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Grafana Cloud Enterprise Open source
Last reviewed: April 10, 2026

Parca template variables

Instead of hard-coding label values in your profiling queries, you can use template variables to create dynamic, reusable dashboards. Variables appear as drop-down menus at the top of the dashboard, making it easy to switch between services, instances, or environments without editing queries.

For an introduction to template variables, refer to the Variables documentation.

Supported variable types

Variable typeSupportedNotes
CustomYesDefine a static list of values manually.
Text boxYesEnter a free-form value at the top of the dashboard.
ConstantYesDefine a hidden, fixed value.
Data sourceYesSelect a data source instance by name.
QueryNoParca doesn’t implement variable queries to dynamically populate drop-downs.

Note

Parca doesn’t support query-type variables. You can’t use the Parca data source to dynamically populate variable drop-downs. Use custom variables to define values manually, or use another data source to populate query variables.

Use variables in the label selector

The Parca query editor’s label selector field supports template variable interpolation. Use the standard $variablename or ${variablename} syntax. Variables are interpolated in the label selector only – the profile type drop-down doesn’t support them.

Variable syntax options

SyntaxDescription
$variablenameSimple syntax for most cases.
${variablename}Use when the variable is adjacent to other text (for example, ${host}_suffix).
${variablename:format}Apply a specific format to the variable value.

Example: Filter profiles by service

Create a custom variable to switch between services in your profiling dashboard.

  1. Navigate to Dashboard settings > Variables.
  2. Click Add variable.
  3. Set Type to Custom.
  4. Enter a Name, for example service.
  5. In the Custom options field, enter comma-separated values, for example frontend, backend, api-gateway.
  6. Click Apply.

In your Parca query’s label selector, reference the variable:

text 
{job="$service"}

When you change the drop-down selection, the panel refreshes to show profiles for the selected service.

Example: Filter by service and instance

Create two custom variables to filter by multiple dimensions.

  1. Create a variable named service with custom values frontend, backend, api-gateway.
  2. Create a second variable named instance with custom values for your instance addresses, for example 10.0.0.1:7070, 10.0.0.2:7070, 10.0.0.3:7070.

In your Parca query’s label selector, reference both variables:

text 
{job="$service", instance="$instance"}

Example: Use a text box variable for free-form filtering

Create a text box variable for free-form label filtering.

  1. Navigate to Dashboard settings > Variables.
  2. Click Add variable.
  3. Set Type to Text box.
  4. Enter a Name, for example label_filter.
  5. Optionally set a default value, for example job="my-service".
  6. Click Apply.

In your Parca query’s label selector, reference the variable:

text 
{$label_filter}

This lets you type any label matcher directly into the variable input at the top of the dashboard without editing the panel query.

Limitations

Parca template variable support has the following limitations:

  • No query variable support: You can’t use Parca as a data source for populating variable options. Define values manually with custom variables or use another data source.
  • Label selector only: Variables are interpolated in the label selector field. The profile type drop-down doesn’t support variables.
  • No free-form filters: Parca doesn’t support free-form filters.

Next steps