A new plugin Grafana HTTP API Data Source 1.0.0 was released today. This first release
- Allows connecting to Local and Remote Grafana instances via HTTP API using API Keys and Tokens.
- Tested with Grafana HTTP API versions 8.5+. It may work with previous versions.
- Allows retrieving Health information, Annotations, Alerts, and Data Sources.
- Supports Dashboard annotations to display filtered annotations and alerts.
- Based on the Grafana 9.3.6 toolkit and workflows.
The plugin was updated in Grafana Catalog on March 15, 2023.
Why?
Imagine you have many Grafana instances and you want to
- Quickly check information, configuration and usage reports from all of them.
- Validate users and teams across all instances.
- Display annotations collected from many instances on a Time Series panel.
Even if you have a single Grafana instance and you want to display Alerting Annotations filtered by variable on a Time Series panel, which was one of the reasons we created this data source. We will discuss this use case in the upcoming blog.
First release
This is the first release of the Grafana HTTP API Data Source. It is a game-changer to retrieve annotations, check health information, and verify the configuration of the local and remote Grafana instances, including Grafana Cloud.
Grafana HTTP API requires API Key or Token to access local and remote instances.

Highlights
The first release can retrieve
- Health information.
- List of Data Sources.
- Annotations and Alarms with filter capabilities.

Annotations
Grafana HTTP API Data Source supports Dashboard annotations to display filtered annotations and alerts.
Filter | Options |
---|---|
Type | All, Annotation, or Alert. |
Dashboards | All or This. |
Time Range | None or Selected in the dashboard. |
Prev State | All, Normal, Pending, or Alerting. |
Next State | All, Normal, Pending, or Alerting. |
Text Pattern | Supports Regular expressions and variables. |
Max Limit | Maximum number of annotations to retrieve. |

Getting Started
The Grafana HTTP API Data Source can be installed from the Grafana Catalog or utilizing the Grafana command line tool.
For the latter, please use the following command.
grafana-cli plugins install volkovlabs-grapi-datasource
YouTube Tutorial
Will be available end of March.
Release Notes
Features / Enhancements
- Initial release based on Volkov Labs Abc Data source template
- Update README and configuration (#1)
- Add Postgres for Alerting (#2)
- Add Annotations (#3)
- Update name to Grafana HTTP API (#4)
- Improve Annotations and update to Timescale (#5)
- Improve Data Source to check Organization (#6)
- Add Notifications and increase Test Coverage (#7)
- Add Annotation filters (#8)
- Add Annotation Alert States filter (#9)
- Add Health and Data Sources (#10)
- Update README to prepare for the release (#11, #12)
Feedback
We're looking forward to hearing from you. You can use different ways to get in touch with us.
- Ask a question, request a new feature, and file a bug with GitHub issues.
- Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and leave your comments.
- Sponsor our open-source plugins for Grafana with GitHub Sponsor.
- Support our project by starring the repository.