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datasource diff

What this page covers

Compare datasource inventory from a local bundle against live Grafana and print an operator-summary diff report.

When to open this page

  • Use this when you want a concise live-versus-local difference report before import.

Who this page is for

Best for operators who manage Grafana data source configuration, dependency checks, and recovery paths.

Purpose

Compare datasource inventory from a local bundle against live Grafana and print an operator-summary diff report.

When to use

Use this when you want a concise live-versus-local difference report before import.

Key flags

  • --diff-dir: local datasource bundle to compare.
  • --input-format: choose inventory or provisioning.
  • --output-format: choose text or json.

Examples

# Purpose: Compare datasource inventory from a local bundle against live Grafana and print an operator-summary diff report.
grafana-util datasource diff --url http://localhost:3000 --basic-user admin --basic-password admin --diff-dir ./datasources --input-format inventory
# Purpose: Compare datasource inventory from a local bundle against live Grafana and print an operator-summary diff report.
grafana-util datasource diff --profile prod --diff-dir ./datasources/provisioning --input-format provisioning
# Purpose: Compare datasource inventory from a local bundle against live Grafana and render the shared diff contract.
grafana-util datasource diff --profile prod --diff-dir ./datasources --input-format inventory --output-format json

Before / After

  • Before: you had to inspect local and live datasource JSON by hand to find drift.
  • After: one diff command shows what changed between the bundle and Grafana before you import anything.
  • JSON mode includes a shared diff envelope plus field-level changes[{field,before,after}].

What success looks like

  • you can explain the change set before import
  • inventory and provisioning inputs both produce a readable summary
  • the output makes it obvious whether the bundle or the live side changed

Failure checks

  • if the diff is unexpectedly empty, verify the bundle path and --input-format
  • if the live side looks wrong, confirm the target Grafana and org scope before trusting the report
  • if the diff is noisy, make sure you are comparing the intended inventory bundle rather than an older provisioning tree

CLI schema lookup: