Enterprise Open source

Cursor

This guide helps you set up the mcp-grafana server for Cursor.

Prerequisites

  • Cursor IDE installed
  • Grafana 9.0+ with a service account token
  • mcp-grafana binary in your PATH

Configuration

Two options for configuration location:

ScopePath
Global (all projects)~/.cursor/mcp.json
Project-specific.cursor/mcp.json in project root

Add using the UI

  1. Open Cursor Settings -> Tools & Integrations
  2. Click New MCP Server
  3. This opens ~/.cursor/mcp.json for editing

Manual configuration

Create or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

JSON
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "mcp-grafana",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Docker configuration

JSON
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "GRAFANA_URL",
        "-e",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN",
        "grafana/mcp-grafana",
        "-t",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://host.docker.internal:3000",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Debug mode

JSON
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "mcp-grafana",
      "args": ["-debug"],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Verify configuration

  1. Go to Cursor Settings -> Tools & Integrations
  2. Find grafana in the MCP servers list
  3. Click the refresh button if needed
  4. Green indicator = server running
  5. Open Composer and ask: “List my Grafana dashboards”

Troubleshooting

Server not appearing:

  • Check JSON syntax (trailing commas break it)
  • Restart Cursor
  • Verify binary path: which mcp-grafana

Tools not working:

  • Click refresh button in MCP settings
  • Check Grafana token permissions
  • Enable -debug flag and check output

Read-only mode

JSON
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "mcp-grafana",
      "args": ["--disable-write"],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Next steps