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Get started

Welcome to the world of Grafana plugin creation, where you can enhance Grafana's foundational features. In this guide, you'll learn how to get started by scaffolding a plugin, running it in an efficient development environment, and using its basic features.

Watch our introductory video to see a step-by-step guide on getting started with your first Grafana plugin. This visual tutorial complements the detailed instructions below and provides practical insights to help you along the way.

Quick Start​

Scaffold a new plugin with a single command! Run the following and answer the prompts:

npx @grafana/create-plugin@latest

Why create a Grafana plugin?​

Grafana plugin development allows you to create many different types of user experiences. For example, you can make:

  • Panel plugins - new ways of visualizing data
  • Data-source plugins - connections to a new database or other source of data
  • App plugins - integrated out-of-the-box experiences
tip

If this is your first time creating a plugin, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the fundamentals of plugin types, backend plugins, data frames, and other essentials. We commend that you familiarize yourself with the key concepts of Grafana plugin development.

Use plugin tools to develop your plugins faster​

Grafana's plugin tools offer an officially supported way to extend Grafana's core functionality. We have designed these tools to help you to develop your plugins faster with a modern build setup and zero additional configuration required.

The plugin tools consist of two packages:

  • create-plugin: A CLI to scaffold new plugins or migrate plugins created with @grafana/toolkit.
  • sign-plugin: A CLI to sign plugins for distribution.
info

If you have previously built a plugin with @grafana/toolkit, you can use our plugin tools to make the jump to our newest tools. For more information, refer to Migrate from toolkit.

Before you begin​

Make sure you are using a supported OS, Grafana version, and tooling.

Supported operating systems​

Grafana plugin tools work with the following operating systems:

  • Linux
  • macOS
  • Windows 10+ with WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

Supported Grafana version​

We generally recommend that you build for a version of Grafana later than v10.0. For more information about requirements and dependencies when developing with Grafana, see the Grafana developer's guide.

You'll need to have the following tools set up:

Supported package managers​

When you first run @grafana/create-plugin, choose your package manager: npm, pnpm, or yarn.

Scaffold a plugin​

Run the create-plugin tool​

Run the following command and answer the prompts:

npx @grafana/create-plugin@latest

For help with the prompts, refer to the CLI commands.

Open the generated folder structure​

Open the plugin folder to browse the generated plugin:

The directory name <orgName>-<pluginName>-<pluginType> is based on the answers you gave to the prompts. Use the name of the generated folder when prompted. This directory contains the initial project structure to kickstart your plugin development.

The file structure should look like this:

<orgName>-<pluginName>-<pluginType>
├── .config/
├── .eslintrc
├── .github
│   └── workflows
├── .gitignore
├── .nvmrc
├── .prettierrc.js
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── LICENSE
├── Magefile.go
├── README.md
├── cypress
│   └── integration
├── docker-compose.yaml
├── go.mod
├── go.sum
├── jest-setup.js
├── jest.config.js
├── node_modules
├── package.json
├── pkg
│   ├── main.go
│   └── plugin
├── src
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── components
│   ├── datasource.ts
│   ├── img
│   ├── module.ts
│   ├── plugin.json
│   └── types.ts
└── tsconfig.json

For more information about these files, refer to Anatomy of a plugin.

Build and run your plugin in Docker​

With the create-plugin tool, you can use a Docker container to simplify the configuration, loading, and development processes. For more information, refer to Set up development environment.

Refer to the "Next steps" terminal output following the scaffolding of a new plugin to install dependencies, build and run your plugin.

Example output:

## What's next?

Run the following commands to get started:

    * cd ./orgName-pluginName-app
    * npm install to install frontend dependencies.
    * npm exec playwright install chromium to install e2e test dependencies.
    * npm run dev to build (and watch) the plugin frontend code.
    * mage -v build:backend to build the plugin backend code. Rerun this command every time you edit your backend files.
    * docker compose up to start a grafana development server.
    * Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser to create a dashboard to begin developing your plugin.

Note: We strongly recommend creating a new Git repository by running git init in ./org-pluginname-app before continuing.

    * Learn more about Grafana Plugin Development at https://grafana.com/developers/plugin-tools

Install dependencies​

cd <orgName>-<pluginName>-<pluginType>
npm install

Build the frontend​

To build the plugin in watch mode for development, continually monitoring for changes, run:

npm run dev

To build for production, run:

npm run build

Build the backend​

If your plugin includes a backend component, you can build using mage:

mage -v build:linux

Build targets​

OptionDescriptionExample
build:[arch]Builds a binary for a specific architecture.mage -v build:Linux

List all available Mage targets for additional commands:

mage -l

Run the Grafana server​

To launch the Grafana development server using Docker, run:

docker compose up --build

Congratulations! You've just scaffolded your first plugin which you can now access at http://localhost:3000.

Next steps​