Query data
Grafana Assistant can help you write, explain, and optimize queries across your observability stack. Whether you need PromQL for metrics, LogQL for logs, TraceQL for traces, SQL for business data, or CloudWatch for AWS monitoring, the Assistant can generate valid syntax and visualize the results.
The Assistant can query the following data sources:
- Metrics - Prometheus, (Grafana Cloud and on-premise endpoints), InfluxDB
- Logs - Loki data sources
- Traces - Tempo for distributed tracing
- Profiles - Pyroscope (via Grafana Cloud Profiles)
- Load Testing - k6 Cloud results
- SQL Databases - PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, BigQuery, Athena
- External APIs - Infinity datasource for querying web APIs with JSON endpoints
- AWS CloudWatch - CloudWatch metrics, logs, alarms, and anomaly detection
Before you begin
- Connect data sources: Ensure your data sources (Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, SQL, CloudWatch, etc.) are connected.
- Reference data sources: Use the
@symbol to mention specific data sources in your prompt (for example,@prometheus-ds), ensuring the Assistant queries the correct data.
Metrics (PromQL)
Generate PromQL queries to analyze metrics without memorizing functions and operators.
Draft a query
Describe the metric and aggregation you need.
Create a PromQL query in @prometheus-ds that shows p95 latency for checkout_service over the last hour.
Refine
Ask for variations or filters.
Group by region and sort by highest error rate.
Visualize
Request a visualization in the chat or add it to a dashboard.
Show this as a time series graph.
Logs (LogQL)
Find log patterns and extract insights using LogQL.
Warning
Querying Loki with the Assistant contributes to the Assistant fair-usage policy.
During public preview, we recommend not running wide scans on Loki to avoid exhausting your fair-usage limits.
Search logs
Describe the log stream and filters.
Find logs from @loki-logs where job=“checkout” and level=“error” in the last 15 minutes.
Parse and aggregate
Extract fields and count occurrences.
Parse the JSON payload and show the top five error codes.
Traces (TraceQL)
Locate specific traces to debug latency or errors.
Find traces
Specify the service and conditions.
Query @tempo-traces for traces longer than 2 seconds.
Analyze
Ask for summaries of the findings.
Show the slowest spans and include their service names.
SQL Databases
Query relational databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL, BigQuery, and InfluxDB 3.x (SQL) for business or operational data.
Note
SQL Table Discovery is currently in public preview. Grafana Labs offers limited support, and breaking changes might occur prior to the feature being made generally available.
Discover tables
Ask the Assistant to find relevant tables.
Find tables in @orders-database that track checkout failures.
Generate SQL
Describe your question in plain English.
Query for failed checkouts per minute grouped by payment_provider.
External APIs using Infinity data source
Query data from external web APIs and JSON endpoints. The Infinity data source turns any JSON API into a Grafana data source, opening up endless visualization possibilities.
Control which APIs can be queried
The Infinity data source has an allowedHosts setting that controls which URLs the Assistant can query and whether user approval is required.
- With
allowedHostsconfigured: The Assistant can only query URLs that match the allowed hosts list, but does so automatically without requiring approval for each request. - Without
allowedHostsconfigured: The Assistant can query any URL, but will prompt you to approve each request before executing it.
To configure allowed hosts, edit your Infinity data source settings and add the URLs or domains you want to allow. For example, adding https://api.example.com restricts the Assistant to querying endpoints under that domain. For more information, refer to the Infinity data source documentation.
Query a JSON endpoint
Describe the URL and what data you want to retrieve.
Query the API at https://api.example.com/metrics and show me the results.
Transform with jq
Use jq expressions to filter or reshape the response data.
Query https://api.example.com/data and extract only the items where status is “active”.
Visualize as time series
Request time-based visualization for data with timestamps.
Query the API and show the values over time as a graph.
Visualize on dashboard
Add the visualization to a new or existing dashboard.
Add this graph to the “Production Overview” dashboard.
AWS CloudWatch
Monitor AWS resources and applications using CloudWatch metrics, logs, alarms, and anomaly detection. The Assistant discovers available namespaces, metrics, and dimensions automatically, so you don’t need to memorize AWS resource identifiers.
Before you begin
Ensure your CloudWatch data source is configured with valid AWS credentials and the correct default region. For more information, refer to the CloudWatch data source documentation.
Discover metrics
Explore available CloudWatch namespaces, metrics, and dimensions to understand what data is available.
What CloudWatch namespaces are available in @cloudwatch-ds?
List the metrics available for the AWS/EC2 namespace.
What dimensions are available for CPUUtilization in AWS/EC2?
Query metrics
Ask the Assistant to query CloudWatch metrics using MetricStat or Metric Insights SQL.
MetricStat queries
Describe the metric, statistic, and any dimension filters.
Show the average CPUUtilization for EC2 instances in @cloudwatch-ds over the last hour.
Query the maximum NetworkIn for instance i-abc123 in us-east-1.
Metric Insights SQL
Use SQL syntax for more complex metric queries with aggregation and filtering.
Run a Metric Insights SQL query: SELECT AVG(CPUUtilization) FROM SCHEMA(“AWS/EC2”, InstanceId) GROUP BY InstanceId ORDER BY AVG() DESC LIMIT 10.
Query logs
Search and analyze CloudWatch Logs using Logs Insights queries.
Find error logs in the /aws/lambda/my-function log group from the last 15 minutes.
Run a CloudWatch Logs Insights query to count errors by service in @cloudwatch-ds.
Monitor alarms
Query CloudWatch alarm annotations to check the state of your alarms.
Show recent alarm state changes for alarms with the prefix “prod-high-cpu” in @cloudwatch-ds.
Detect anomalies
Query log anomaly detections to identify unusual patterns in your log data.
Show recent log anomalies detected in @cloudwatch-ds.
Visualize on dashboard
Add CloudWatch metrics and logs to dashboards for ongoing monitoring.
Create a dashboard panel showing EC2 CPU utilization from @cloudwatch-ds grouped by instance.
Add a CloudWatch Logs panel to the “Production Overview” dashboard showing error counts over time.
Optimize queries
The Assistant can review and improve your existing queries for performance and accuracy.
Paste your query
Provide the query you want to optimize and tell the Assistant what to do.
Review this PromQL query for performance:
sum(rate(http_requests_total[5m]))
Ask for improvements
Ask for specific changes.
Remove high-cardinality labels.
Next steps
- Learn how to navigate Grafana with the Assistant.
- Use your queries to build dashboards.
