Create API tokens and dashboards for an organization
Use the Grafana API to set up new Grafana organizations or to add dynamically generated dashboards to an existing organization.
Authentication
There are two authentication methods to access the API:
- Basic authentication: A Grafana Admin user can access some parts of the Grafana API through basic authentication.
- API Tokens: All organization actions are accessed through an API Token. An API Token is associated with an organization. It can be used to create dashboards and other components specific for that organization.
How to create a new organization and an API Token
The task is to create a new organization and then add a Token that can be used by other users. In the examples below which use basic auth, the user is admin
and the password is admin
.
-
Create the org. Here is an example using curl:
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name":"apiorg"}' http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/orgs
This should return a response:
{"message":"Organization created","orgId":6}
. Use the orgId for the next steps. -
Optional step. If the org was created previously and/or step 3 fails then first add your Admin user to the org:
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"loginOrEmail":"admin", "role": "Admin"}' http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/orgs/<org id of new org>/users
-
Switch the org context for the Admin user to the new org:
curl -X POST http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/user/using/<id of new org>
-
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name":"apikeycurl", "role": "Admin"}' http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/auth/keys
This should return a response:
{"name":"apikeycurl","key":"eyJrIjoiR0ZXZmt1UFc0OEpIOGN5RWdUalBJTllUTk83VlhtVGwiLCJuIjoiYXBpa2V5Y3VybCIsImlkIjo2fQ=="}
.Save the key returned here in your password manager as it is not possible to fetch again it in the future.
How to add a dashboard
Using the Token that was created in the previous step, you can create a dashboard or carry out other actions without having to switch organizations.
- Add a dashboard using the key (or bearer token as it is also called):
curl -X POST --insecure -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiR0ZXZmt1UFc0OEpIOGN5RWdUalBJTllUTk83VlhtVGwiLCJuIjoiYXBpa2V5Y3VybCIsImlkIjo2fQ==" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
"dashboard": {
"id": null,
"title": "Production Overview",
"tags": [ "templated" ],
"timezone": "browser",
"rows": [
{
}
],
"schemaVersion": 6,
"version": 0
},
"overwrite": false
}' http://localhost:3000/api/dashboards/db
Note: If you export a dashboard for sharing externally using the Share > Export menu in the Grafana UI, you cannot import that dashboard. Instead, click View JSON and save it to a file or fetch the JSON output through the API.
Related Grafana resources
Opening keynote: What's new in Grafana 9?
Raj Dutt, Myrle Krantz, and Torkel Ödegaard unveil what's new in Grafana 9. Watch the opening keynote presentation from GrafanaCONline 2022. On-demand.
Unify your data with Grafana plugins: Splunk, MongoDB, Datadog, and more
Show how Grafana can be used to take data from multiple different sources and unify it, without disrupting the investments that are working today.
Getting started with Grafana Enterprise and observability
Join the Grafana Labs team for a 30-minute demo of how to get started with the Grafana Stack, so you can go from zero to observability in just a few minutes.