Documentation Grafana Cloud Platform Assistant Configure Cloud MCP tool areas

Choose Grafana Cloud MCP tool areas

Tool areas let you choose which kinds of tools an external AI agent sees on a Grafana Cloud MCP connection. For example, an analyst’s connection can see only business data tools, while an on-call engineer’s connection sees observability, dashboards, alerting, and Assistant tools. A smaller tool list keeps your agent focused on the work you connected it for.

Tool areas work alongside the access level you choose for the connection. A tool is available only when the connection has one of the tool’s areas and the access level the tool needs. Your Grafana permissions still apply to every operation.

Tool areas are rolling out gradually. If the consent page shows only Access level, tool areas aren’t available on your stack yet, and the connection gets every area.

Before you begin

You need a Grafana Cloud MCP connection set up as described in Use Grafana Cloud MCP tools, and permission to authorize Grafana Cloud MCP connections. Tool areas are chosen when you authorize the connection, so you don’t need any additional permissions.

Choose tool areas when you connect

When you authorize a connection in your browser, the consent page shows Access level and Tool areas side by side, or one above the other on narrow screens. Unless your client requests specific areas, every area starts selected. The access level still decides which tools in those areas your agent gets, for example, read access hides tools that change things.

To narrow the connection, clear the areas you don’t want, or click Clear and select the ones you do. Click Select all to select every area again. The line above Allow access says which areas your agent will see. You must keep at least one area selected before you can click Allow access.

Some MCP clients let you request specific areas in their server configuration by listing the area scopes from the table in the following section. For example, this Claude Code .mcp.json entry starts with only Business data selected:

JSON Copy

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana-analyst": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.grafana.com/mcp",
      "oauth": { "scopes": "mcp:business-data grafana:read grafana:query" }
    }
  }
}

You can still change the selection before you allow access.

Understand the tool areas

Each area adds a group of tools to the connection. Tools that several areas need, for example, data source discovery, come with each of those areas. Every area also includes documentation search, links into Grafana, and your user details.

Two areas reach beyond their own tools. Grafana Assistant tools hand your request to Assistant, which uses its own full toolset rather than the connection’s areas. Raw API & CLI can call any Grafana API and run any gcx command, which bypasses the limits of the other areas. Access levels still apply to both. If you keep either area but clear others, the consent page shows a warning.

You can still add Raw API & CLI to a narrow selection when you need it, for example, to reach products without dedicated tools, such as SLO and Fleet Management.

Review and change a connection’s areas

To review a connection’s areas, open Assistant settings and go to MCP clients. Each connection under Your connections shows its access level and tool areas.

To change a connection’s areas, revoke it and connect your client again, then choose the new areas on the consent page. To use different areas side by side, add a separate server entry with its own name in your client for each set, and authorize each one.

If your agent can’t find a tool you expect, the connection probably doesn’t include its area. Reconnect and select the area you need.

Next steps

Continue with these guides to set up and control Grafana Cloud MCP connections.

• Use Grafana Cloud MCP tools
• Manage Assistant access with RBAC