Proxied tools
Proxied tools are additional MCP tools that this server does not implement itself. It loads them from an MCP server that sits behind a Grafana datasource, using Grafana’s datasource proxy. Your client still talks only to this MCP server; the extra tools show up alongside the built-in ones.
Today only the Grafana Tempo MCP server is supported as a proxied source. Adding another datasource type for proxied tools requires a change to this server, not Grafana configuration alone.
What you’ll achieve
Enable the MCP server in Grafana Tempo and use --disable-proxied when you want proxied tools disabled.
Proxy the Grafana Tempo MCP Server
Complete authentication to Grafana (GRAFANA_URL and credentials). Do not pass --disable-proxied if you want proxied tools loaded.
Enable Tempo’s MCP server so the proxy path responds (for example query_frontend.mcp_server.enabled in YAML or flag query-frontend.mcp-server.enabled). Refer to the Tempo MCP server documentation.
Add a Tempo datasource in Grafana if you do not already have one.
Tools appear as tempo_<remote-tool-name>. They are not listed in the static MCP tools reference. Use your MCP client to list tools from the server.
Disable proxied tools
Proxied tools are enabled by default on this server. Pass --disable-proxied to disable them. The proxied token in --enabled-tools does not gate proxied tools; only --disable-proxied does. Omitting proxied from --enabled-tools does not disable them.
With stdio transport, proxied tools are discovered once at startup. With SSE or streamable-http, discovery runs per MCP session when tools are listed or called.
