---
title: "Add the dashboard resource | Grafana Labs"
description: "Define a grafana_dashboard resource that deploys your JSON file to Grafana."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Add the dashboard resource

The `grafana_dashboard` resource tells Terraform to create or update a dashboard in Grafana using a JSON file. You point it at the file your Foundation SDK code generated (or any valid dashboard JSON), and Terraform handles the rest.

To add the dashboard resource, complete the following steps:

1. Copy your `dashboard.json` file into the `terraform` directory (or adjust the path in the next step to point to where it lives):
   
   Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```bash
   cp ../dashboard.json .
   ```
2. Create a file named `dashboards.tf` with a folder and dashboard resource:
   
   hcl ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy
   
   ```hcl
   resource "grafana_folder" "dashboards_as_code" {
     title = "Dashboards as Code"
   }
   
   resource "grafana_dashboard" "my_dashboard" {
     config_json = file("${path.module}/dashboard.json")
     folder      = grafana_folder.dashboards_as_code.id
   }
   ```
   
   This configuration:
   
   - Creates a folder named “Dashboards as Code” in Grafana
   - Deploys your dashboard JSON into that folder

## Deploying multiple dashboards

If you have multiple JSON files, use Terraform’s `for_each` to deploy them all:

hcl ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```hcl
resource "grafana_dashboard" "all" {
  for_each    = fileset("${path.module}/dashboards/", "*.json")
  config_json = file("${path.module}/dashboards/${each.key}")
  folder      = grafana_folder.dashboards_as_code.id
}
```

Add a new JSON file to the `dashboards/` directory, run `terraform apply`, and the dashboard appears in Grafana.

In the next milestone, you run `terraform plan` to preview what Terraform will do before applying any changes.