Chainguard Container for mcp-grafana

mcp-grafana is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Grafana that enables AI assistants and automation tools to interact with your Grafana dashboards, incidents, alerts, and datasources through a standardized protocol

Chainguard Containers are regularly-updated, secure-by-default container images.

Download this Container Image

For those with access, this container image is available on cgr.dev:

docker pull cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/mcp-grafana:latest

Be sure to replace the ORGANIZATION placeholder with the name used for your organization's private repository within the Chainguard Registry.

Compatibility Notes

Chainguard's mcp-grafana container image is comparable to the upstream image, with the following differences:

• Like all other Chainguard Containers, mcp-grafana features a stripped down, minimal design
• It has few-to-zero CVEs
• It does not run as the root user

Getting started

Pull the mcp-grafana Image

docker pull cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/mcp-grafana

Run the Container

Replace `` with your actual Grafana API key.

docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 \
  -e GRAFANA_URL=http://localhost:3000 \
  -e GRAFANA_API_KEY= \
  mcp/grafana

Once the container is running, the MCP-Grafana server will be listening on port 8000 and ready to accept requests from compatible clients or AI agents.

You do not interact directly with the container via a shell.
Instead, you connect to the MCP-Grafana server from a client application (such as Claude Desktop, VSCode, or another compatible AI tool) or by sending HTTP requests.

Connect a Client or Agent

• Configure your client (e.g., Claude Desktop) to use the MCP-Grafana server.
  This typically involves adding your MCP-Grafana server details to the client’s configuration file.
  For example, in Claude Desktop, add an entry pointing to the MCP-Grafana server.

Invoke Grafana Tools via the Client

• Once connected, you can use your client’s interface to tools which can be found in the upstream doc
• You can use natural language prompts (e.g., “List all dashboards”) or select tools from the client’s tools panel.

Documentation and Resources

• Official Documentation
• GitHub Repository
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) Documentation

What are Chainguard Containers?

Chainguard Containers are minimal container images that are secure by default.

In many cases, the Chainguard Containers tagged as :latest contain only an open-source application and its runtime dependencies. These minimal container images typically do not contain a shell or package manager. Chainguard Containers are built with Wolfi, our Linux undistro designed to produce container images that meet the requirements of a more secure software supply chain.

The main features of Chainguard Containers include:

• Minimal design, without unnecessary software bloat
• Daily builds to ensure container images are up-to-date with available security patches
• High quality build-time SBOMs attesting to the provenance of all artifacts within the image
• Verifiable signatures provided by Sigstore
• Reproducible builds with Cosign and apko (read more about reproducibility)

For cases where you need container images with shells and package managers to build or debug, most Chainguard Containers come paired with a -dev variant.

Although the -dev container image variants have similar security features as their more minimal versions, they feature additional software that is typically not necessary in production environments. We recommend using multi-stage builds to leverage the -dev variants, copying application artifacts into a final minimal container that offers a reduced attack surface that won’t allow package installations or logins.

Learn More

To better understand how to work with Chainguard Containers, please visit Chainguard Academy and Chainguard Courses.

In addition to Containers, Chainguard offers VMs and Libraries. Contact Chainguard to access additional products.

Trademarks

This software listing is packaged by Chainguard. The trademarks set forth in this offering are owned by their respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement by such companies.