Gemini CLI

This guide helps you set up the mcp-grafana server for the Google Gemini CLI.

Prerequisites

Gemini CLI installed (npm install -g @google/gemini-cli)
Grafana 9.0+ with a service account token
mcp-grafana binary in your PATH

Configuration

Gemini CLI stores MCP configuration in ~/.gemini/settings.json.

Manual configuration

Create or edit ~/.gemini/settings.json:

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

CLI commands

# List configured servers
gemini mcp list

# Remove a server
gemini mcp remove grafana

Docker configuration

{
  "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

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

Verify configuration

Start Gemini CLI:
Bash
```
gemini
```
Run /mcp to see available tools
Ask: “List my Grafana dashboards”

SSE transport (remote server)

For HTTP-based connection:

Start mcp-grafana as an HTTP server:

export GRAFANA_URL="http://localhost:3000"
export GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN="<your-token>"
mcp-grafana --transport sse --address localhost:8000

Configure in settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "httpUrl": "http://localhost:8000/sse"
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting

Tools not appearing:

Run /mcp in Gemini CLI to check registered tools
Verify settings.json syntax
Check binary path: which mcp-grafana

Connection errors:

Verify GRAFANA_URL is reachable
Check token permissions in Grafana

Read-only mode

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