Grafana Explore
Dashboards answer questions you already know. Explore answers questions you have just thought of. The page gives you a blank workspace where you run queries, test ideas, and chase problems without building or saving a dashboard. Engineers use it every day during incidents.
The Test Kitchen Analogy
A chef experiments in a test kitchen before adding a dish to the restaurant menu. Mistakes cost nothing, and ideas flow freely. Explore plays the role of the test kitchen. You try queries, adjust them, and look at the results. A query that proves useful moves to a dashboard panel, the menu, with one click.
Idea --> Explore (try, adjust, learn) --> Dashboard panel
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+--> Discard when the question is answered
Open Explore
Click the compass icon in the left menu, or choose Explore from the menu. A data source picker sits at the top left. Pick a source, such as Prometheus or Loki, and the query editor changes to match.
A faster route starts from a panel. Open the panel menu and select Explore. Grafana opens the page with the panel query and the time range already filled in.
Run a Query
- Choose a data source.
- Type or build a query.
- Set the time range in the top right.
- Click Run query.
The result appears below as a graph and a table. Explore shows both views together, so you can read the chart shape and check exact values at the same time.
The Metrics View
With a metrics source, Explore draws a time series graph. Hover over the lines to see values at any moment. Click a legend entry to isolate one series. The table below the graph lists the latest value for every series, which helps when many lines overlap.
The Logs View
With a log source such as Loki, Explore shows log lines in a scrolling list above a small bar chart of log volume. Colours mark the log level. Click a line to expand its fields. Use Live to stream new lines as they arrive, just like a tail command in a terminal.
Log volume
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|__||__||||___|___
14:00 14:05 14:10
14:07:02 ERROR payment timeout for order 8841
14:07:03 WARN retrying payment call
14:07:05 INFO payment accepted
Split View
Click Split to open a second query pane beside the first. Each pane has its own data source and query, and both share a synced time range if you enable the link. Place a metrics query on the left and a logs query on the right. A spike on the left leads you straight to the matching log lines on the right.
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| Prometheus | Loki |
| error rate graph | error log lines |
| /\ | 14:07 timeout |
| ____/ \____ | 14:07 retry |
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
Same time range in both panes
Query History
Explore remembers the queries you ran. Click Query history to see them in a list. Star the useful ones to keep them near the top, and add a comment that explains each one. Teammates cannot see your history, so copy important queries into a shared document or a dashboard.
Add a Query to a Dashboard
Click Add to dashboard once the query shows the data you want. Choose an existing dashboard or a new one, and Grafana creates a panel with that query. Explore ends where the real work starts.
Share a Link
Click the Share button to copy a link to your current Explore state. The link includes the data source, the query, and the time range. Paste it into a chat during an incident, and a colleague sees exactly what you see.
Permissions
Viewers can use Explore only if your administrator allows it. Editors and Admins have access by default. Some teams limit the page to protect expensive data sources from heavy ad hoc queries.
Habits for Fast Investigation
- Start broad and narrow the query one filter at a time.
- Zoom the time range around the first sign of trouble.
- Compare metrics and logs side by side with split view.
- Save good queries to a dashboard before you close the tab.