Manage resources with Grafana CLI

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:48:36 +0000

Manage resources with `grafanactl`

Caution
grafanactl is being deprecated, and we’re bringing all our learning and experience into the new, improved CLI tool gcx. The grafanactl repository in GitHub will be archived on June 1, 2026.

To migrate from grafanactl to gcx, search-and-replace grafanactl with gcx. For grafanactl resources serve, use gcx dev serve instead.

Migrate resources between environments

Using the config and resources options, you can migrate Grafana resources from one environment to another, for example, from a development to production environment. The config option lets you define the configuration context. Using resources with pull, push, and serve lets you pull a defined resource from one instance, and push that resource to another instance. Serve allows you to preview changes locally before pushing.

Use these steps to migrate resources between environments:

Note
Currently, the serve command only works with dashboards.

Use these steps to migrate resources between environments:

Note
Resources are pulled and pushed from the ./resources directory by default. This can be configured with the -p, --path flags to specify custom paths on disk.

Make changes to dashboards and other resources using the Grafana UI in your development instance.

Pull those resources from the development environment to your local machine:

grafanactl config use-context YOUR_CONTEXT
grafanactl resources pull --path ./resources/ -o yaml

(Optional) Preview the resources locally before pushing:

grafanactl config use-context YOUR_CONTEXT
grafanactl resources serve ./resources/

Switch to the production instance and push the resources:

grafanactl config use-context YOUR_CONTEXT
grafanactl resources push -p ./resources/

Back up Grafana resources

This workflow helps you back up all Grafana resources from one instance and later restore them. This is useful to replicate a configuration or perform disaster recovery.

Use grafanactl to pull all resources from your target environment:

grafanactl config use-context YOUR_CONTEXT
grafanactl resources pull --path ./resources/ -o yaml

Save the exported resources to version control or cloud storage.

Restore Grafana resources

(Optional) Preview the backup locally:

grafanactl config use-context YOUR_CONTEXT
grafanactl resources serve ./resources/

To restore the resources later or restore them on another instance, push the saved resources:
Bash
```
grafanactl config use-context YOUR_CONTEXT
grafanactl resources push -p ./resources/
```

Manage dashboards as code

With this workflow, you can define and manage dashboards as code, saving them to a version control system like Git. This is useful for teams that want to maintain a history of changes, collaborate on dashboard design, and ensure consistency across environments.

Use a dashboard generation script (for example, with the Foundation SDK). You can find an example implementation in the Grafana as code hands-on lab repository.

Serve and preview the output of the dashboard generator locally:

grafanactl config use-context YOUR_CONTEXT
grafanactl resources serve --script 'go run scripts/generate-dashboard.go' --watch './scripts'

When the output looks correct, generate dashboard manifest files:

go run scripts/generate-dashboard.go --generate-resource-manifests --output './resources'

Push the generated resources to your Grafana instance:

grafanactl config use-context YOUR_CONTEXT
grafanactl resources push -p ./resources/

Explore and modify resources from the terminal

This section describes how to use the Grafana CLI to interact with Grafana resources directly from your terminal. These commands allow you to browse, inspect, update, and delete resources without using the Grafana UI. This approach is useful for advanced users who want to manage resources more efficiently or integrate Grafana operations into automated workflows.

Find and delete dashboards using invalid data sources

Use this workflow to identify dashboards that reference incorrect or outdated data sources, and remove them if necessary.

Set the context to the appropriate environment:
Bash
```
grafanactl config use-context YOUR_CONTEXT
```

Find dashboards using specific data sources:

grafanactl resources get dashboards -ojson | jq '.items | map({ uid: .metadata.name, datasources: .spec.panels | map(.datasource.uid)  })'
[
   {
      "uid": "important-production-dashboard",
      "datasources": [
         "mimir-prod"
      ]
   },
   {
      "uid": "test-dashboard-from-dev",
      "datasources": [
         "mimir-prod",
         "mimir-dev"
      ]
   },
   {
      "uid": "test-dashboard-from-stg",
      "datasources": [
         "mimir-prod",
         "mimir-stg",
         "mimir-dev"
      ]
   }
]

This command lists dashboard UIDs along with the data source UIDs used in their panels. You can then identify the dashboards that are using invalid or unexpected data sources.

Delete the identified dashboards directly:

grafanactl resources delete dashboards/test-dashboard-from-stg,test-dashboard-from-dev
✔ 2 resources deleted, 0 errors

Find and deprecate dashboards using the old API version

Use this workflow to locate dashboards using a deprecated API version and mark them accordingly.

Set the context to the appropriate environment:
Bash
```
grafanactl config use-context YOUR_CONTEXT
```

List all available resources types and versions:

grafanactl resources list

This command returns a list of resources, including their versions, types, and quantities:

GROUP                               VERSION   KIND
folder.grafana.app                  v1        folder
dashboard.grafana.app               v1        dashboard
dashboard.grafana.app               v1        librarypanel
dashboard.grafana.app               v2        dashboard
dashboard.grafana.app               v2        librarypanel
playlist.grafana.app                v1        playlist

Find dashboards that are still using a deprecated API version:

grafanactl resources get dashboards.v1.dashboard.grafana.app

This command returns a table displaying the resource type, resource name, and associated namespace:

KIND         NAME                                   NAMESPACE
dashboards   really-old-dashboard                   default

Edit each of these dashboards to add a deprecated tag:

grafanactl resources edit dashboards.v1.dashboard.grafana.app/really-old-dashboard -p '{"spec":{"tags":["deprecated"]}}'

Tip
You can get help by using the grafanactl --help command.

Install and set up the grafanactl CLI on Grafana Labs