

Context Window Management

The dashboard tools now include several strategies to manage context window usage effectively (issue #101):

• Use get_dashboard_summary for dashboard overview and planning modifications
• Use get_dashboard_property with JSONPath when you only need specific dashboard parts
• Avoid get_dashboard_by_uid unless you specifically need the complete dashboard JSON

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, and update incidents: Manage incidents in Grafana Incident, including searching, creating, and adding activities to incidents.

Sift Investigations

• 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.
• List Users: View all users in an organization in Grafana.

Navigation

• Generate deeplinks: Create accurate deeplink URLs for Grafana resources instead of relying on LLM URL guessing.
  • Dashboard links: Generate direct links to dashboards using their UID (e.g., http://localhost:3000/d/dashboard-uid)
  • Panel links: Create links to specific panels within dashboards with viewPanel parameter (e.g., http://localhost:3000/d/dashboard-uid?viewPanel=5)
  • Explore links: Generate links to Grafana Explore with pre-configured datasources (e.g., http://localhost:3000/explore?left={"datasource":"prometheus-uid"})
  • Time range support: Add time range parameters to links (from=now-1h&to=now)
  • Custom parameters: Include additional query parameters like dashboard variables or refresh intervals

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, or to disable navigation deeplink generation, use --disable-navigation.

RBAC Permissions

Each tool requires specific RBAC permissions to function properly. When creating a service account for the MCP server, ensure it has the necessary permissions based on which tools you plan to use. The permissions listed are the minimum required actions - you may also need appropriate scopes (e.g., datasources:*, dashboards:*, folders:*) depending on your use case.

Note: Grafana Incident and Sift tools use basic Grafana roles instead of fine-grained RBAC permissions:

• Viewer role: Required for read-only operations (list incidents, get investigations)
• Editor role: Required for write operations (create incidents, modify investigations)

For more information about Grafana RBAC, see the official documentation.

RBAC Scopes

Scopes define the specific resources that permissions apply to. Each action requires both the appropriate permission and scope combination.

Common Scope Patterns:

• Broad access: Use * wildcards for organization-wide access

  • datasources:* - Access to all datasources
  • dashboards:* - Access to all dashboards
  • folders:* - Access to all folders
  • teams:* - Access to all teams

• Limited access: Use specific UIDs or IDs to restrict access to individual resources

  • datasources:uid:prometheus-uid - Access only to a specific Prometheus datasource
  • dashboards:uid:abc123 - Access only to dashboard with UID abc123
  • folders:uid:xyz789 - Access only to folder with UID xyz789
  • teams:id:5 - Access only to team with ID 5
  • global.users:id:123 - Access only to user with ID 123

Examples:

• Full MCP server access: Grant broad permissions for all tools

  datasources:* (datasources:read, datasources:query)
  dashboards:* (dashboards:read, dashboards:create, dashboards:write)
  folders:* (for dashboard creation and alert rules)
  teams:* (teams:read)
  global.users:* (users:read)
  

• Limited datasource access: Only query specific Prometheus and Loki instances

  datasources:uid:prometheus-prod (datasources:query)
  datasources:uid:loki-prod (datasources:query)
  

• Dashboard-specific access: Read only specific dashboards

  dashboards:uid:monitoring-dashboard (dashboards:read)
  dashboards:uid:alerts-dashboard (dashboards:read)
  

