Observability as code

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:35:46 -0500

Configure and provision Grafana with as-code workflows

Manage resources, including folders and dashboards, and configurations with as-code workflows.

Overview

Grafana provides a suite of tools for Observability as code to help you manage your Grafana resources programmatically and at scale. This approach lets you define dashboards, data sources, and other configurations in code, enabling version control, automated testing, and reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines. You can apply code management best practices to your observability resources, and integrate them into existing infrastructure-as-code workflows.

Historically, managing Grafana as code involved various community and Grafana Labs tools, but lacked a single, cohesive story. Grafana 12 introduces foundational improvements, including new versioned APIs and official tooling, to provide a clearer path forward:

This approach requires handling HTTP requests and responses but provides complete control over resource management.
grafanactl, Git Sync, and the Foundation SDK are all built on top of these APIs.
To understand Dashboard Schemas accepted by the APIs, refer to the JSON models documentation.

Explore

Observability as code

Using Observability as code, you can version, automate, and scale Grafana configurations, including dashboards and observability workflows.

Infrastructure as code

Using Infrastructure as code, you can declaratively manage what Grafana resources to use.

Additional Observability as code tools

If you’re already using established Infrastructure as code or other configuration management tools, Grafana offers integrations to manage resources within your existing workflows.

Terraform
- Use the Grafana Terraform provider to manage dashboards, alerts, and more.
- Understand how to define and deploy resources using HCL/JSON configurations.
Ansible
- Learn to use the Grafana Ansible collection to manage Grafana Cloud resources, including folders and cloud stacks.
- Write playbooks to automate resource provisioning through the Grafana API.
Grafana Operator
- Utilize Kubernetes-native management with the Grafana Operator.
- Manage dashboards, folders, and data sources via Kubernetes Custom Resources.
- Integrate with GitOps workflows for seamless version control and deployment.
Crossplane lets you manage Grafana resources using Kubernetes manifests with the Grafana Crossplane provider.
Grafonnet is a Jsonnet library for generating Grafana dashboard JSON definitions programmatically.

Provision Grafana Cloud with Infrastructure as code

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:35:46 -0500

Provision Grafana Cloud with Infrastructure as code

With Grafana Cloud, you can use as-code tools to create and manage resources via code, and incorporate them efficiently into your own use cases. This enables you to review code, reuse it, and create better workflows.

Note
Most of the tools defined here can be used with one another.

Grafana Terraform provider

Grafana administrators can manage dashboards, alerts and collectors, add synthetic monitoring probes and checks, manage identity and access, and more using the Terraform provider for Grafana.

The following example shows a Terraform configuration for creating a dashboard:

resource "grafana_dashboard" "metrics" {
  config_json = jsonencode({
    title   = "as-code dashboard"
    uid     = "ascode"
  })
}

This example dashboard only creates the dashboard and does not add any panels or rows. To get started, see the Grafana Terraform provider guides or refer to the Terraform Grafana Provider documentation.

Who is this recommended for?

Grafana Terraform provider is best suited for users who are already using Terraform for non-Grafana use cases.

To manage the entire Grafana ecosystem of resources on either Grafana Cloud or OSS deployments of Grafana, it’s best to use the Terraform Grafana provider because it supports the most Grafana resources compared to Grafana’s other as-code solutions.

For Grafana Fleet Management users, the Grafana Terraform provider is best used to preregister new collectors before they are operational or add remote attributes to collectors already registered with the service.

Known limitations

Managing dashboards isn’t the simplest process—you have to work with long JSON files, which can become difficult to review and update, as well. Grafonnet can help with generating dashboard JSONs that can be used in Terraform, but Grafonnet requires knowing Jsonnet.

Grafana Ansible collection

Resources for configuration management are available for Grafana through the Ansible collection for Grafana. The Grafana Ansible collection can be used to manage a variety of resources, including folders, cloud stacks, and dashboards. You can programmatically manage resources on Grafana that aren’t currently part of the Grafana Ansible collection by writing Ansible playbooks that use the HTTP APIs to manage resources for Grafana.

The following example shows an Ansible configuration for creating a dashboard:

- name: dashboard as code
  grafana.grafana.dashboard:
    dashboard: { 'title': 'as-code dashboard', 'uid': 'ascode' }
    stack_slug: '{{ stack_slug }}'
    grafana_api_key: '{{ grafana_api_key }}'
    state: present

This example dashboard creates only the dashboard and does not add any panels or rows.

To get started, see the quickstart guides for the Grafana Ansible Collection or check out the collections’s documentation.

Who is this recommended for?

Like Terraform, the Grafana Ansible collection is best suited for people already using Ansible for non-Grafana use cases. The collection only works for Grafana Cloud right now, so it makes the most sense for Grafana Cloud customers who want to manage resources using Ansible.

