This is documentation for the next version of Grafana documentation. For the latest stable release, go to the latest version.

Documentationbreadcrumb arrow Grafana documentationbreadcrumb arrow Developer resourcesbreadcrumb arrow Grafana MCP serverbreadcrumb arrow Clientsbreadcrumb arrow VS Code Copilot
Enterprise Open source

VS Code and GitHub Copilot

This guide helps you set up the mcp-grafana server for VS Code with GitHub Copilot agent mode.

Prerequisites

  • VS Code with GitHub Copilot extension
  • Grafana 9.0+ with a service account token
  • mcp-grafana binary installed

Important

GitHub Copilot in VS Code uses SSE transport, not stdio. You need to run mcp-grafana as an HTTP server.

Setup

1. Start the MCP server

Bash 
export GRAFANA_URL="http://localhost:3000"
export GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN="<your-token>"
mcp-grafana --transport sse --address localhost:8000

Or with Docker:

Bash 
docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 \
  -e GRAFANA_URL=http://host.docker.internal:3000 \
  -e GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=<your-token> \
  grafana/mcp-grafana --transport sse --address :8000

2. Configure VS Code

Add to your VS Code settings (settings.json):

JSON 
{
  "github.copilot.chat.mcpServers": {
    "grafana": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/sse"
    }
  }
}

Or use workspace settings (.vscode/settings.json) for project-specific config.

Debug mode

Start the server with debug logging:

Bash 
mcp-grafana --transport sse --address localhost:8000 -debug

Verify configuration

  1. Restart VS Code after configuration changes
  2. Open Copilot Chat (Ctrl+Shift+I)
  3. Type: @grafana list dashboards
  4. If tools are available, Copilot will query Grafana

Troubleshooting

Server not connecting:

  • Verify server is running: curl http://localhost:8000/sse
  • Check firewall allows port 8000
  • Restart VS Code after configuration changes

Tools not appearing:

  • GitHub Copilot agent mode required (may need Copilot Chat enabled)
  • Check VS Code output panel for MCP errors

Running as a service

For persistent server, create a systemd unit or launchd plist.

Linux systemd (~/.config/systemd/user/mcp-grafana.service):

ini 
[Unit]
Description=Grafana MCP Server
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/path/to/mcp-grafana --transport sse --address localhost:8000
Environment=GRAFANA_URL=http://localhost:3000
Environment=GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=<your-token>
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Enable with:

Bash 
systemctl --user enable --now mcp-grafana

Read-only mode

Bash 
mcp-grafana --transport sse --address localhost:8000 --disable-write

Next steps