Documentationbreadcrumb arrow Grafana Cloudbreadcrumb arrow AI and machine learningbreadcrumb arrow Grafana Assistantbreadcrumb arrow Configurebreadcrumb arrow Grafana Cloud MCP
Grafana Cloud

Grafana Cloud MCP server

Note

Grafana Cloud MCP server is currently in public preview. Grafana Labs offers limited support, and breaking changes might occur prior to the feature being made generally available.

The Grafana Cloud MCP server is a remotely hosted Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets external AI agents connect directly to your Grafana Cloud data. MCP-compatible clients, for example, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, and Goose, can query metrics, logs, and other observability data from your Grafana environment without any local installation.

Unlike the open source Grafana MCP server, which runs locally and requires manual service account token configuration, the Grafana Cloud MCP server is fully hosted and uses OAuth 2.1 authorization. You point your AI agent at the Grafana Cloud MCP endpoint, authorize in your browser, and your agent connects.

How Grafana Cloud MCP differs from the local OSS server

The following table compares the Grafana Cloud MCP server with the local OSS MCP server.

AspectGrafana Cloud MCP serverLocal OSS MCP server
InstallationNone required. Fully hosted.Requires local installation and configuration.
AuthenticationOAuth 2.1 authorization flow.Manual authentication (user/password or service account token).
Access scopeUser-scoped. The agent has only the permissions your Grafana RBAC grants you.Service account-scoped. Access is determined by the service account token.
DeploymentGrafana Cloud only.Any Grafana instance (Cloud or self-hosted).

Before you begin

Ensure you have the following:

  • Grafana Cloud: The Grafana Cloud MCP server works only with hosted Grafana Cloud environments. Self-hosted Grafana users should use the local OSS MCP server
  • Terms and conditions: An administrator must accept the Grafana Assistant terms and conditions
  • Permissions: You need the Assistant Cloud MCP User role or the grafana-assistant-app.cloud-mcp:access permission. Users with the Editor role or higher have this permission by default. Refer to Manage Assistant access with RBAC for details
  • MCP client: You need an MCP-compatible client, for example, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, or Goose

Connect your AI agent

The following steps connect your AI agent to the Grafana Cloud MCP server.

  1. Configure your MCP client to connect to the Grafana Cloud MCP endpoint:

    https://mcp.grafana.com/mcp

    Use the Streamable HTTP transport type. SSE transport isn’t supported.

  2. Run a prompt in your AI agent that requires Grafana data.

  3. When prompted, enter your Grafana Cloud URL.

  4. Authorize the connection in your browser.

Your AI agent is now connected to your Grafana data.

Cursor

To configure Cursor as an MCP client:

  1. Open Settings > Features > MCP.

  2. Click + Add New MCP Server.

  3. Use the following configuration:

    JSON 
    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "url": "https://mcp.grafana.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

  4. Save and start chatting.

Claude Desktop

To configure Claude Desktop as an MCP client, add the following to your Claude Desktop MCP configuration:

JSON 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "url": "https://mcp.grafana.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Other MCP clients

To configure any other MCP-compatible client:

  1. Add a new server in your client’s MCP configuration.
  2. Set the endpoint to https://mcp.grafana.com/mcp.
  3. Set the transport type to Streamable HTTP.

Configure read and write access

When you authorize a Grafana Cloud MCP connection, the consent page shows the permissions the client is requesting. You can choose which permissions to grant:

  • Read access: View dashboards, alerts, incidents, and query data sources. Always available
  • Write access: Create and modify dashboards, alerts, and incidents. You can uncheck this to grant read-only access

If you don’t check Write access, the agent can only query and browse your Grafana data. Write tools, for example, update_dashboard and create_incident, aren’t available.

Organization Admins can grant write access by default. If the Write access checkbox is disabled on the consent page, ask your administrator to assign you the Assistant Admin role. Refer to Manage Assistant access with RBAC for details.

Explore available tools

The Grafana Cloud MCP server exposes the same tool categories as the open source Grafana MCP server, plus Assistant-native tools, for example, infrastructure memory. Tools marked Write require the grafana:write scope.

Search and navigation

Use these tools to find dashboards, folders, and generate links to Grafana resources.

ToolDescription
search_dashboardsSearch for dashboards by query string.
search_foldersSearch for folders by query string.
generate_deeplinkGenerate deeplink URLs for dashboards, panels, and Explore queries.

Dashboards and folders

Use these tools to view and manage dashboards and folders.

ToolDescriptionAccess
get_dashboard_by_uidRetrieve the complete dashboard JSON by UID.Read
get_dashboard_summaryGet a compact summary of a dashboard without the full JSON.Read
get_dashboard_propertyExtract specific parts of a dashboard using JSONPath expressions.Read
get_dashboard_panel_queriesRetrieve panel queries with template variable substitution.Read
update_dashboardCreate or update a dashboard using full JSON or targeted patch operations.Write
create_folderCreate a Grafana folder.Write

Datasources

Use these tools to list and inspect configured datasources.

ToolDescription
list_datasourcesList all configured datasources. Supports filtering by type and pagination.
get_datasourceGet detailed information about a datasource by UID or name.

