Graphite data source on Grafana Labs

Graphite query editor

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 05:44:27 +0000

Graphite query editor

Grafana includes a Graphite-specific query editor to help you build queries. The query editor helps you quickly navigate the metric space, add functions, and change function parameters. It can handle all types of Graphite queries, including complex nested queries through the use of query references.

For general documentation on querying data sources in Grafana, see Query and transform data.

View the raw query

To see the raw text of the query that Grafana sends to Graphite, click the Toggle text edit mode (pencil) icon.

Choose metrics to query

Click Select metric to navigate the metric space. Once you begin, you can use the mouse or keyboard arrow keys. You can also select a wildcard and still continue.

Functions

Click the plus icon next to Function to add a function. You can search for the function or select it from the menu. Once a function is selected, it will be added and your focus will be in the text box of the first parameter.

To edit or change a parameter, click on it and it will turn into a text box.
To delete a function, click the function name followed by the x icon.

Some functions like aliasByNode support an optional second argument. To add an argument, hover your mouse over the first argument and then click the + symbol that appears. To remove the second optional parameter, click on it and leave it blank and the editor will remove it.

To learn more, refer to Graphite’s documentation on functions.

Sort labels

If you have the same labels on multiple graphs, they are both sorted differently and use different colors.

To avoid this and consistently order labels by name, use the sortByName() function.

Modify the metric name in my tables or charts

Use alias functions, such as aliasByNode() or aliasSub(), to change metric names on Grafana tables or graphs.

Consolidate data points

Grafana consolidates all Graphite metrics so that Graphite doesn’t return more data points than there are pixels in the graph. By default, Grafana consolidates data points using the avg function. To control how Graphite consolidates metrics, use the Graphite consolidateBy() function.

Note: Legend summary values (max, min, total) can’t all be correct at the same time because they are calculated client-side by Grafana. Depending on your consolidation function, only one or two can be correct at the same time.

Combine time series

To combine time series, click Combine in the Functions list.

Select and explor data with tags

In Graphite, everything is a tag.

When exploring data, previously selected tags filter the remaining result set. To select data, use the seriesByTag function, which takes tag expressions (=, !=, =~, !=~) to filter timeseries.

The Grafana query builder does this for you automatically when you select a tag.

Tip: The regular expression search can be slow on high-cardinality tags, so try to use other tags to reduce the scope first. To help reduce the results, start by filtering on a particular name or namespace.

Nest queries

You can reference a query by the “letter” of its row, similar to a spreadsheet.

If you add a second query to a graph, you can reference the first query by entering #A. This helps you build compounded queries.

Use wildcards to make fewer queries

To view multiple time series plotted on the same graph, use wildcards in your search to return all of the matching time series in one query.

For example, to see how the CPU is being utilized on a machine, you can create a graph and use the single query cpu.percent.*.g to retrieve all time series that match that pattern. This is more efficient than adding a query for each time series, such as cpu.percent.user.g, cpu.percent.system.g, and so on, which results in many queries to the data source.

Apply annotations

Annotations overlay rich event information on top of graphs. You can add annotation queries in the Dashboard menu’s Annotations view.

Graphite supports two ways to query annotations:

A regular metric query, using the Graphite query textbox.
A Graphite events query, using the Graphite event tags textbox with a tag, wildcard, or empty value

Get Grafana metrics into Graphite

Grafana exposes metrics for Graphite on the /metrics endpoint. For detailed instructions, refer to Internal Grafana metrics.

Integration with Loki

Graphite queries get converted to Loki queries when the data source selection changes in Explore. Loki label names and values are extracted from the Graphite queries according to mappings information provided in Graphite data source configuration. Queries using tags with seriesByTags() are also transformed without any additional setup.

Refer to the Graphite data source settings for more details.

Graphite template variables

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 05:44:27 +0000

Graphite template variables

Instead of hard-coding details such as server, application, and sensor names in metric queries, you can use variables. Grafana lists these variables in dropdown select boxes at the top of the dashboard to help you change the data displayed in your dashboard. Grafana refers to such variables as template variables.

For an introduction to templating and template variables, refer to the Templating and Add and manage variables documentation.

