signoz-creating-dashboards

Dashboard Create

Build a SigNoz dashboard from a user's natural-language intent. The skill targets two consumers: an autonomous AI SRE agent that runs without a human in the loop, and a human at a Claude Code / Codex / Cursor prompt. Both go through the same flow.

Prerequisites

This skill calls SigNoz MCP server tools (signoz_create_dashboard, signoz_list_dashboards, signoz_list_dashboard_templates, signoz_import_dashboard, signoz_get_dashboard, signoz_update_dashboard, signoz_list_metrics, signoz_get_field_keys, signoz_get_field_values, signoz_aggregate_logs, signoz_aggregate_traces, etc.). Before running the workflow, confirm the signoz_* tools are available. If they are not, the SigNoz MCP server is not installed or configured — run signoz-mcp-setup first to initialize or repair the MCP connection. Do not fall back to raw HTTP calls or fabricate dashboard JSON without the MCP tools.

When to use

Use this skill when the user wants to:

• Create, set up, or build a new dashboard.
• "Monitor" or "set up observability" for a service, database, infrastructure component, or AI/LLM platform.
• Import a curated dashboard template.
• Visualize a set of metrics / traces / logs together on one screen.

Do NOT use when the user wants to:

• Modify an existing dashboard → signoz-modifying-dashboards.
• Understand what an existing dashboard shows → signoz-explaining-dashboards.
• Run a one-off query without persisting it → signoz-generating-queries.

Required inputs (strict)

Dashboard creation is a write operation. Guessing here clutters the shared workspace with empty or wrongly-scoped dashboards someone else has to clean up. The skill enforces a soft input contract — most fields have sensible defaults, but a few cannot be guessed:

If a required input is missing and cannot be discovered, stop before calling any write tool and ask the user. The host application decides how the question is surfaced (a structured clarification tool, inline <assistant_question> tags, an interactive prompt, etc.) — follow the host's UI rendering rules.

What to include in the question:

• What is missing — name the input concretely (e.g. "no service or cluster specified for the custom build").
• Candidate lists populated from your discovery calls — concrete values per attribute the user can pick from. Example shape: service.name → frontend, checkout, payments, inventory; k8s.cluster.name → prod-us-east-1, staging.
• Allow free-form input so the user can name a value you didn't surface.

In autonomous mode (no human), escalate to the caller or fill the gap from upstream context. Either way, do not proceed to signoz_create_dashboard / signoz_import_dashboard with a guessed value.

Workflow

The create path starts duplicate check → modify-or-create choice → template lookup. A matching template uses no-data probe → preview → import; a custom build uses no-data probe → build → per-panel dry-run → preview → create. Template lookup is internal; the user's only upfront choices are modify or create.

Step 1: Check for duplicates

Call signoz_list_dashboards. Most installs fit in the default page (limit=50); narrow with the filter argument when the wording is distinctive (see signoz://dashboard/list-filter-guide), and page by offset until you have covered total; the schema accepts integer or string limit / offset values.

Match by relevance Compare each existing dashboard's lowercased spec.display.name, .description, and tags against the user's technology/domain. Surface only matches a human would recognize as the same thing — a "redis" dashboard does not match a "postgresql" request just because both have a database tag. Collect each match's spec.display.name, id, and createdAt for the next step.

Step 2: Ask the user — modify or create

Present exactly two options (no template-import as a separate top-level choice — that's an internal decision in Step 3b):

• Duplicates found: "There are already these similar dashboards: [list with name, id, created-at]. Want me to (a) modify one of these, (b) create a new dashboard anyway, or (c) stop?"
• No duplicates: "I'll create a new dashboard for this. Proceed?" (No "modify" option when there's nothing to modify.)

Wait for the user's choice. "modify" → Step 3a. "create new" / confirm → Step 3b. "stop" → stop.