Tools

Tool	Category	Description	Required RBAC Permissions	Required Scopes
list_teams	Admin	List all teams	teams:read	teams:* or teams:id:1
list_users_by_org	Admin	List all users in an organization	users:read	global.users:* or global.users:id:123
search_dashboards	Search	Search for dashboards	dashboards:read	dashboards:* or dashboards:uid:abc123
get_dashboard_by_uid	Dashboard	Get a dashboard by uid	dashboards:read	dashboards:uid:abc123
update_dashboard	Dashboard	Update or create a new dashboard	dashboards:create, dashboards:write	dashboards:*, folders:* or folders:uid:xyz789
get_dashboard_panel_queries	Dashboard	Get panel title, queries, datasource UID and type from a dashboard	dashboards:read	dashboards:uid:abc123
get_dashboard_property	Dashboard	Extract specific parts of a dashboard using JSONPath expressions	dashboards:read	dashboards:uid:abc123
get_dashboard_summary	Dashboard	Get a compact summary of a dashboard without full JSON	dashboards:read	dashboards:uid:abc123
list_datasources	Datasources	List datasources	datasources:read	datasources:*
get_datasource_by_uid	Datasources	Get a datasource by uid	datasources:read	datasources:uid:prometheus-uid
get_datasource_by_name	Datasources	Get a datasource by name	datasources:read	datasources:* or datasources:uid:loki-uid
query_prometheus	Prometheus	Execute a query against a Prometheus datasource	datasources:query	datasources:uid:prometheus-uid
list_prometheus_metric_metadata	Prometheus	List metric metadata	datasources:query	datasources:uid:prometheus-uid
list_prometheus_metric_names	Prometheus	List available metric names	datasources:query	datasources:uid:prometheus-uid
list_prometheus_label_names	Prometheus	List label names matching a selector	datasources:query	datasources:uid:prometheus-uid
list_prometheus_label_values	Prometheus	List values for a specific label	datasources:query	datasources:uid:prometheus-uid
list_incidents	Incident	List incidents in Grafana Incident	Viewer role	N/A
create_incident	Incident	Create an incident in Grafana Incident	Editor role	N/A
add_activity_to_incident	Incident	Add an activity item to an incident in Grafana Incident	Editor role	N/A
get_incident	Incident	Get a single incident by ID	Viewer role	N/A
query_loki_logs	Loki	Query and retrieve logs using LogQL (either log or metric queries)	datasources:query	datasources:uid:loki-uid
list_loki_label_names	Loki	List all available label names in logs	datasources:query	datasources:uid:loki-uid
list_loki_label_values	Loki	List values for a specific log label	datasources:query	datasources:uid:loki-uid
query_loki_stats	Loki	Get statistics about log streams	datasources:query	datasources:uid:loki-uid
list_alert_rules	Alerting	List alert rules	alert.rules:read	folders:* or folders:uid:alerts-folder
get_alert_rule_by_uid	Alerting	Get alert rule by UID	alert.rules:read	folders:uid:alerts-folder
list_contact_points	Alerting	List notification contact points	alert.notifications:read	Global scope
list_oncall_schedules	OnCall	List schedules from Grafana OnCall	grafana-oncall-app.schedules:read	Plugin-specific scopes
get_oncall_shift	OnCall	Get details for a specific OnCall shift	grafana-oncall-app.schedules:read	Plugin-specific scopes
get_current_oncall_users	OnCall	Get users currently on-call for a specific schedule	grafana-oncall-app.schedules:read	Plugin-specific scopes
list_oncall_teams	OnCall	List teams from Grafana OnCall	grafana-oncall-app.user-settings:read	Plugin-specific scopes
list_oncall_users	OnCall	List users from Grafana OnCall	grafana-oncall-app.user-settings:read	Plugin-specific scopes
get_sift_investigation	Sift	Retrieve an existing Sift investigation by its UUID	Viewer role	N/A
get_sift_analysis	Sift	Retrieve a specific analysis from a Sift investigation	Viewer role	N/A
list_sift_investigations	Sift	Retrieve a list of Sift investigations with an optional limit	Viewer role	N/A
find_error_pattern_logs	Sift	Finds elevated error patterns in Loki logs.	Editor role	N/A
find_slow_requests	Sift	Finds slow requests from the relevant tempo datasources.	Editor role	N/A
list_pyroscope_label_names	Pyroscope	List label names matching a selector	datasources:query	datasources:uid:pyroscope-uid
list_pyroscope_label_values	Pyroscope	List label values matching a selector for a label name	datasources:query	datasources:uid:pyroscope-uid
list_pyroscope_profile_types	Pyroscope	List available profile types	datasources:query	datasources:uid:pyroscope-uid
fetch_pyroscope_profile	Pyroscope	Fetches a profile in DOT format for analysis	datasources:query	datasources:uid:pyroscope-uid
get_assertions	Asserts	Get assertion summary for a given entity	Plugin-specific permissions	Plugin-specific scopes
generate_deeplink	Navigation	Generate accurate deeplink URLs for Grafana resources	None (read-only URL generation)	N/A

CLI Flags Reference

The mcp-grafana binary supports various command-line flags for configuration:

Transport Options:

• -t, --transport: Transport type (stdio, sse, or streamable-http) - default: stdio
• --address: The host and port for SSE/streamable-http server - default: localhost:8000
• --base-path: Base path for the SSE/streamable-http server
• --endpoint-path: Endpoint path for the streamable-http server - default: /

Debug and Logging:

• --debug: Enable debug mode for detailed HTTP request/response logging

Tool Configuration:

• --enabled-tools: Comma-separated list of enabled tools - default: all tools enabled
• --disable-search: Disable search tools
• --disable-datasource: Disable datasource tools
• --disable-incident: Disable incident tools
• --disable-prometheus: Disable prometheus tools
• --disable-loki: Disable loki tools
• --disable-alerting: Disable alerting tools
• --disable-dashboard: Disable dashboard tools
• --disable-oncall: Disable oncall tools
• --disable-asserts: Disable asserts tools
• --disable-sift: Disable sift tools
• --disable-admin: Disable admin tools
• --disable-pyroscope: Disable pyroscope tools
• --disable-navigation: Disable navigation tools

Client TLS Configuration (for Grafana connections):

• --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)

Server TLS Configuration (streamable-http transport only):

• --server.tls-cert-file: Path to TLS certificate file for server HTTPS
• --server.tls-key-file: Path to TLS private key file for server HTTPS

Usage

This MCP server works with both local Grafana instances and Grafana Cloud. For Grafana Cloud, use your instance URL (e.g., https://myinstance.grafana.net) instead of http://localhost:3000 in the configuration examples below.

