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Dashboard JSON model

Grafana dashboards are represented as JSON objects that store metadata, panels, variables, and settings.

Different dashboard schema models

There are currently three dashboard JSON schema models:

  • V2 Resource: The current schema, supporting new features such as advanced layouts and conditional rendering. It models all dashboard elements as Kubernetes kinds, following Kubernetes conventions for declaring dashboard components.
  • V1 Resource: The Classic dashboard schema formatted as a Kubernetes-style resource. Its spec property contains the Classic model of the schema. It was the default format for API communication between Grafana v12.2.0 and v13.0.0 and has been used for exporting, importing, and sharing dashboards.
  • Classic: A non-Kubernetes resource that was the default before Grafana v12.2.0. It’s been widely used for exporting, importing, and sharing dashboards in the Grafana dashboards collection at grafana.com/dashboards. Dashboards created using this model can be exported using either this model or V2.

Note

Observability as Code works with both versions of the JSON model, but it’s fully compatible with version 2.

Access and update the JSON model

To access the JSON representation of a dashboard:

  1. Navigate to the dashboard.
  2. Click Edit in the top-right corner.
  3. In the toolbar, click the Dashboard options icon.
  4. In the sidebar, click Settings.
  5. Go to the JSON Model tab.
  6. When you’ve finished updating the JSON, click Save changes at the bottom of the tab.
  7. Click Back and Exit edit.

V2 Resource model

For the detailed V2 Resource model schema, refer to the Swagger documentation.

V1 Resource model

The V1 Resource schema model formats the Classic JSON model schema as a Kubernetes-style resource. The spec property of the schema contains the Classic-style model of the schema.

For the detailed V1 Resource model schema, refer to the Swagger documentation. The following code snippet shows the fields included in the V1 Resource model:

JSON 
{
  "apiVersion": "dashboard.grafana.app/v1",
  "kind": "Dashboard",
  "metadata": {
    "name": "isnt5ss",
    "namespace": "stacks-521104",
    "uid": "92674c0e-0360-4bb4-99ab-fb150581376d",
    "resourceVersion": "1764705030717045",
    "generation": 1,
    "creationTimestamp": "2025-12-02T19:50:30Z",
    "labels": {
      "grafana.app/deprecatedInternalID": "1329"
    },
    "annotations": {
      "grafana.app/createdBy": "user:u000000002",
      "grafana.app/folder": "",
      "grafana.app/saved-from-ui": "Grafana Cloud (instant)"
    }
  },
  "spec": {
    "annotations": {
      "list": [
        {
          "builtIn": 1,
          "datasource": {
            "type": "grafana",
            "uid": "-- Grafana --"
          },
          "enable": true,
          "hide": true,
          "iconColor": "rgba(0, 211, 255, 1)",
          "name": "Annotations & Alerts",
          "type": "dashboard"
        }
      ]
    },
    "editable": true,
    "fiscalYearStartMonth": 0,
    "graphTooltip": 0,
    "id": 1329,
    "links": [],
    "panels": [],
    "preload": false,
    "schemaVersion": 42,
    "tags": [],
    "templating": {
      "list": []
    },
    "time": {
      "from": "now-6h",
      "to": "now"
    },
    "timepicker": {},
    "timezone": "Africa/Abidjan",
    "title": "Graphite suggestions",
    "uid": "isnt5ss",
    "version": 1,
    "weekStart": ""
  },
  "status": {}
}

Classic model

When you create a new dashboard in self-managed Grafana, a new dashboard JSON object was initialized with the following fields:

Note

In the following JSON, id is shown as null which is the default value assigned to it until a dashboard is saved. After a dashboard is saved, an integer value is assigned to the id field.

JSON 
{
  "id": null,
  "uid": "cLV5GDCkz",
  "title": "New dashboard",
  "tags": [],
  "timezone": "browser",
  "editable": true,
  "graphTooltip": 1,
  "panels": [],
  "time": {
    "from": "now-6h",
    "to": "now"
  },
  "timepicker": {
    "refresh_intervals": []
  },
  "templating": {
    "list": []
  },
  "annotations": {
    "list": []
  },
  "refresh": "5s",
  "schemaVersion": 17,
  "version": 0,
  "links": []
}

Each field in the dashboard JSON is explained below with its usage:

Name Usage
id unique numeric identifier for the dashboard. (generated by the db)
uid unique dashboard identifier that can be generated by anyone. string (8-40)
title current title of dashboard
tags tags associated with dashboard, an array of strings
style theme of dashboard, i.e. dark or light
timezone timezone of dashboard, i.e. utc or browser
editable whether a dashboard is editable or not
graphTooltip 0 for no shared crosshair or tooltip (default), 1 for shared crosshair, 2 for shared crosshair AND shared tooltip
time time range for dashboard, i.e. last 6 hours, last 7 days, etc
timepicker timepicker metadata, see timepicker section for details
templating templating metadata, see templating section for details
annotations annotations metadata, see annotations for how to add them
refresh auto-refresh interval
schemaVersion version of the JSON schema (integer), incremented each time a Grafana update brings changes to said schema
version version of the dashboard (integer), incremented each time the dashboard is updated
panels panels array, see below for detail.