Prometheus

Use these tools to discover metrics and execute PromQL queries.

ToolDescription
list_prometheus_metric_namesDiscover available metrics with regex filtering and pagination.
list_prometheus_metric_metadataList metadata about currently scraped metrics.
list_prometheus_label_namesList label names with optional series selector and time range filtering.
list_prometheus_label_valuesGet values for a specific label.
query_prometheusExecute PromQL instant or range queries.
query_prometheus_histogramQuery histogram percentiles.

Loki

Use these tools to query logs and discover label metadata.

ToolDescription
list_loki_label_namesList available label names in logs.
list_loki_label_valuesGet unique values for a specific label.
query_loki_logsExecute LogQL queries for log entries or metric values.
query_loki_statsGet statistics about log streams.
query_loki_patternsDetect and analyze common log patterns.

Tempo

If you have Tempo data sources in your Grafana Cloud stack, the Grafana Cloud MCP server will proxy any tools offered by that Tempo data source.

Pyroscope

Use these tools to query profiling data.

ToolDescription
list_pyroscope_label_namesList available label names in profiles.
list_pyroscope_label_valuesList values for a specific label.
list_pyroscope_profile_typesList available profile types.
query_pyroscopeQuery profiles or metrics from Pyroscope.

ClickHouse

Use these tools to query ClickHouse datasources.

ToolDescription
list_clickhouse_tablesList available tables with metadata.
describe_clickhouse_tableGet column schema for a table.
query_clickhouseExecute SQL queries against ClickHouse datasources.

CloudWatch

Use these tools to query AWS CloudWatch metrics.

ToolDescription
list_cloudwatch_namespacesList available AWS namespaces.
list_cloudwatch_metricsList metrics for a namespace.
list_cloudwatch_dimensionsList dimension keys for a metric.
query_cloudwatchQuery AWS CloudWatch metrics.

Elasticsearch

Use this tool to search Elasticsearch datasources.

ToolDescription
query_elasticsearchExecute Lucene or Query DSL searches against Elasticsearch datasources.

Alerting

Use these tools to view and manage alert rules and routing configuration.

ToolDescriptionAccess
alerting_manage_rulesList, filter, and manage alert rules. With write scope, supports creating and updating rules.Read / Write
alerting_manage_routingView alerting routing configuration, notification policies, contact points, and time intervals.Read

Annotations

Use these tools to view and create annotations on dashboards.

ToolDescriptionAccess
get_annotationsFetch annotations filtered by dashboard UID, time range, or tags.Read
get_annotation_tagsGet annotation tags with optional filtering.Read
create_annotationCreate a new annotation on a dashboard or panel.Write
update_annotationUpdate properties of an existing annotation.Write

Incidents

Use these tools to view and manage incidents.

ToolDescriptionAccess
list_incidentsList incidents with optional status filtering.Read
get_incidentGet full incident details by ID.Read
create_incidentCreate a new incident.Write
add_activity_to_incidentAdd a note to an incident’s timeline.Write

OnCall

Use these tools to view on-call schedules, shifts, teams, and alert groups.

ToolDescription
list_oncall_schedulesList OnCall schedules with optional team filtering.
get_oncall_shiftGet detailed shift information.
get_current_oncall_usersGet users currently on-call for a schedule.
list_oncall_teamsList OnCall teams.
list_oncall_usersList OnCall users with optional filtering.
list_alert_groupsList alert groups with filtering by state, team, time range, and labels.
get_alert_groupGet a specific alert group by ID.

Sift

Use these tools to list and retrieve Sift investigations and analyses.

ToolDescriptionAccess
list_sift_investigationsList Sift investigations.Read
get_sift_investigationRetrieve a Sift investigation by UUID.Read
get_sift_analysisRetrieve a specific analysis from an investigation.Read
find_error_pattern_logsSearch Loki logs for elevated error patterns.Write
find_slow_requestsSearch Tempo datasources for slow requests.Write

Other tools

Use these tools for additional Grafana tasks, including panel rendering and infrastructure summaries.

ToolDescription
get_assertionsGet assertion summary for an entity.
get_panel_imageRender a dashboard panel as a PNG image.
describe_infrastructureRetrieve pre-built summaries of service groups including topology, metrics, and dependencies.
search_logsSearch for log entries matching a text pattern across datasources.
get_query_examplesGet example queries for datasource types.

Manage connections

Manage your Grafana Cloud MCP connections from the Grafana Assistant Settings page in your Grafana Cloud stack.

Revoke access

To revoke a Grafana Cloud MCP connection before it expires, go to the Grafana Assistant Settings page and find the connection under MCP connections.

Session lifetime

Your OAuth token is valid for 1 hour and refreshes automatically for 30 days. After 30 days, you’re prompted to log in and re-authorize.

Data privacy

Grafana securely routes your MCP queries via proxy. Grafana doesn’t train AI models on your PromQL, LogQL queries, or prompt payload data. Refer to Privacy and security for more information.

Known limitations

  • Grafana Cloud only: The Grafana Cloud MCP server doesn’t support self-hosted Grafana instances. Self-hosted users should use the local OSS MCP server
  • Transport: Only Streamable HTTP is supported. SSE transport isn’t supported

Next steps