Install grizzly with Homebrew, Nix

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• grr

Project history

Grizzly came out of the Grafana-as-code ecosystem, where dashboards and related resources moved from UI-only configuration into version-controlled JSON, Jsonnet, and Kubernetes-like YAML. The official repository describes it as a command-line tool for managing observability resources as code and building those updates into deployment pipelines.

Grafana's own as-code writing placed Grizzly beside Grafonnet, Terraform, and the Grafana Operator as one of the tools for publishing Git-based dashboard definitions. Later Grafana documentation marked Grizzly as deprecated and directed users toward Grafana CLI workflows.

Adoption history

Grizzly appealed to teams that wanted dashboards and alerts reviewed in pull requests, pushed by CI, and kept near application code. Grafana blog posts used it as an example tool for dashboard-as-code workflows and for reviewing Git-based dashboards locally.

The package's adoption was strongest among Grafana and Jsonnet users who wanted a CLI bridge between rendered dashboard definitions and live Grafana instances.

How it is used

Users configure a context with Grafana connection details, then use `grr` commands to apply, get, diff, watch, or serve resources. The settings file can carry both target URLs and authentication material, which is why the package has the same path for configuration and credentials.

In package-manager culture it is a small operational binary: install it, point it at Grafana, and wire it into local dashboard development or CI.

Why package nerds care

Grizzly is interesting because it shows observability configuration moving into the same package and Git workflows as application code. It is not a dashboard renderer by itself; it is glue between source-controlled resource definitions and Grafana's APIs.

It also shows the lifecycle risk of cloud-infrastructure CLIs. A useful package can become a migration step when its owning platform standardizes around a replacement.

Timeline

• 2020: Grafana described Grizzly as a tool for managing observability resources with code.
• 2021: Users discussed Grizzly in CI workflows for generated Grafana dashboards.
• 2024: Grafana documented Grizzly in Git-based dashboard editing workflows.
• Afterward: Grafana documentation marked Grizzly as removed from active support and pointed users to Grafana CLI.

Related projects

• Grafana is the observability platform Grizzly manages.
• Grafonnet and Jsonnet are common dashboard-as-code inputs used with Grizzly-style workflows.
• Grafana Terraform provider and Grafana Operator cover adjacent infrastructure-as-code workflows.
• grafanactl and Grafana CLI workflows are successors in Grafana's documented direction.

Sources

• https://github.com/grafana/grizzly
• https://grafana.com/blog/a-complete-guide-to-managing-grafana-as-code-tools-tips-and-tricks/
• https://grafana.com/blog/edit-your-git-based-grafana-dashboards-locally/
• https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/infrastructure-as-code/grizzly/
• https://grafana.github.io/grizzly