Step 3: Create or modify

Step 3a: Modify an existing dashboard

Hand off immediately to signoz-modifying-dashboards with the chosen dashboard id and the user's intent. Do not call signoz_update_dashboard or signoz_patch_dashboard from this skill — modification is out of scope. (See "Scope boundary" in Guardrails.)

Step 3b: Create a new dashboard

Run the template lookup first. The user has already agreed to create new — the lookup decides how we build it.

Call signoz_list_dashboard_templates once with no arguments. The full catalog (~95 entries) returns in a single call — read it in-context and pick the best match for the user's intent. When several entries plausibly fit, present the top 3–5 and let the user choose.

Branch on the result:

• Single clear template match — proceed to Step 3b-i (template import). Briefly tell the user "I found a pre-built [title] template and will use it" so they know what's being created; do not block on yes/no.
• Multiple plausible matches — present them and ask the user to pick. Once picked, proceed to Step 3b-i.
• Template matches the technology but not the requested signals — common for any specific ask ("Kafka, but I want consumer fetch rate by client"). Not "no template": import it, then hand the extra panels to signoz-modifying-dashboards with the new id. Building from scratch discards the curated baseline for no gain.
• No template — proceed to Step 3b-ii (custom build). That means no catalog entry for the technology, not an entry that looks imperfect or aimed at a different metric family. Template bodies are not readable before import, so a suspected mismatch is only a hypothesis — and the Step 3b-i.1 probe sits inside the import path, so it cannot justify leaving that path. Probe first, then decide.

Step 3b-i: Import the template

Tool guardrail The only template tools are signoz_list_dashboard_templates and signoz_import_dashboard. Do not shell out, fetch raw GitHub URLs, or invent other tool names. signoz_import_dashboard takes the template path from the catalog entry and creates the dashboard in one call — you do not need to fetch the JSON yourself or call signoz_create_dashboard afterwards.

Step 3b-i.1: Pre-flight no-data probe (fail fast)

Before calling signoz_import_dashboard, confirm the template's signals are actually being ingested. The most common silent failure for template imports is "the template imports cleanly but every panel reads 'No data' because the technology isn't being scraped" — the user only discovers it after clicking through to a useless dashboard.

Since we don't fetch the template body up front, base the probe on the catalog entry's category, title, and keywords plus the user's stated technology. Pick up to ~5 representative signals and check them — keep the total small:

• Metric-based templates (most infra/runtime templates): call signoz_list_metrics with searchText set to the technology prefix (e.g. searchText="postgresql"). Empty result → metric family is not being ingested. Early out: if this returns empty, declare "None present" and skip the rest of the metric probes — they will all return zero. Use timeRange for a relative window, or pass start/end (unix-ms strings) when you need an exact window instead of the server default.
• Trace-based templates (APM-style): call signoz_aggregate_traces with aggregation=count, timeRange=1h. No filter is needed for the "is anything flowing" probe — adding filter="service.name EXISTS" is fragile and unnecessary. Zero count → no traces flowing.
• Log-based templates: call signoz_aggregate_logs with aggregation=count, timeRange=1h, no filter. Zero count → no logs.
• Variable values (when the template clearly relies on a resource attribute, e.g. service.name, k8s.cluster.name): call signoz_get_field_values to confirm there are values to pick from. A dashboard whose top-level dropdown is empty is barely better than one full of empty panels.

Branch on the probe result:

• All signals present → proceed silently to Step 3b-i.2.
• Some present, some missing → list which are missing and ask the user to confirm before continuing. Many templates are useful even with partial coverage; let them decide.
• None present → tell the user no data was found for this technology in the probe window, explain the dashboard will show "No data" until ingestion is set up, and offer to create it anyway or stop. Wait for the user's choice.

This probe is cheap (a handful of queries, ~hundreds of ms total), and catching the no-data case early avoids the worst UX failure mode of the template path.

