Folder API

If you are running Grafana Enterprise, for some endpoints you’ll need to have specific permissions. Refer to Role-based access control permissions for more information.

Identifier (id) vs unique identifier (uid)

The identifier (id) of a folder is an auto-incrementing numeric value and is only unique per Grafana install.

The unique identifier (uid) of a folder can be used for uniquely identify folders between multiple Grafana installs. It’s automatically generated if not provided when creating a folder. The uid allows having consistent URLs for accessing folders and when syncing folders between multiple Grafana installs. This means that changing the title of a folder will not break any bookmarked links to that folder.

The uid can have a maximum length of 40 characters.

A note about the General folder

The General folder (id=0) is special and is not part of the Folder API which means that you cannot use this API for retrieving information about the General folder.

Get all folders

GET /api/folders

Returns all folders that the authenticated user has permission to view. You can control the maximum number of folders returned through the limit query parameter, the default is 1000. You can also pass the page query parameter for fetching folders from a page other than the first one.

Required permissions

See note in the introduction for an explanation.

ActionScope
folders:readfolders:*

Example Request:

  1. GET /api/folders?limit=10 HTTP/1.1
  2. Accept: application/json
  3. Content-Type: application/json
  4. Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiT0tTcG1pUlY2RnVKZTFVaDFsNFZXdE9ZWmNrMkZYbk

Example Response:

  1. HTTP/1.1 200
  2. Content-Type: application/json
  4. [
  5.   {
  6.     "id":1,
  7.     "uid": "nErXDvCkzz",
  8.     "title": "Department ABC"
  9.   },
  10.   {
  11.     "id":2,
  12.     "uid": "k3S1cklGk",
  13.     "title": "Department RND"
  14.   }
  15. ]

Get folder by uid

GET /api/folders/:uid

Will return the folder given the folder uid.

Required permissions

See note in the introduction for an explanation.

ActionScope
folders:readfolders:*

Example Request:

  1. GET /api/folders/nErXDvCkzzh HTTP/1.1
  2. Accept: application/json
  3. Content-Type: application/json
  4. Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiT0tTcG1pUlY2RnVKZTFVaDFsNFZXdE9ZWmNrMkZYbk

Example Response:

  1. HTTP/1.1 200
  2. Content-Type: application/json
  4. {
  5.   "id":1,
  6.   "uid": "nErXDvCkzz",
  7.   "title": "Department ABC",
  8.   "url": "/dashboards/f/nErXDvCkzz/department-abc",
  9.   "hasAcl": false,
  10.   "canSave": true,
  11.   "canEdit": true,
  12.   "canAdmin": true,
  13.   "createdBy": "admin",
  14.   "created": "2018-01-31T17:43:12+01:00",
  15.   "updatedBy": "admin",
  16.   "updated": "2018-01-31T17:43:12+01:00",
  17.   "version": 1
  18. }

Status Codes:

  • 200 – Found
  • 401 – Unauthorized
  • 403 – Access Denied
  • 404 – Folder not found

Create folder

POST /api/folders

Creates a new folder.

Required permissions

See note in the introduction for an explanation.

ActionScope
folders:createn/a

Example Request:

  1. POST /api/folders HTTP/1.1
  2. Accept: application/json
  3. Content-Type: application/json
  4. Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiT0tTcG1pUlY2RnVKZTFVaDFsNFZXdE9ZWmNrMkZYbk
  6. {
  7.   "uid": "nErXDvCkzz",
  8.   "title": "Department ABC"
  9. }

JSON Body schema:

Example Response:

  1. HTTP/1.1 200
  2. Content-Type: application/json
  4. {
  5.   "id":1,
  6.   "uid": "nErXDvCkzz",
  7.   "title": "Department ABC",
  8.   "url": "/dashboards/f/nErXDvCkzz/department-abc",
  9.   "hasAcl": false,
  10.   "canSave": true,
  11.   "canEdit": true,
  12.   "canAdmin": true,
  13.   "createdBy": "admin",
  14.   "created": "2018-01-31T17:43:12+01:00",
  15.   "updatedBy": "admin",
  16.   "updated": "2018-01-31T17:43:12+01:00",
  17.   "version": 1
  18. }

Status Codes:

  • 200 – Created
  • 400 – Errors (invalid json, missing or invalid fields, etc)
  • 401 – Unauthorized
  • 403 – Access Denied
  • 409 - Folder already exists

Update folder

PUT /api/folders/:uid

Updates an existing folder identified by uid.

