MCP tools reference

Use the table to confirm minimum Grafana RBAC permissions and scopes for each MCP tool. The sections after the table summarize RBAC patterns, optional categories, and a few operational notes.

Note
The tool list and behavior reflect the current server release. This page is not a roadmap or a commitment to future features.

What you’ll achieve

You can verify that a service account has the right permissions before you enable tools in production, and you can apply common scope patterns without rereading Grafana’s RBAC docs.

Before you begin

Grafana 9.0 or later for full API support.
Optional: a service account whose permissions match the tools you enable.

Review the tools table

The following table lists MCP tools, required RBAC permissions, and typical scopes. Categories marked with * are off until you add them to --enabled-tools (refer to Command-line flags). The table does not include proxied tools from external MCP servers (for example Grafana Tempo).

Tool	Category	Description	Required RBAC Permissions	Required Scopes
`list_teams`	Admin*	List all teams	`teams:read`	`teams:*` or `teams:id:1`
`list_users_by_org`	Admin*	List all users in an organization	`users:read`	`global.users:*` or `global.users:id:123`
`list_all_roles`	Admin*	List all Grafana roles	`roles:read`	`roles:*`
`get_role_details`	Admin*	Get details for a Grafana role	`roles:read`	`roles:uid:editor`
`get_role_assignments`	Admin*	List assignments for a role	`roles:read`	`roles:uid:editor`
`list_user_roles`	Admin*	List roles for users	`roles:read`	`global.users:id:123`
`list_team_roles`	Admin*	List roles for teams	`roles:read`	`teams:id:7`
`get_resource_permissions`	Admin*	List permissions for a resource	`permissions:read`	`dashboards:uid:abcd1234`
`get_resource_description`	Admin*	Describe a Grafana resource type	`permissions:read`	`dashboards:*`
`search_dashboards`	Search	Search for dashboards	`dashboards:read`	`dashboards:*` or `dashboards:uid:abc123`
`search_folders`	Search	Search for folders by query string	`folders:read`	`folders:*` or `folders:uid:xyz789`
`get_dashboard_by_uid`	Dashboard	Get a dashboard by uid	`dashboards:read`	`dashboards:uid:abc123`
`update_dashboard`	Dashboard	Update or create a new dashboard	`dashboards:create`, `dashboards:write`	`dashboards:`, `folders:` or `folders:uid:xyz789`
`get_dashboard_panel_queries`	Dashboard	Get panel title, queries, datasource UID and type from a dashboard	`dashboards:read`	`dashboards:uid:abc123`
`run_panel_query`	RunPanelQuery*	Execute one or more dashboard panel queries	`dashboards:read`, `datasources:query`	`dashboards:uid:`, `datasources:uid:`
`get_dashboard_property`	Dashboard	Extract specific parts of a dashboard using JSONPath expressions	`dashboards:read`	`dashboards:uid:abc123`
`get_dashboard_summary`	Dashboard	Get a compact summary of a dashboard without full JSON	`dashboards:read`	`dashboards:uid:abc123`
`create_folder`	Folder	Create a Grafana folder with a title and optional UID	`folders:create`	`folders:*`
`list_datasources`	Datasources	List datasources	`datasources:read`	`datasources:*`
`get_datasource`	Datasources	Get a datasource by UID or name	`datasources:read`	`datasources:uid:prometheus-uid`
`get_query_examples`	Examples*	Get example queries for a datasource type	`datasources:read`	`datasources:*`
`query_prometheus`	Prometheus	Execute a query against a Prometheus datasource	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:prometheus-uid`
`list_prometheus_metric_metadata`	Prometheus	List metric metadata	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:prometheus-uid`
`list_prometheus_metric_names`	Prometheus	List available metric names	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:prometheus-uid`
`list_prometheus_label_names`	Prometheus	List label names matching a selector	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:prometheus-uid`
`list_prometheus_label_values`	Prometheus	List values for a specific label	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:prometheus-uid`
`query_prometheus_histogram`	Prometheus	Calculate histogram percentile values	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:prometheus-uid`
`list_incidents`	Incident	List incidents in Grafana Incident	Viewer role	N/A
`create_incident`	Incident	Create an incident in Grafana Incident	Editor role	N/A
`add_activity_to_incident`	Incident	Add an activity item to an incident in Grafana Incident	Editor role	N/A
`get_incident`	Incident	Get a single incident by ID	Viewer role	N/A
`query_loki_logs`	Loki	Query and retrieve logs using LogQL (either log or metric queries)	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:loki-uid`
`list_loki_label_names`	Loki	List all available label names in logs	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:loki-uid`
`list_loki_label_values`	Loki	List values for a specific log label	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:loki-uid`
`query_loki_stats`	Loki	Get statistics about log streams	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:loki-uid`
`query_loki_patterns`	Loki	Query detected log patterns to identify common structures	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:loki-uid`
`list_clickhouse_tables`	ClickHouse*	List tables in a ClickHouse database	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:*`
`describe_clickhouse_table`	ClickHouse*	Get table schema with column types	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:*`
`query_clickhouse`	ClickHouse*	Execute SQL queries with macro substitution	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:*`
`list_cloudwatch_namespaces`	CloudWatch*	List available AWS CloudWatch namespaces	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:*`
`list_cloudwatch_metrics`	CloudWatch*	List metrics in a namespace	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:*`
`list_cloudwatch_dimensions`	CloudWatch*	List dimensions for a metric	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:*`
`query_cloudwatch`	CloudWatch*	Execute CloudWatch metric queries	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:*`
`search_logs`	SearchLogs*	Search logs across ClickHouse and Loki	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:*`
`query_elasticsearch`	Elasticsearch*	Query Elasticsearch using Lucene syntax or Query DSL	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:elasticsearch-uid`
`alerting_manage_rules`	Alerting	Manage alert rules (list, get, versions, create, update, delete)	`alert.rules:read` + `alert.rules:write` for mutations	`folders:*` or `folders:uid:alerts-folder`
`alerting_manage_routing`	Alerting	Manage notification policies, contact points, and time intervals	`alert.notifications:read`	Global scope
`list_oncall_schedules`	OnCall	List schedules from Grafana OnCall	`grafana-oncall-app.schedules:read`	Plugin-specific scopes
`get_oncall_shift`	OnCall	Get details for a specific OnCall shift	`grafana-oncall-app.schedules:read`	Plugin-specific scopes
`get_current_oncall_users`	OnCall	Get users currently on-call for a specific schedule	`grafana-oncall-app.schedules:read`	Plugin-specific scopes
`list_oncall_teams`	OnCall	List teams from Grafana OnCall	`grafana-oncall-app.user-settings:read`	Plugin-specific scopes
`list_oncall_users`	OnCall	List users from Grafana OnCall	`grafana-oncall-app.user-settings:read`	Plugin-specific scopes
`list_alert_groups`	OnCall	List alert groups from Grafana OnCall with filtering options	`grafana-oncall-app.alert-groups:read`	Plugin-specific scopes
`get_alert_group`	OnCall	Get a specific alert group from Grafana OnCall by its ID	`grafana-oncall-app.alert-groups:read`	Plugin-specific scopes
`get_sift_investigation`	Sift	Retrieve an existing Sift investigation by its UUID	Viewer role	N/A
`get_sift_analysis`	Sift	Retrieve a specific analysis from a Sift investigation	Viewer role	N/A
`list_sift_investigations`	Sift	Retrieve a list of Sift investigations with an optional limit	Viewer role	N/A
`find_error_pattern_logs`	Sift	Finds elevated error patterns in Loki logs.	Editor role	N/A
`find_slow_requests`	Sift	Finds slow requests from the relevant tempo datasources.	Editor role	N/A
`list_pyroscope_label_names`	Pyroscope	List label names matching a selector	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:pyroscope-uid`
`list_pyroscope_label_values`	Pyroscope	List label values matching a selector for a label name	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:pyroscope-uid`
`list_pyroscope_profile_types`	Pyroscope	List available profile types	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:pyroscope-uid`
`fetch_pyroscope_profile`	Pyroscope	Fetches a profile in DOT format for analysis	`datasources:query`	`datasources:uid:pyroscope-uid`
`get_assertions`	Asserts	Get assertion summary for a given entity	Plugin-specific permissions	Plugin-specific scopes
`generate_deeplink`	Navigation	Generate accurate deeplink URLs for Grafana resources	None (read-only URL generation)	N/A
`get_annotations`	Annotations	Fetch annotations with filters	`annotations:read`	`annotations:*` or `annotations:id:123`
`create_annotation`	Annotations	Create a new annotation (standard or Graphite format)	`annotations:write`	`annotations:*`
`update_annotation`	Annotations	Update specific fields of an annotation (partial update)	`annotations:write`	`annotations:*`
`get_annotation_tags`	Annotations	List annotation tags with optional filtering	`annotations:read`	`annotations:*`
`get_panel_image`	Rendering	Render a dashboard panel or full dashboard as a PNG image	`dashboards:read`	`dashboards:uid:abc123`