Step 3b-i.2: Preview, import, report

1. Preview Tell the user what's about to happen in one short paragraph: which template (title, path), what category, what the probe found. In autonomous mode the consumer proceeds; in interactive mode the human can intervene.
2. Import Call signoz_import_dashboard with the path from the chosen catalog entry (e.g. postgresql/postgresql.json). The server fetches the JSON, validates it, and creates the dashboard in one call.
3. Report Read the response and tell the user the dashboard's title, panel count, and section breakdown. Surface the dashboard's variables ("filter by service.name", "filter by k8s.cluster.name") so the user knows what knobs they have. Offer two follow-ups: "Want me to adjust panels, layout, or variables?" and "Want me to wire alerts for any of these signals? (signoz-creating-alerts)".
4. Customization handling If the user asks for any change to the imported dashboard, hand off to signoz-modifying-dashboards with the new dashboard's id and the requested changes. Do not call signoz_update_dashboard from this skill.

Step 3b-ii: Custom build (no template, or import failed)

Run this path when the Step 3b template lookup found no match, the user explicitly rejected the suggested template, or signoz_import_dashboard failed.

Step 3b-ii.1: Gather requirements

Ask the user (skip questions whose answer is already clear from intent):

1. Signals — metrics, traces, logs, or a combination.
2. Specific signals — which metrics, which span attributes, which log severities matter most.
3. Resource scope — which service(s), namespace(s), cluster(s), or environment(s).
4. Variables — what should be a dropdown vs. a hard-coded filter (typical: service.name, deployment.environment.name, k8s.cluster.name).
5. Sections — group panels into Overview / Latency / Errors / Saturation, or another structure that fits the domain.

If the user is non-specific ("just make me something useful for X"), apply the defaults table below and surface them in the preview.

Step 3b-ii.2: Discover names and probe data

The MCP guideline applies: always prefer resource-attribute filters. Before authoring panels, confirm the names you'll use exist and emit data:

1. Metrics — call signoz_list_metrics with searchText tied to the technology (e.g. searchText="postgresql") to get the exact OTel metric names. Catalog presence ≠ data flowing — for any metric you intend to use, follow up with signoz_query_metrics on a representative window to confirm it actually has datapoints.
2. Resource attributes — call signoz_get_field_keys with fieldContext=resource for the relevant signal to enumerate available attributes; call signoz_get_field_values on the ones you'll use as variables to confirm concrete values exist. Note that the live data may use older OTel semconv (e.g. deployment.environment rather than deployment.environment.name) — always trust the discovered key over the one in the defaults table.

If none of the discovered signals return data, tell the user the dashboard's data isn't being ingested yet, explain the panels will show "No data" until ingestion is set up, and offer to build anyway or stop. Wait for the user's choice before building.

Step 3b-ii.3: Read the dashboard MCP resources

These are the source of truth for the JSON schema, panel types, query builder shape, and layout rules — do not transcribe schema text into this skill, it will rot out of sync with the server. Read the core resources before authoring panel JSON.

Fallback when the MCP resource-reader is unavailable Some MCP client harnesses do not expose a resource-reading tool. If you cannot read signoz://... URIs in this session, fall back to signoz_list_dashboards + signoz_get_dashboard on an existing dashboard of the same signal type (metrics / traces / logs) and read its spec.panels map for worked panel shapes.

• signoz://dashboard/instructions — title, tags, description, layout, variables.
• signoz://dashboard/widgets-instructions — 7 panel types and layout rules.
• signoz://dashboard/widgets-examples — complete panel configs with all required fields (the most important resource — every panel must include kind, spec.display, spec.plugin, and exactly one query).
• signoz://dashboard/examples — whole create payloads with panels, layouts, and variables assembled.
• signoz://dashboard/query-builder-example — query builder reference.

