Important: This documentation is about an older version. It's relevant only to the release noted, many of the features and functions have been updated or replaced. Please view the current version.

Documentation

Grafana documentation

Developer resources

Grafana MCP server

Clients

Zed

Enterprise Open source

Zed

This guide helps you set up the mcp-grafana server for the Zed editor.

Prerequisites

Zed editor installed
Grafana 9.0+ with a service account token
mcp-grafana binary in your PATH

Configuration

Zed uses context_servers in settings.json, not mcpServers.

Add using the UI

Open Agent Panel (Cmd+Shift+A)
Click Settings (gear icon)
Click Add Custom Server
Fill in command and args

Manual configuration

Open Zed settings (Cmd+,) and add:

{
  "context_servers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "mcp-grafana",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: Zed uses context_servers, not mcpServers.

Docker configuration

{
  "context_servers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "GRAFANA_URL",
        "-e",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN",
        "grafana/mcp-grafana",
        "-t",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://host.docker.internal:3000",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Debug mode

{
  "context_servers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "mcp-grafana",
      "args": ["-debug"],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Verify configuration

Open Agent Panel settings
Check indicator next to grafana
- Green = server active
- Other colors = check tooltip for status
Open Agent Panel chat
Ask: “List my Grafana dashboards”

Tip: Mention “grafana” in your prompt to help the model pick the right tools.

Tool permissions

By default, Zed asks permission for each tool call. To auto-allow:

{
  "agent": {
    "always_allow_tool_actions": true
  }
}

Use with caution – this enables all MCP tools without confirmation.

Troubleshooting

Server not starting:

Check Zed logs: Cmd+Shift+P -> zed: open logs
Verify binary path: which mcp-grafana
Restart Zed after configuration changes

Tools not appearing:

Zed supports both stdio and HTTP transports
For remote servers, use native URL syntax or mcp-remote shim

Remote server (native URL syntax):

Zed supports direct URL connections for remote MCP servers:

{
  "context_servers": {
    "grafana": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/sse",
      "headers": {}
    }
  }
}

First start the server:

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

Remote server (mcp-remote fallback):

Alternative using mcp-remote shim:

{
  "context_servers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-remote", "http://localhost:8000/sse"]
    }
  }
}

Read-only mode

{
  "context_servers": {
    "grafana": {
      "command": "mcp-grafana",
      "args": ["--disable-write"],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "http://localhost:3000",
        "GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}