Required permissions

See note in the introduction for an explanation.

ActionScope
folders:writefolders:*

Example Request:

  1. PUT /api/folders/nErXDvCkzz HTTP/1.1
  2. Accept: application/json
  3. Content-Type: application/json
  4. Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiT0tTcG1pUlY2RnVKZTFVaDFsNFZXdE9ZWmNrMkZYbk
  6. {
  7.   "title":"Department DEF",
  8.   "version": 1
  9. }

JSON Body schema:

  • uid – Provide another unique identifier than stored to change the unique identifier.
  • title – The title of the folder.
  • version – Provide the current version to be able to update the folder. Not needed if overwrite=true.
  • overwrite – Set to true if you want to overwrite existing folder with newer version.

Example Response:

  1. HTTP/1.1 200
  2. Content-Type: application/json
  4. {
  5.   "id":1,
  6.   "uid": "nErXDvCkzz",
  7.   "title": "Department DEF",
  8.   "url": "/dashboards/f/nErXDvCkzz/department-def",
  9.   "hasAcl": false,
  10.   "canSave": true,
  11.   "canEdit": true,
  12.   "canAdmin": true,
  13.   "createdBy": "admin",
  14.   "created": "2018-01-31T17:43:12+01:00",
  15.   "updatedBy": "admin",
  16.   "updated": "2018-01-31T17:43:12+01:00",
  17.   "version": 1
  18. }

Status Codes:

  • 200 – Updated
  • 400 – Errors (invalid json, missing or invalid fields, etc)
  • 401 – Unauthorized
  • 403 – Access Denied
  • 404 – Folder not found
  • 412 – Precondition failed

The 412 status code is used for explaining that you cannot update the folder and why. There can be different reasons for this:

  • The folder has been changed by someone else, status=version-mismatch

The response body will have the following properties:

  1. HTTP/1.1 412 Precondition Failed
  2. Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
  3. Content-Length: 97
  5. {
  6.   "message": "The folder has been changed by someone else",
  7.   "status": "version-mismatch"
  8. }

Delete folder

DELETE /api/folders/:uid

Deletes an existing folder identified by UID along with all dashboards (and their alerts) stored in the folder. This operation cannot be reverted.

If Grafana Alerting is enabled, you can set an optional query parameter forceDeleteRules=false so that requests will fail with 400 (Bad Request) error if the folder contains any Grafana alerts. However, if this parameter is set to true then it will delete any Grafana alerts under this folder.

Required permissions

See note in the introduction for an explanation.

ActionScope
folders:deletefolders:*

Example Request:

  1. DELETE /api/folders/nErXDvCkzz HTTP/1.1
  2. Accept: application/json
  3. Content-Type: application/json
  4. Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiT0tTcG1pUlY2RnVKZTFVaDFsNFZXdE9ZWmNrMkZYbk

Example Response:

  1. HTTP/1.1 200
  2. Content-Type: application/json
  4. {
  5.   "message":"Folder deleted",
  6.   "id": 2
  7. }

Status Codes:

  • 200 – Deleted
  • 401 – Unauthorized
  • 400 – Bad Request
  • 403 – Access Denied
  • 404 – Folder not found

Get folder by id

GET /api/folders/id/:id

Will return the folder identified by id.

Required permissions

See note in the introduction for an explanation.

ActionScope
folders:readfolders:*

Example Request:

  1. GET /api/folders/id/1 HTTP/1.1
  2. Accept: application/json
  3. Content-Type: application/json
  4. Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiT0tTcG1pUlY2RnVKZTFVaDFsNFZXdE9ZWmNrMkZYbk

Example Response:

  1. HTTP/1.1 200
  2. Content-Type: application/json
  4. {
  5.   "id":1,
  6.   "uid": "nErXDvCkzz",
  7.   "title": "Department ABC",
  8.   "url": "/dashboards/f/nErXDvCkzz/department-abc",
  9.   "hasAcl": false,
  10.   "canSave": true,
  11.   "canEdit": true,
  12.   "canAdmin": true,
  13.   "createdBy": "admin",
  14.   "created": "2018-01-31T17:43:12+01:00",
  15.   "updatedBy": "admin",
  16.   "updated": "2018-01-31T17:43:12+01:00",
  17.   "version": 1
  18. }

Status Codes:

  • 200 – Found
  • 401 – Unauthorized
  • 403 – Access Denied
  • 404 – Folder not found