Documentation Grafana Cloud Monitor applications Frontend Observability Source map uploads

Source map uploads

Upload source maps privately to Grafana Cloud to get readable error messages and stack traces from your minified JavaScript applications.

Source maps connect minified production code to original source files. Frontend Observability uses source maps to deobfuscate JavaScript stack traces, giving you clear error messages for debugging without exposing your source code publicly.

Source maps and application security

JavaScript bundlers remove file names, function names, and code positions during production builds to reduce file size. Without source maps, error traces show meaningless character strings, making debugging impossible.

Hosting source maps publicly creates security risks. Users can download public source maps and reconstruct your codebase, exposing proprietary logic.

Grafana Cloud Frontend Observability solves this with private source map uploads. You upload source maps securely to Grafana Cloud using Faro JavaScript bundler plugins. These plugins work with the Faro Web SDK to provide deobfuscated error traces in Frontend Observability.

Before you begin

Ensure you have the following:

• A JavaScript application instrumented with the Faro Web SDK
• Telemetry data sending to a Faro Collector endpoint in Grafana Cloud
• Access to Grafana Cloud Frontend Observability

If you haven’t set up Frontend Observability yet, refer to the JavaScript quickstart guide.

You can upload source maps using these methods:

• Bundler plugins: Configure Webpack or Rollup/Vite plugins to automatically generate and upload source maps during builds. Refer to Upload with bundlers.
• CLI tool: Use the Faro CLI to upload source maps separately from your build process. Refer to Upload with the CLI.
• cURL: Make direct API requests for constrained environments. Refer to Upload with cURL.