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grafana-util change inspect

What this page covers

Inspect the staged change package from discovered or explicit inputs.

When to open this page

Start here when you need the shortest path to understand what the staged package contains.
Use this before change check or change preview when you want to size the package first.
Prefer this over lower-level summary when the staged inputs may come from mixed workspace artifacts instead of only one desired.json.

Who this page is for

Best for review-first workflows where you want summary, preflight, plan, and apply to stay explicit.

Purpose

Inspect the staged change package from discovered or explicit inputs.

Start here when you need the shortest path to understand what the staged package contains.
Use this before change check or change preview when you want to size the package first.
Prefer this over lower-level summary when the staged inputs may come from mixed workspace artifacts instead of only one desired.json.

Before: the change package is still just a set of directories, files, or staged contracts on disk.
After: you have one overview-style document that tells you which sections were discovered and how large the change appears to be.

--workspace: auto-discover common staged inputs from the current repo, export tree, or provisioning tree.
--desired-file: inspect one explicit desired change file.
--dashboard-export-dir, --dashboard-provisioning-dir: inspect dashboard staged inputs directly.
--alert-export-dir, --datasource-provisioning-file: add alert and datasource staged inputs explicitly.
--source-bundle: inspect an existing source bundle instead of per-surface directories.
--output-format: render as text or json.
--output-file, --also-stdout: persist the rendered output if you want a review artifact.

# Purpose: Inspect the staged package from repo-local inputs.
grafana-util change inspect --workspace .

Expected Output:

CHANGE PACKAGE SUMMARY:
- dashboards: 5 modified, 2 added
- alerts: 3 modified
- datasources: 1 referenced inventory
- total impact: 11 operations

# Purpose: Inspect the staged package directly from an export tree.
grafana-util change inspect --workspace ./dashboards/raw --output-format json

Expected Output:

{
  "kind": "grafana-utils-overview",
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "Dashboards"
    }
  ],
  "projectStatus": {}
}

This confirms that inspect found staged inputs and rendered the shared overview-style document instead of failing discovery.

the command tells you what staged surfaces were discovered
the package size looks plausible before you spend time on preview or apply
the JSON output is stable enough to hand to another operator or attach to review notes

if discovery finds nothing, retry with an explicit input flag before assuming the files are broken
if the package looks unexpectedly small or large, verify that --workspace points at the right export tree or repo root
if JSON consumers read the result, validate kind and schemaVersion before deeper parsing