Select a query type

There are three query types for Graphite template variables

Query Type	Description
Default Query	Use functions such as `tags()`, `tag_values()`, `expand(<metric>)` and metrics.
Value Query	Returns all the values for a query that includes a metric and function.
Metric Name Query	Returns all the names for a query that includes a metric and function.

Use tag variables

To create a variable using tag values, use the Grafana functions tags and tag_values.

Query	Description
`tags()`	Returns all tags.
`tags(server=~backend\*)`	Returns only tags that occur in series matching the filter expression.
`tag_values(server)`	Returns tag values for the specified tag.
`tag_values(server, server=~backend\*)`	Returns filtered tag values that occur for the specified tag in series matching those expressions.

Multiple filter expressions and expressions can contain other variables. For example:

tag_values(server, server=~backend\*, app=~${apps:regex})

For details, refer to the Graphite docs on the autocomplete API for tags.

Use multi-value variables in tag queries

Multi-value variables in tag queries use the advanced formatting syntax for variables introduced in Grafana v5.0: {var:regex}. Non-tag queries use the default glob formatting for multi-value variables.

Tag expression example

Using regex formatting and the Equal Tilde operator, =~:

server=~${servers:regex}

For more information, refer to Advanced variable format options.

Use other query variables

When writing queries, use the metric find type of query.

For example, a query like prod.servers.* fills the variable with all possible values that exist in the wildcard position.

The results contain all possible values occurring only at the last level of the query. To get full metric names matching the query, use the expand function: expand(*.servers.*).

Compare expanded and non-expanded metric search results

The expanded query returns the full names of matching metrics. In combination with regular expressions, you can use it to extract any part of the metric name. By contrast, a non-expanded query returns only the last part of the metric name, and doesn’t let you extract other parts of metric names.

Given these example metrics:

prod.servers.001.cpu
prod.servers.002.cpu
test.servers.001.cpu

These examples demonstrate how expanded and non-expanded queries can fetch specific parts of the metrics name:

Non-expanded query	Results	Expanded query	Expanded results
`*`	prod, test	`expand(*)`	prod, test
`*.servers`	servers	`expand(*.servers)`	prod.servers, test.servers
`test.servers`	servers	`expand(test.servers)`	test.servers
`.servers.`	001,002	`expand(.servers.)`	prod.servers.001, prod.servers.002, test.servers.001
`test.servers.*`	001	`expand(test.servers.*)`	test.servers.001
`.servers..cpu`	cpu	`expand(.servers..cpu)`	prod.servers.001.cpu, prod.servers.002.cpu, test.servers.001.cpu

The non-expanded query is the same as an expanded query, with a regex matching the last part of the name.

You can also create nested variables that use other variables in their definition. For example, apps.$app.servers.* uses the variable $app in its query definition.

Use `__searchFilter` to filter query variable results

Note: Available in Grafana v6.5 and higher.

You can use __searchFilter in the query field to filter the query result based on what the user types in the dropdown select box. The default value for __searchFilter is * if you’ve not entered anything, and `` when used as part of a regular expression.

To use __searchFilter as part of the query field to enable searching for server while the user types in the dropdown select box:

Query

apps.$app.servers.$__searchFilter

TagValues

tag_values(server, server=~${__searchFilter:regex})

Choose a variable syntax

The Graphite data source supports two variable syntaxes for use in the Query field:

$<varname>, for example apps.frontend.$server.requests.count, which is easier to read and write but does not allow you to use a variable in the middle of a word.
${varname}, for example apps.frontend.${server}.requests.count, to use in expressions like my.server${serverNumber}.count.

Templated dashboard example

To view an example templated dashboard, refer to Graphite Templated Dashboard.

Graphite data source on Grafana Labs

Graphite query editor

Graphite query editor

View the raw query

Choose metrics to query

Functions

Sort labels

Modify the metric name in my tables or charts

Consolidate data points

Combine time series

Select and explor data with tags

Nest queries

Use wildcards to make fewer queries

Apply annotations

Get Grafana metrics into Graphite

Integration with Loki

Graphite template variables

Graphite template variables

Select a query type

Use tag variables

Use multi-value variables in tag queries

Tag expression example

Use other query variables

Compare expanded and non-expanded metric search results

Use __searchFilter to filter query variable results

Search filter example

Choose a variable syntax

Templated dashboard example

Use `__searchFilter` to filter query variable results