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Grafana MCP Server for Claude Desktop: Setup & Config

Claude Desktop: Connect MCP assistants to Grafana dashboards, datasources, alerts, and incident workflows.

What you can do with Grafana in Claude Desktop

Choose it to investigate and manage Grafana observability resources from an MCP assistant.

  • Inspect a dashboard without loading its complete JSON.
  • Investigate service behavior using Grafana metrics, logs, and traces.

Before you start: Grafana in Claude Desktop

  • uv
  • Grafana 9.0 or later for full functionality
  • An MCP client
  • A configured Grafana connection and service-account token

The README's quick start uses uvx. Set the instance URL for local Grafana or Grafana Cloud. Several optional query groups and administrative tools are disabled by default.

Grafana Claude Desktop configuration

  1. Choose Claude Desktop configuration scope

    For Grafana MCP Server, open macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json. Merge under mcpServers via Settings → Developer → Edit Config when available.

  2. Add Grafana MCP Server to Claude Desktop

    Use the mcp-grafana entry below in mcpServers. Keep Grafana MCP Server's documented stdio connection fields and your other Claude Desktop entries.

  3. Check Grafana MCP Server in Claude Desktop

    Grafana MCP Server: Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop; check developer diagnostics.

Config file · macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

JSON
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-grafana": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-grafana"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "<URL of your Grafana instance>",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<Grafana service-account token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Grafana tools available to Claude Desktop

Grafana's stored tool list documents 40 tools; compare it with Claude Desktop's connected tool list, because the stored list is not a live check.

add_activity_to_incident

When Claude Desktop requests add_activity_to_incident from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Append an investigation note and optional URL context to an incident.

alerting_manage_routing

When Claude Desktop requests alerting_manage_routing from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Manage notification policies, destinations, and active or muted time intervals.

alerting_routing_write

When Claude Desktop requests alerting_routing_write from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Create Grafana-managed alert contact points with integration settings.

alerting_rules_read

When Claude Desktop requests alerting_rules_read from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Find and inspect alert rules using configuration and state filters.

alerting_rules_write

When Claude Desktop requests alerting_rules_write from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Create, replace, or remove Grafana alert rules.

alerting_silences_read

When Claude Desktop requests alerting_silences_read from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

List or retrieve alert notification silences.

alerting_silences_write

When Claude Desktop requests alerting_silences_write from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Create, update, or remove temporary notification suppression rules.

analyze_loki_labels

When Claude Desktop requests analyze_loki_labels from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Assess Loki labels and optionally investigate query performance using live cardinality.

check_datasources_health

When Claude Desktop requests check_datasources_health from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Test datasource health with optional type or UID filtering.

create_annotation

When Claude Desktop requests create_annotation from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Add dashboard or panel annotations, including Graphite-format entries.

create_datasource

When Claude Desktop requests create_datasource from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Review a datasource plugin schema, then create a datasource from approved field values.

create_folder

When Claude Desktop requests create_folder from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Add a Grafana folder with a title and optional identifier.

create_incident

When Claude Desktop requests create_incident from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Open an incident with severity and contextual fields; creation may notify responders.

create_snapshot

When Claude Desktop requests create_snapshot from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Generate a dashboard snapshot with optional expiry settings.

delete_annotation

When Claude Desktop requests delete_annotation from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Permanently remove an annotation by identifier.

delete_snapshot

When Claude Desktop requests delete_snapshot from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Remove a snapshot using its key.

diff_tempo_traces

When Claude Desktop requests diff_tempo_traces from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Compare complete traces and return a summary with optional span-level differences.

generate_deeplink

When Claude Desktop requests generate_deeplink from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Build links to dashboards, panels, or preconfigured Explore queries.

get_alert_group

When Claude Desktop requests get_alert_group from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Inspect an OnCall alert group and the latest available alert payload.

get_annotation_tags

When Claude Desktop requests get_annotation_tags from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Retrieve annotation tags with optional name matching.

get_annotations

When Claude Desktop requests get_annotations from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_assertions

When Claude Desktop requests get_assertions from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_current_oncall_users

When Claude Desktop requests get_current_oncall_users from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_dashboard_by_uid

When Claude Desktop requests get_dashboard_by_uid from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_dashboard_panel_queries

When Claude Desktop requests get_dashboard_panel_queries from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_dashboard_property

When Claude Desktop requests get_dashboard_property from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_dashboard_summary

When Claude Desktop requests get_dashboard_summary from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_datasource

When Claude Desktop requests get_datasource from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_doc

When Claude Desktop requests get_doc from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_incident

When Claude Desktop requests get_incident from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_oncall_shift

When Claude Desktop requests get_oncall_shift from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_panel_image

When Claude Desktop requests get_panel_image from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_plugin

When Claude Desktop requests get_plugin from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_snapshot

When Claude Desktop requests get_snapshot from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_tempo_trace

When Claude Desktop requests get_tempo_trace from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

get_tempo_traceql_docs

When Claude Desktop requests get_tempo_traceql_docs from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

grafana_api_request

When Claude Desktop requests grafana_api_request from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

install_plugin

When Claude Desktop requests install_plugin from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

list_alert_groups

When Claude Desktop requests list_alert_groups from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

list_dashboard_versions

When Claude Desktop requests list_dashboard_versions from Grafana, review the action before approving it.

Grafana: full stored tool descriptions

Troubleshooting Grafana in Claude Desktop

  • Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop for Grafana MCP Server. If uvx mcp-grafana (from uv, for Python tools) is missing, check the desktop process's PATH, which may differ from your terminal.
  • In Claude Desktop's Grafana MCP Server entry, check GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN, GRAFANA_URL. Keep secrets out of shared screenshots and repositories.
  • Grafana MCP Server uses stdio here: Claude Desktop must keep the configured process running; protocol output belongs on stdout and diagnostics on stderr.
  • Known limitation: Full functionality requires Grafana 9.0 or newer.
  • Known limitation: Some query and administrative groups need explicit enabling.
  • Known limitation: Rendering and datasource features have additional service prerequisites.
  • General Claude Desktop troubleshooting lives in the /clients/claude-desktop guide.

Grafana MCP Server — details. Claude Desktop guide

Frequently asked questions

Claude Desktop loads Grafana MCP Server from claude_desktop_config.json: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS, or %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows. Open it via Settings → Developer → Edit Config when available.

Claude Desktop's mcp-grafana example uses stdio.

Grafana MCP Server's Claude Desktop configuration invokes uvx mcp-grafana (from uv, for Python tools).

Claude Desktop's Grafana MCP Server example references GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN, GRAFANA_URL. Check these names if startup or authentication fails; the example alone does not distinguish required from optional values.

Grafana MCP Server's stored list contains 40 tools, including add_activity_to_incident, alerting_manage_routing, alerting_routing_write. Compare those names with Claude Desktop's connected tool list; the stored list is not a live check.

Yes. The README instructs users to supply their Grafana Cloud instance URL.

Use the compact summary or JSONPath property tool rather than requesting the entire dashboard.