Deployment options

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:16:44 +0200

Deploy your dashboards

Now it’s time to connect your code-generated dashboards to a running Grafana instance.

Deployment methods available in Grafana

Grafana supports several ways to deploy dashboards from code. The right choice depends on the workflow your team already uses. Each has different trade-offs.

Method	How it works	Best for	Trade-off
Terraform	Define dashboards in HCL files and deploy them with the same plan-and-apply workflow as your other infrastructure	Teams with existing Terraform workflows	Another tool to learn if you don’t already use it
Git Sync	Store dashboard JSON in a GitHub repository; Grafana automatically synchronizes it	Git-native teams, no custom pipelines	Less control over the deployment process
Grafana API	Send HTTP requests to Grafana directly; the other two methods are built on top of it	Full custom control	More code to write and maintain

This journey covers Terraform deployments. You’ll produce as-code workflows that integrate with your existing infrastructure code.

Deploy a dashboard learning path

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:16:44 +0200

Learning path: Deploy a dashboard with Terraform

The following table describes the steps you’ll work through in the learning path.

Step	What you’ll do	Outcome
1. Create a service account	Set up API credentials in Grafana for Terraform	A service account token for authentication
2. Configure the provider	Declare the Grafana Terraform provider and authenticate	Terraform connected to your Grafana instance
3. Add a dashboard resource	Define a `grafana_dashboard` resource pointing to your JSON file	A Terraform configuration ready to deploy
4. Run terraform plan	Preview what Terraform will create in Grafana	Confidence in what will change before applying
5. Apply and verify	Run `terraform apply` and confirm the dashboard appears in Grafana	A live dashboard deployed from code

Before you start

Have these ready before you open the path:

A Grafana Cloud account or self-managed Grafana instance (version 12 or higher)
Terraform installed (version 1.0 or later)
A dashboard JSON file (from the previous learning path or exported from the Grafana UI)
Admin or Editor permissions on your Grafana instance

Learning path

Deploy a dashboard with Terraform

Welcome to the learning path that shows you how to deploy SDK-generated dashboard JSON to Grafana using the Terraform provider.

14 min

Intermediate

Docs & blog posts

Open in Grafana Cloud

Complete this learning path directly in your Grafana Cloud stack, or in the Grafana Play stack, with an interactive learning experience.

Open in Grafana Cloud Try in Grafana Play

View on website

Deploying dashboards on Grafana Labs