Known limitations

The Grafana Ansible collection only works for Grafana Cloud and only supports eight resources: API keys, cloud stacks, plugins, dashboards, folders, data sources, alert contact points, and notification policies. This can be a drawback if you want to manage the entire Grafana ecosystem as code with Ansible. As with Terraform, building dashboards is a challenging process.

Grafana Operator

The Grafana Operator is a Kubernetes operator that can provision, manage, and operate Grafana instances and their associated resources within Kubernetes through Custom Resources. This Kubernetes-native tool eases the administration of Grafana, including managing dashboards, data sources, and folders. It also automatically syncs the Kubernetes Custom resources and the actual resources in the Grafana Instance. It supports leveraging Grafonnet for generating Grafana dashboard definitions for seamless dashboard configuration as code.

To get started, see the quickstart guides for the Grafana Operator or check out the Grafana Operator’s documentation.

A sample Kubernetes configuration for creating a dashboard using the Grafana operator looks like this:

apiVersion: integreatly.org/v1alpha1
kind: GrafanaDashboard
metadata:
  name: simple-dashboard
  labels:
    app: grafana
spec:
  instanceSelector:
    matchLabels:
      dashboards: <Grafana-custom-resource-name>
  json: >
    {
      "title": "as-code dashboard",
      “uid” : “ascode”
    }

Who is this recommended for?

The Grafana Operator is particularly fitting for:

Teams seeking integrated solutions to manage Grafana resources within the Kubernetes cluster ecosystem.
Teams employing a GitOps approach, allowing them to treat Grafana configurations as code, stored alongside application manifests for versioned and automated deployments.

Known limitations

While the Grafana Operator simplifies many aspects of operating Grafana and its resources on Kubernetes, its current support is mainly focused on managing dashboards, folders, and data sources. Advanced features like alerting and plugins (only works for OSS) are not supported yet.

Grafana Crossplane provider

Grafana Crossplane provider is built using Terrajet and provides support for all resources supported by the Grafana Terraform provider. It enables users to define Grafana resources as Kubernetes manifests and it also help users who build their GitOps pipelines around Kubernetes manifests using tools like ArgoCD.

To get started with the Grafana Crossplane provider, install Crossplane in the Kubernetes cluster and use this command to install the provider:

kubectl crossplane install provider grafana/crossplane-provider-grafana:v0.1.0

During installation of the provider, CRDs for all the resources supported by the Terraform provider are added to the cluster so users can begin defining their Grafana resources as Kubernetes custom resources. The Crossplane provider ensures that whatever is defined in the custom resource definitions is what is visible in Grafana UI. If any changes are made directly in the UI, the changes will be discarded when the provider resyncs. This helps ensure that whatever is defined via code in the cluster will be the source of truth for Grafana resources.

To get started, refer to the examples folder in the Grafana Crossplane repository.

The following example shows a Kubernetes custom resource definition for creating a dashboard:

apiVersion: grafana.jet.crossplane.io/v1alpha1
kind: Dashboard
metadata:
  name: as-code-dashboard
spec:
  forProvider:
    configJson: |
      {
        "title": "as-code dashboard",
        "uid": "ascode"
      }
  providerConfigRef:
    name: grafana-crossplane-provider

Who is this recommended for?

The Grafana Crossplane provider is intended for existing Crossplane users looking to manage Grafana resources from within Kubernetes and as Kubernetes manifests for the GitOps pipelines.

Known limitations

To use the Crossplane provider, you must have the Crossplane CLI and Crossplane installed in the Kubernetes cluster. Note that the Crossplane provider is in an alpha stage, so it has not reached a stable state yet.

Grafana as code comparison

The following chart compares the properties and tools mentioned above.

Property/Tool	Grafana Terraform Provider	Grafana Ansible Collection	Grafana Operator	Grafana Crossplane Provider
Grafana resources supported	All major Grafana resources	Grafana Cloud stack, plugins, API keys, dashboards, data sources, and folders	Dashboards, data sources, Folders	All major Grafana resources
Tool format	HCL/JSON	YAML	YAML	YAML/JSON
Follows Kubernetes-style manifests			✓	✓
Easy dashboard building process			✓
Manage resources using Kubernetes			✓	✓
Retrieves Grafana resource information	✓
Built-in resource sync process			✓	✓
Recommended for	Existing Terraform users	Existing Ansible users	Users looking to manage Grafana resources from within Kubernetes	Users looking to manage Grafana resources from within Kubernetes

Deploy, configure and provision Grafana with as-code workflows on Grafana Labs

Observability as code

Configure and provision Grafana with as-code workflows

Overview

Explore

Additional Observability as code tools

Provision Grafana Cloud with Infrastructure as code

Provision Grafana Cloud with Infrastructure as code

Grafana Terraform provider

Who is this recommended for?

Known limitations

Grafana Ansible collection

Who is this recommended for?

Known limitations

Grafana Operator

Who is this recommended for?

Known limitations

Grafana Crossplane provider

Who is this recommended for?

Known limitations

Grafana as code comparison