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Section 1 · Foundation SDK fundamentals

Where the Foundation SDK and Terraform deployment fit among Grafana's as-code tools

Estimated time: 1 min

Grafana’s Observability as Code tools

Grafana offers several as-code tools. Each solves a different part of the problem, and they can work together. This diagram shows how they relate in the generate-and-deploy workflow.

Diagram showing how Observability as Code tools connect: Foundation SDK generates dashboard JSON, which flows to gcx, Terraform, or Git Sync for deployment to Grafana

This journey doesn’t cover all the as Code tools available in Grafana, it only focuses on the Foundation SDK (generate) + Terraform (deploy) + GitHub Actions (automate) workflow.

Tool overview

This table has details on each tool, what it does, what to use it for, and whether it’s covered in this journey.

ToolWhat it doesUse it forPart of this journey?
Foundation SDKDefines dashboards in typed code (Go, TS, Python, Java, PHP)Generating dashboard JSON programmaticallyYes
Terraform providerManages dashboards, folders, data sources, and alerts with Terraform, alongside your infrastructureTeams already using Terraform for Infrastructure as CodeYes
Git SyncSyncs dashboard JSON in a GitHub repo with GrafanaTeams wanting Git-native workflows without custom pipelinesNo
gcxCommand-line tool that authenticates to Grafana and pushes or pulls resources from your local machineQuick deployments, CI/CD steps, scriptingNo