Plugin deprecation policy

Grafana is maintained by a large community of engineers, SREs, and other professionals. The Grafana plugin catalog contains a wide range of data source, panel, and app plugins - many of which are developed in open source by community members.

It’s not always possible for those developers to maintain plugins over time. Accordingly, Grafana Labs may de-list a plugin through deprecation if it does not meet our standards for security, quality and compatibility. Plugins may be deprecated for reasons including, but not limited to:

• A critical or high vulnerability is uncovered.
• The plugin is found to contain malicious code.
• The plugin is no longer compatible with any currently supported Grafana version.
• The plugin is showing no signs of maintenance - updates, responses to issues.
• For commercial plugins, where the agreement with said partner has lapsed or is no longer valid.

For any questions relating to plugin deprecation, please contact integrations@grafana.com.

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean for a plugin to be deprecated?

Deprecated plugins no longer appear in searches within the plugin catalog or within Grafana > Administration > Plugins.

The plugin can be accessed and downloaded from the catalog, but visitors must follow a direct link in order to reach the page and a warning banner will be displayed stating that the plugin is deprecated (example). The plugin can also still be installed via CLI.

Existing installations of the plugin are not affected by this deprecation - they will continue to load and operate as normal. However, warning messages will be displayed to the user to indicate the deprecated status and to advise migration.

Will a deprecated plugin receive any updates?

There is no guarantee that a deprecated plugin will receive any further updates.

Plugins authored by Grafana Labs will receive security updates for a limited period as advised in the plugin’s deprecation statement.

If a plugin is deprecated, how is the plugin developer notified?

When a plugin is at risk of deprecation or a decision has been made to deprecate a plugin, the author will be contacted by integrations@grafana.com via the email address associated with the Grafana Cloud organization under which the plugin is published.

In exceptional circumstances, such as critical vulnerabilities or major bugs, Grafana Labs may deprecate and de-list a plugin before notifying a developer.

If a plugin is deprecated, how is a user notified?

When a plugin is deprecated, it no longer appears in search results in the catalog on grafana.com or within the Administration > Plugins view. If the plugin has already been installed, then a warning icon and message will be displayed when viewing the plugin.

A plugin I use is deprecated. What should I do?

We recommend migrating from deprecated plugins as soon as possible.

Review the deprecation message for the plugin on the plugin’s details page Administration > Plugins > Plugin_Name to determine the urgency of any action and whether there is a recommended migration path.

If no migration advice is offered, browse the catalog for potentially similar solutions, or consider forking the current plugin and/or creating a new plugin.

As a plugin developer, I am struggling to continue to maintain my plugin. What should I do?

Priorities change, as does the amount of time you can spend contributing to open source projects, we understand.

Ensure your plugin advertises how users can get involved. We recommend this practice for all plugins as it will encourage additional support and maintainers. From your readme, provide links or information regarding:

How users can engage - such as through code contributions, bug reports, or feature requests. How developers can run the plugin locally to easily test any proposed changes. How users could help to fund maintenance, such as through GitHub sponsorship.

Another option is to indicate that the project is looking for maintainers or even new ownership (see below) by creating a banner at the top of your readme, as well as advertising in our community forum.

If you are unable to maintain a plugin and feel it would be best to limit any further adoption, request it to be deprecated and removed from the catalog (see below).

As a plugin developer, can I transfer ownership of my plugin to a new developer?

If you are no longer wish to maintain a plugin and a new owner has been identified, then it is possible to transfer ownership.

Please contact Grafana via integrations@grafana.com so that we may walk you through the various options and process.

As a plugin developer, can I request that my plugin be deprecated and removed from the catalog?

Submit a support request from the Grafana Cloud account associated with the plugin, i.e. https://grafana.com/orgs/<YOUR_ORG>/tickets/new, using the Plugin Signing topic. Provide details about which plugin(s) you want to deprecate and why in the ticket. Grafana Labs will review the request and aim to respond within one working day.