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Important: This documentation is about an older version. It's relevant only to the release noted, many of the features and functions have been updated or replaced. Please view the current version.

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Annotations resources / actions

This is the API documentation for the new Grafana Annotations feature released in Grafana 4.6. Annotations are saved in the Grafana database (sqlite, mysql or postgres). Annotations can be global annotations that can be shown on any dashboard by configuring an annotation data source - they are filtered by tags. Or they can be tied to a panel on a dashboard and are then only shown on that panel.

Find Annotations

GET /api/annotations?from=1506676478816&to=1507281278816&tags=tag1&tags=tag2&limit=100

Example Request:

http 
GET /api/annotations?from=1506676478816&to=1507281278816&tags=tag1&tags=tag2&limit=100 HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=

Query Parameters:

  • from: epoch datetime in milliseconds. Optional.
  • to: epoch datetime in milliseconds. Optional.
  • limit: number. Optional - default is 100. Max limit for results returned.
  • alertId: number. Optional. Find annotations for a specified alert.
  • dashboardId: number. Optional. Find annotations that are scoped to a specific dashboard
  • panelId: number. Optional. Find annotations that are scoped to a specific panel
  • userId: number. Optional. Find annotations created by a specific user
  • type: string. Optional. alert|annotation Return alerts or user created annotations
  • tags: string. Optional. Use this to filter global annotations. Global annotations are annotations from an annotation data source that are not connected specifically to a dashboard or panel. To do an “AND” filtering with multiple tags, specify the tags parameter multiple times e.g. tags=tag1&tags=tag2.

Example Response:

http 
HTTP/1.1 200
Content-Type: application/json
[
    {
        "id": 1124,
        "alertId": 0,
        "dashboardId": 468,
        "panelId": 2,
        "userId": 1,
        "userName": "",
        "newState": "",
        "prevState": "",
        "time": 1507266395000,
        "timeEnd": 1507266395000,
        "text": "test",
        "metric": "",
        "type": "event",
        "tags": [
            "tag1",
            "tag2"
        ],
        "data": {}
    },
    {
        "id": 1123,
        "alertId": 0,
        "dashboardId": 468,
        "panelId": 2,
        "userId": 1,
        "userName": "",
        "newState": "",
        "prevState": "",
        "time": 1507265111000,
        "text": "test",
        "metric": "",
        "type": "event",
        "tags": [
            "tag1",
            "tag2"
        ],
        "data": {}
    }
]

Starting in Grafana v6.4 regions annotations are now returned in one entity that now includes the timeEnd property.

Create Annotation

Creates an annotation in the Grafana database. The dashboardId and panelId fields are optional. If they are not specified then a global annotation is created and can be queried in any dashboard that adds the Grafana annotations data source. When creating a region annotation include the timeEnd property.

POST /api/annotations

Example Request:

http 
POST /api/annotations HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "dashboardId":468,
  "panelId":1,
  "time":1507037197339,
  "timeEnd":1507180805056,
  "tags":["tag1","tag2"],
  "text":"Annotation Description"
}

Example Response:

http 
HTTP/1.1 200
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "message":"Annotation added",
    "id": 1,
}

The response for this HTTP request is slightly different in versions prior to v6.4. In prior versions you would also get an endId if you where creating a region. But in 6.4 regions are represented using a single event with time and timeEnd properties.

Create Annotation in Graphite format

Creates an annotation by using Graphite-compatible event format. The when and data fields are optional. If when is not specified then the current time will be used as annotation’s timestamp. The tags field can also be in prior to Graphite 0.10.0 format (string with multiple tags being separated by a space).

POST /api/annotations/graphite

Example Request:

http 
POST /api/annotations/graphite HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "what": "Event - deploy",
  "tags": ["deploy", "production"],
  "when": 1467844481,
  "data": "deploy of master branch happened at Wed Jul 6 22:34:41 UTC 2016"
}

Example Response:

http 
HTTP/1.1 200
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "message":"Graphite annotation added",
    "id": 1
}

Update Annotation

PUT /api/annotations/:id

Updates all properties of an annotation that matches the specified id. To only update certain property, consider using the Patch Annotation operation.

Example Request:

http 
PUT /api/annotations/1141 HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiT0tTcG1pUlY2RnVKZTFVaDFsNFZXdE9ZWmNrMkZYbk
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "time":1507037197339,
  "timeEnd":1507180805056,
  "text":"Annotation Description",
  "tags":["tag3","tag4","tag5"]
}

Example Response:

http 
HTTP/1.1 200
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "message":"Annotation updated"
}

Patch Annotation

This is available in Grafana 6.0.0-beta2 and above.

PATCH /api/annotations/:id

Updates one or more properties of an annotation that matches the specified id.

This operation currently supports updating of the text, tags, time and timeEnd properties.

Example Request:

http 
PATCH /api/annotations/1145 HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiT0tTcG1pUlY2RnVKZTFVaDFsNFZXdE9ZWmNrMkZYbk
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "text":"New Annotation Description",
  "tags":["tag6","tag7","tag8"]
}

Example Response:

http 
HTTP/1.1 200
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "message":"Annotation patched"
}

Delete Annotation By Id

DELETE /api/annotations/:id

Deletes the annotation that matches the specified id.

Example Request:

http 
DELETE /api/annotations/1 HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer eyJrIjoiT0tTcG1pUlY2RnVKZTFVaDFsNFZXdE9ZWmNrMkZYbk

Example Response:

http 
HTTP/1.1 200
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "message":"Annotation deleted"
}