Panels

Panels are the building blocks of a dashboard. It consists of data source queries, type of graphs, aliases, etc. Panel JSON consists of an array of JSON objects, each representing a different panel. Most of the fields are common for all panels but some fields depend on the panel type. Following is an example of panel JSON of a text panel.

JSON 
"panels": [
  {
    "type": "text",
    "title": "Panel Title",
    "gridPos": {
      "x": 0,
      "y": 0,
      "w": 12,
      "h": 9
    },
    "id": 4,
    "mode": "markdown",
    "content": "# title"
  }

Panel size and position

The gridPos property describes the panel size and position in grid coordinates.

  • w 1-24 (the width of the dashboard is divided into 24 columns)
  • h In grid height units, each represents 30 pixels.
  • x The x position, in same unit as w.
  • y The y position, in same unit as h.

The grid has a negative gravity that moves panels up if there is empty space above a panel.

timepicker

JSON 
"timepicker": {
    "collapse": false,
    "enable": true,
    "notice": false,
    "now": true,
    "hidden": false,
    "nowDelay": "",
    "quick_ranges": [
      {
        "display": "Last 6 hours",
        "from": "now-6h",
        "to": "now"
      },
      {
        "display": "Last 7 days",
        "from": "now-7d",
        "to": "now"
      }
    ],
    "refresh_intervals": [
      "5s",
      "10s",
      "30s",
      "1m",
      "5m",
      "15m",
      "30m",
      "1h",
      "2h",
      "1d"
    ],
    "status": "Stable",
    "type": "timepicker"
  }

Usage of the fields is explained below:

Name Usage
collapse whether timepicker is collapsed or not
enable whether timepicker is enabled or not
notice
now
hidden whether timepicker is hidden or not
nowDelay override the now time by entering a time delay. Use this option to accommodate known delays in data aggregation to avoid null values.
quick_ranges custom quick ranges
refresh_intervals interval options available in the refresh picker dropdown
status
type

templating

The templating field contains an array of template variables with their saved values along with some other metadata, for example:

JSON 
 "templating": {
    "enable": true,
    "list": [
      {
        "allFormat": "wildcard",
        "current": {
          "tags": [],
          "text": "prod",
          "value": "prod"
        },
        "datasource": null,
        "includeAll": true,
        "name": "env",
        "options": [
          {
            "selected": false,
            "text": "All",
            "value": "*"
          },
          {
            "selected": false,
            "text": "stage",
            "value": "stage"
          },
          {
            "selected": false,
            "text": "test",
            "value": "test"
          }
        ],
        "query": "tag_values(cpu.utilization.average,env)",
        "refresh": false,
        "type": "query"
      },
      {
        "allFormat": "wildcard",
        "current": {
          "text": "apache",
          "value": "apache"
        },
        "datasource": null,
        "includeAll": false,
        "multi": false,
        "multiFormat": "glob",
        "name": "app",
        "options": [
          {
            "selected": true,
            "text": "tomcat",
            "value": "tomcat"
          },
          {
            "selected": false,
            "text": "cassandra",
            "value": "cassandra"
          }
        ],
        "query": "tag_values(cpu.utilization.average,app)",
        "refresh": false,
        "regex": "",
        "type": "query"
      }
    ]
  }

Usage of the above mentioned fields in the templating section is explained below:

Name Usage
enable whether templating is enabled or not
list an array of objects each representing one template variable
allFormat format to use while fetching all values from data source, eg: wildcard, glob, regex, pipe, etc.
current shows current selected variable text/value on the dashboard
data source shows data source for the variables
includeAll whether all value option is available or not
multi whether multiple values can be selected or not from variable value list
multiFormat format to use while fetching timeseries from data source
name name of variable
options array of variable text/value pairs available for selection on dashboard
query data source query used to fetch values for a variable
refresh configures when to refresh a variable
regex extracts part of a series name or metric node segment
type type of variable, i.e. custom, query or interval