---
title: "API Tutorial: Create Service Account tokens and dashboards for an organization | Grafana Cloud documentation"
description: "Create Service Account tokens and dashboards for an organization Use the Grafana API to set up new Grafana organizations or to add dynamically generated dashboards to an existing organization."
---

# Create Service Account tokens and dashboards for an organization

Use the Grafana API to set up new Grafana organizations or to add dynamically generated dashboards to an existing organization.

## Authentication

There are two authentication methods to access the API:

- Basic authentication: A Grafana Admin user can access some parts of the Grafana API through basic authentication.
- Service Account tokens: All organization actions can be accessed through a Service Account token. A Service Account token is associated with an organization. It can be used to create dashboards and other components specific for that organization.

## How to create a new organization and a Service Account Token

The task is to create a new organization and then add a Token that can be used by other users. In the examples below which use basic auth, the user is `admin` and the password is `admin`.

1. [Create the org](/docs/grafana/next/http_api/org/#create-organization). Here is an example using curl:
   
   Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```bash
   curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name":"apiorg"}' http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/orgs
   ```
   
   This should return a response: `{"message":"Organization created","orgId":6}`. Use the orgId for the next steps.
2. Optional step. If the org was created previously and/or step 3 fails then first [add your Admin user to the org](/docs/grafana/next/http_api/org/#add-user-in-organization):
   
   Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```bash
   curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"loginOrEmail":"admin", "role": "Admin"}' http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/orgs/<org id of new org>/users
   ```
3. [Switch the org context for the Admin user to the new org](/docs/grafana/next/http_api/user/#switch-user-context-for-signed-in-user):
   
   Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```bash
   curl -X POST http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/user/using/<id of new org>
   ```
4. [Create a Service Account](/docs/grafana/next/developer-resources/api-reference/http-api/serviceaccount/#create-service-account):
   
   Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```bash
   curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name":"test", "role": "Admin"}' http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/serviceaccounts
   ```
5. [Create a Service Account token](/docs/grafana/next/developer-resources/api-reference/http-api/serviceaccount/#create-service-account-tokens) for the service account created in the previous step:
   
   Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```bash
   curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name":"test-token"}' http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/serviceaccounts/<service account id>/tokens
   ```
   
   This should return a response:
   
   http ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```http
   HTTP/1.1 200
   Content-Type: application/json
   
   {
     "id": 7,
     "name": "test-token",
     "key": "eyJrIjoiVjFxTHZ6dGdPSjg5Um92MjN1RlhjMkNqYkZUbm9jYkwiLCJuIjoiZ3JhZmFuYSIsImlkIjoxfQ=="
   }
   ```
   
   Save the key returned here in your password manager as it is not possible to fetch again it in the future.

## How to add a dashboard

Using the Token that was created in the previous step, you can create a dashboard or carry out other actions without having to switch organizations.

1. [Add a dashboard](/docs/grafana/next/http_api/dashboard/#create-update-dashboard) using the key (or bearer token as it is also called):

Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```bash
curl -X POST --insecure -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiR0ZXZmt1UFc0OEpIOGN5RWdUalBJTllUTk83VlhtVGwiLCJuIjoiYXBpa2V5Y3VybCIsImlkIjo2fQ==" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "dashboard": {
    "id": null,
    "title": "Production Overview",
    "tags": [ "templated" ],
    "timezone": "browser",
    "rows": [
      {
      }
    ],
    "schemaVersion": 6,
    "version": 0
  },
  "overwrite": false
}' http://localhost:3000/api/dashboards/db
```

> **Note:** If you export a dashboard for sharing externally using the Share &gt; Export menu in the Grafana UI, you cannot import that dashboard. Instead, click **View JSON** and save it to a file or fetch the JSON output through the API.