Add signal-specific resources as needed:

• Metrics (PromQL): signoz://promql/instructions. Saved PromQL may reference declared dashboard $var variables, but signoz_execute_builder_query does not expand them: substitute representative literals only for dry-runs, never in saved panels. Grafana-only $__rate_interval / $__interval are invalid. Dotted OTel metric names use Prometheus 3.x UTF-8 selectors such as {"metric.name.with.dots"}.
• Metrics (ClickHouse): signoz://dashboard/clickhouse-schema-for-metrics
  • signoz://dashboard/clickhouse-metrics-example.
• Metrics (Query Builder aggregation rules): signoz://metrics-aggregation-guide — required for picking valid timeAggregation / spaceAggregation per metric type.
• Traces (Query Builder): signoz://traces/query-builder-guide.
• Logs (Query Builder): signoz://logs/query-builder-guide.
• Traces (ClickHouse): signoz://dashboard/clickhouse-schema-for-traces
  • signoz://dashboard/clickhouse-traces-example.
• Logs (ClickHouse): signoz://dashboard/clickhouse-schema-for-logs
  • signoz://dashboard/clickhouse-logs-example.

Step 3b-ii.4: Build the dashboard JSON

Follow the schema documented in the resources above. Use OTel semantic attribute names (not shorthand) in filters, groupBy, and variables. Apply the defaults below unless the user specified otherwise.

Dashboard create/update payloads do not persist a default time range or refresh interval. Panels follow the viewer-selected global range. If the user asks for a specific window, mention that range in the final handoff instead of inventing timeRange, defaultTimeRange, or refresh fields. Do not encode a PromQL range selector inside a Builder query.

Use SigNoz kinds and JSON types exactly. signoz/TimeSeriesPanel means time series (never Grafana timeseries); variables are ListVariable / TextVariable carrying a signoz/DynamicVariable, signoz/CustomVariable, or signoz/QueryVariable plugin. The envelope is schemaVersion: "v6" plus spec, with no top-level name on create — the server derives that immutable machine label from spec.display.name. Tags are {key, value} objects; defer full shapes to the resources.

Keep panel ids and grid items bijective; create/remove both entries together. spec.panels is a map keyed by panel id, and spec.layouts positions those ids through content.$ref. During import or rebuild, drop any grid item whose $ref names a panel you did not carry over.

Defaults the skill applies (and surfaces in the preview):

Sections A section is one Grid entry in spec.layouts, with its own spec.display.title and its own spec.items. One Grid per section, in display order; a panel belongs to a section by having its grid item in that Grid. Item coordinates are per-Grid, so adding to an earlier section leaves later sections untouched.

Title and description The dashboard title (spec.display.name) should name the technology and the scope clearly: "PostgreSQL — prod-us-east-1", not just "PostgreSQL". spec.display.description should answer "what is this for" in one sentence. Tags are {key, value}: technology + signal types + environment when known.

Step 3b-ii.5: Shape check before save

signoz://dashboard/widgets-examples is the source of truth for panel required fields, panel-type-specific shapes, plugin kind names, and common write-shape errors. Re-skim it before serialising any custom panel JSON.

Every builder query and formula entry must carry a positive limit and non-empty order. Raw list and trace-request panels default to 100 with timestamp-desc ordering (raw logs add id); a deliberately smaller list page may lower limit. Aggregate panels use 100 with the primary aggregation desc. Formula outputs use 100 with __result desc; every referenced base query uses 10000 because base limits apply before formula evaluation. Find those inputs from every formula expression, including formulas with disabled: true, following references until every base builder_query leaf is reached. This dependency walk chooses bounds only; it does not establish deterministic formula-to-formula evaluation order, so dry-run the complete composite payload. A metrics order key is the composed spaceAggregation(timeAggregation(metricName)) expression; the bare metric name is rejected, while __result and groupBy keys are accepted. Time-series top-N ranks groups over the whole window and can omit a short-lived local spike. Narrow filters/grouping if formula-input cardinality can exceed 10000.

Two rules widgets-examples does not call out, but signoz_create_dashboard enforces: no JSON.stringify on arrays/objects — spec, panels, layouts, tags, and variables are native JSON — and one query per panel, so a panel plotting two series carries a single signoz/CompositeQuery envelope holding both.