* Categories marked with * are off until you add them to --enabled-tools.

Dashboard tools and context window

update_dashboard supports full JSON replacement and patch-style updates (uid plus operations). Prefer patches for small changes so you do not send large dashboard JSON to the model.

To limit context use when working with dashboards (issue #101):

Use get_dashboard_summary for an overview before edits.
Use get_dashboard_property with JSONPath when you only need part of a dashboard.
Avoid get_dashboard_by_uid unless you need the full dashboard JSON.

RBAC permissions

Each tool requires specific RBAC permissions. When you create a service account for the MCP server, grant the minimum actions for the tools you enable. You often need matching scopes as well (for example datasources:*, dashboards:*, folders:*).

Tip: If you want a faster setup instead of tuning many scopes, assign a built-in role such as Editor to the service account. Editor grants broad read and write access for most MCP operations; it is less granular than least privilege.

Grafana Incident and Sift tools use basic Grafana roles instead of fine-grained RBAC permissions:

Viewer: read-only operations (for example list incidents, get investigations).
Editor: write operations (for example create incidents, run analyses that modify state).

Refer to Grafana RBAC for full detail.

RBAC scopes

Scopes define which resources a permission applies to. You need the right permission and scope together.

Broad access (organization-wide) often uses * wildcards:

datasources:*
dashboards:*
folders:*
teams:*

Limited access uses specific UIDs or IDs:

datasources:uid:prometheus-uid
dashboards:uid:abc123
folders:uid:xyz789
teams:id:5
global.users:id:123

Examples:

Full MCP access (typical broad grants):

datasources:* (datasources:read, datasources:query)
dashboards:* (dashboards:read, dashboards:create, dashboards:write)
folders:* (for dashboard creation and alert rules)
teams:* (teams:read)
global.users:* (users:read)

Limited datasource access (only specific Prometheus and Loki instances):

datasources:uid:prometheus-prod (datasources:query)
datasources:uid:loki-prod (datasources:query)

Dashboard-only read access:

dashboards:uid:monitoring-dashboard (dashboards:read)
dashboards:uid:alerts-dashboard (dashboards:read)

Enable or disable tools

You can limit which tools the server exposes with --enabled-tools, --disable-<category>, and --disable-write. Refer to Enable and disable tools and Command-line flags.