1. If using service account token authentication, 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 service account documentation for details on creating service account tokens.

   Note: The environment variable GRAFANA_API_KEY is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Please migrate to using GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN instead. The old variable name will continue to work for backward compatibility but will show deprecation warnings.

2. 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
     # For local Grafana:
     docker run --rm -i -e GRAFANA_URL=http://localhost:3000 -e GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=<your service account token> mcp/grafana -t stdio
     # For Grafana Cloud:
     docker run --rm -i -e GRAFANA_URL=https://myinstance.grafana.net -e GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=<your service account token> mcp/grafana -t stdio
     

     2. 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_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=<your service account token> mcp/grafana
     

     3. 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_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=<your service account token> mcp/grafana -t streamable-http
     

     For HTTPS streamable HTTP mode with server TLS certificates:

     docker pull mcp/grafana
     docker run --rm -p 8443:8443 \
       -v /path/to/certs:/certs:ro \
       -e GRAFANA_URL=http://localhost:3000 \
       -e GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=<your service account token> \
       mcp/grafana \
       -t streamable-http \
       -addr :8443 \
       --server.tls-cert-file /certs/server.crt \
       --server.tls-key-file /certs/server.key
     

   • 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
     

   • Deploy to Kubernetes using Helm: use the Helm chart from the Grafana helm-charts repository

     helm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts
     helm install --set grafana.apiKey=<Grafana_ApiKey> --set grafana.url=<GrafanaUrl> my-release grafana/grafana-mcp
     

3. 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",  // Or "https://myinstance.grafana.net" for Grafana Cloud
           "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your service account token>",
           // If using username/password authentication
           "GRAFANA_USERNAME": "<your username>",
           "GRAFANA_PASSWORD": "<your password>"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

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_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN",
        "mcp/grafana",
        "-t",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",  // Or "https://myinstance.grafana.net" for Grafana Cloud
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your service account token>",
        // If using username/password authentication
        "GRAFANA_USERNAME": "<your username>",
        "GRAFANA_PASSWORD": "<your password>"
      }
    }
  }
}

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"
    }
  }
}

For HTTPS streamable HTTP mode with server TLS certificates:

"mcp": {
  "servers": {
    "grafana": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "https://localhost:8443/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",  // Or "https://myinstance.grafana.net" for Grafana Cloud
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your service account token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

If using Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "GRAFANA_URL",
        "-e",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN",
        "mcp/grafana",
        "-t",
        "stdio",
        "-debug"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",  // Or "https://myinstance.grafana.net" for Grafana Cloud
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<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_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<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_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN",
        "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_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<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)

Server TLS Configuration (Streamable HTTP Transport Only)

When using the streamable HTTP transport (-t streamable-http), you can configure the MCP server to serve HTTPS instead of HTTP. This is useful when you need to secure the connection between your MCP client and the server itself.

The server supports the following TLS configuration options for the streamable HTTP transport:

• --server.tls-cert-file: Path to TLS certificate file for server HTTPS (required for TLS)
• --server.tls-key-file: Path to TLS private key file for server HTTPS (required for TLS)

Note: These flags are completely separate from the client TLS flags documented above. The client TLS flags configure how the MCP server connects to Grafana, while these server TLS flags configure how clients connect to the MCP server when using streamable HTTP transport.

Example with HTTPS streamable HTTP server:

./mcp-grafana \
  -t streamable-http \
  --server.tls-cert-file /path/to/server.crt \
  --server.tls-key-file /path/to/server.key \
  -addr :8443

This would start the MCP server on HTTPS port 8443. Clients would then connect to https://localhost:8443/ instead of http://localhost:8000/.

Docker example with server TLS:

docker run --rm -p 8443:8443 \
  -v /path/to/certs:/certs:ro \
  -e GRAFANA_URL=http://localhost:3000 \
  -e GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=<your service account token> \
  mcp/grafana \
  -t streamable-http \
  -addr :8443 \
  --server.tls-cert-file /certs/server.crt \
  --server.tls-key-file /certs/server.key

Troubleshooting

Grafana Version Compatibility

If you encounter the following error when using datasource-related tools:

get datasource by uid : [GET /datasources/uid/{uid}][400] getDataSourceByUidBadRequest {"message":"id is invalid"}

This typically indicates that you are using a Grafana version earlier than 9.0. The /datasources/uid/{uid} API endpoint was introduced in Grafana 9.0, and datasource operations will fail on earlier versions.

Solution: Upgrade your Grafana instance to version 9.0 or later to resolve this issue.

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:

1. Unit Tests (no external dependencies required):

make test-unit

You can also run unit tests with:

make test

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

make test-integration

3. 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.