Step 3b-ii.6: Dry-run before save (mandatory)

For every query-bearing panel, read the compact dashboard-to-query-builder-v5 reference. The panel already stores the execution spec, so lift it into the outer envelope and call signoz_execute_builder_query with that payload, never panel JSON. Dry-run over a short absolute Unix-ms window — usually the last 30-60 minutes, never the panel's display range by reflex; apply the reference's dry-run hygiene rules before widening or retrying after a timeout. Use representative variable values in the dry-run copy and keep $var in signoz_create_dashboard.

If the reference's safety gate finds an unsupported execution field, report the panel as unvalidated and continue only after explicit user acceptance. Server or validation errors block. Unexpected empty results block unless the user already accepted absent telemetry.

Step 3b-ii.7: Preview, save, report

1. Preview Emit a one-paragraph plain-language summary of what will be created — no JSON dump. A 20–30 panel payload is hundreds of lines the user cannot meaningfully review in chat. Call out any validation gap the user explicitly accepted.

   Summary: This dashboard tracks [signals] for [scope], with sections [list]. Variables: [list]. Dry-run: [N] panels passed. Unvalidated: [none / accepted gaps]. Data: [confirmed / pending ingestion by explicit user choice].

2. Save Call signoz_create_dashboard with the payload.

3. Report Tell the user:

   • The created dashboard's id and title.
   • Panel count and section breakdown.
   • Which variables are wired.
   • Two follow-up offers: "Want me to adjust panels, layout, or variables?" and "Want me to wire alerts for any of these signals? (signoz-creating-alerts)".

Guardrails

• Strict inputs over guessing Resource scope is required for custom builds. If missing, stop and ask the user (see Required inputs above). A guessed scope on a shared dashboard is harder to clean up than asking.
• Always paginate signoz_list_dashboards Stopping at page 1 misses duplicates and produces clutter.
• Duplicate check first The user's only two upfront options are "modify an existing one" or "create a new one" — never offer template-import as a separate top-level choice.
• Template-first on the create path Once the user has chosen to create, always run signoz_list_dashboard_templates before any signoz_create_dashboard call. If a matching template exists, import it via signoz_import_dashboard (just inform the user); only build from scratch when no template matches.
• No-data probe is mandatory before save Run the pre-flight probe (Step 3b-i.1 / Step 3b-ii.2) before signoz_import_dashboard / signoz_create_dashboard. A "No data" dashboard is a worse outcome than one extra confirmation prompt. Skip only if the user has explicitly opted out for this request.
• Validate custom builds before save Follow Step 3b-ii.6; never treat a dry-run that omits active query semantics as validated.
• Preview before save on custom builds Emit the plain-language summary before signoz_create_dashboard so the human can intervene on intent.
• Prefer OTel attribute names service.name not service, host.name not host. Wrong names produce empty panels. Verify the exact key (deployment.environment vs deployment.environment.name, for instance) against signoz_get_field_keys rather than guessing — installs running classic OTel semconv emit the no-.name form.
• No metric guessing For custom builds, verify metric names with signoz_list_metrics before authoring. Wrong names produce empty panels and the user only finds out later.
• Valid JSON shapes only Follow the schema documented in signoz://dashboard/* MCP resources. Required panel and query fields are listed in signoz://dashboard/widgets-instructions and signoz://dashboard/widgets-examples. Never wrap arrays/objects in JSON.stringify; enforce the panel/grid-item bijection, field types, and plugin kinds from Step 3b-ii.4.
• Scope boundary This skill creates dashboards. The moment the user asks to modify, edit, rearrange, or extend an existing dashboard — including immediately after import — hand off to signoz-modifying-dashboards. Do not call signoz_update_dashboard or signoz_patch_dashboard from this skill.

Examples

Four canonical flows — template happy path, template choice, duplicate found, custom build — live in references/examples.md.