---
description: Instructions for setting up Git Sync, so you can provision GitHub repositories for use with Grafana.
keywords:
  - set up
  - git integration
  - git sync
  - github
labels:
  products:
    - enterprise
    - oss
title: Set up Git Sync
weight: 110
canonical: https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/git-sync/git-sync-setup/
aliases:
  - ../../../observability-as-code/provision-resources/git-sync-setup/ # /docs/grafana/next/observability-as-code/provision-resources/git-sync-setup/
  - ../provision-resources/git-sync-setup/ # /docs/grafana/next/observability-as-code/provision-resources/git-sync-setup/
---

# Set up Git Sync

{{< admonition type="caution" >}}

Git Sync is available in [private preview](https://grafana.com/docs/release-life-cycle/) for Grafana Cloud, and is an [experimental feature](https://grafana.com/docs/release-life-cycle/) in Grafana v12 for open source and Enterprise editions.

Support and documentation is available but might be limited to enablement, configuration, and some troubleshooting. No SLAs are provided.

You can sign up to the private preview using the [Git Sync early access form](https://forms.gle/WKkR3EVMcbqsNnkD9).

{{< /admonition >}}

This guide shows you how to set up Git Sync to synchronize your Grafana dashboards and folders with a GitHub repository. You'll set up Git Sync to enable version-controlled dashboard management either [using the UI](#set-up-git-sync-using-grafana-ui) or [as code](#set-up-git-sync-as-code).

## Before you begin

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

- A Grafana instance (Cloud, OSS, or Enterprise).
- If you're [using webhooks or image rendering](#extend-git-sync-for-real-time-notification-and-image-rendering), a public instance with external access
- Administration rights in your Grafana organization
- A [GitHub private access token](#create-a-github-access-token)
- A GitHub repository to store your dashboards in
- Optional: The [Image Renderer service](https://github.com/grafana/grafana-image-renderer) to save image previews with your PRs

### Known limitations

Refer to [Known limitations](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/as-code/observability-as-code/provision-resources/intro-git-sync#known-limitations) before using Git Sync.

Refer to [Supported resources](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/as-code/observability-as-code/provision-resources/intro-git-sync#supported-resources) for details about which resources you can sync.

### Performance considerations

When Git Sync is enabled, the database load might increase, especially for instances with many folders and nested folders. Evaluate the performance impact, if any, in a non-production environment.

Git Sync is under continuous development. [Report any issues](https://grafana.com/help/) you encounter to help us improve Git Sync.

## Set up Git Sync

To set up Git Sync and synchronize with a GitHub repository, follow these steps:

1. [Enable feature toggles in Grafana](#enable-required-feature-toggles) (first time setup)
1. [Create a GitHub access token](#create-a-github-access-token)
1. Set up Git Sync [using the UI](#set-up-git-sync-using-grafana-ui) or [as code](#set-up-git-sync-as-code)

After setup, you can [verify your dashboards](#verify-your-dashboards-in-grafana).

Optionally, you can also [extend Git Sync with webhooks and image rendering](#extend-git-sync-for-real-time-notification-and-image-rendering).

{{< admonition type="note" >}}

Alternatively, you can configure a local file system instead of using GitHub. Refer to [Set up file provisioning](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/as-code/observability-as-code/provision-resources/file-path-setup/) for more information.

{{< /admonition >}}

## Enable required feature toggles

To activate Git Sync in Grafana, you need to enable the `provisioning` and `kubernetesDashboards` feature toggles. For more information about feature toggles, refer to [Configure feature toggles](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/setup-grafana/configure-grafana/feature-toggles/#experimental-feature-toggles).

To enable the required feature toggles:

1. Open your Grafana configuration file, either `grafana.ini` or `custom.ini`. For file location based on operating system, refer to [Configuration file location](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/setup-grafana/configure-grafana/feature-toggles/#experimental-feature-toggles).
1. Locate or add a `[feature_toggles]` section. Add these values:

   ```ini
   [feature_toggles]
   provisioning = true
   kubernetesDashboards = true ; use k8s from browser
   ```

1. Save the changes to the file and restart Grafana.

## Create a GitHub access token

Whenever you connect to a GitHub repository, you need to create a GitHub access token with specific repository permissions. This token needs to be added to your Git Sync configuration to enable read and write permissions between Grafana and GitHub repository.

To create a GitHub access token:

1. Create a new token using [Create new fine-grained personal access token](https://github.com/settings/personal-access-tokens/new). Refer to [Managing your personal access tokens](https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/managing-your-personal-access-tokens) for instructions.
1. Under **Permissions**, expand **Repository permissions**.
1. Set these permissions for Git Sync:
   - **Contents**: Read and write permission
   - **Metadata**: Read-only permission
   - **Pull requests**: Read and write permission
   - **Webhooks**: Read and write permission

1. Select any additional options and then press **Generate token**.
1. Verify the options and select **Generate token**.
1. Copy the access token. Leave the browser window available with the token until you've completed configuration.

GitHub Apps aren't currently supported.

## Set up Git Sync using Grafana UI

1. [Configure a connection to your GitHub repository](#set-up-the-connection-to-github)
1. [Choose what content to sync with Grafana](#choose-what-to-synchronize)
1. [Choose additional settings](#choose-additional-settings)

### Set up the connection to GitHub

Use **Provisioning** to guide you through setting up Git Sync to use a GitHub repository:

1. Log in to your Grafana server with an account that has the Grafana Admin flag set.
1. Select **Administration** in the left-side menu and then **Provisioning**.
1. Select **Configure Git Sync**.

To connect your GitHub repository:

1. Paste your GitHub personal access token into **Enter your access token**. Refer to [Create a GitHub access token](#create-a-github-access-token) for instructions.
1. Paste the **Repository URL** for your GitHub repository into the text box.
1. Enter a branch to use. The default value is `main`.
1. Add a **Path** to a subdirectory where your dashboards are stored. The default value is `grafana/`. If your dashboards are stored in the root of your repository, then remove the directory name.
1. Select **Choose what to synchronize** to have the connection to your repository verified and continue setup.

### Choose what to synchronize

You can sync external resources into a new folder without affecting the rest of your instance.

To set up synchronization:

1. Select which resources you want to sync.

1. Enter a **Display name** for the repository connection. Resources stored in this connection appear under the chosen display name in the Grafana UI.

1. Click **Synchronize** to continue.

1. You can repeat this process for up to 10 connections.

{{< admonition type="note" >}}

Optionally, you can export any unmanaged resources into the provisioned folder. See how in [Synchronize with external storage](#synchronize-with-external-storage).

{{< /admonition >}}

#### Full instance sync

Full instance sync is not available in Grafana Cloud and is experimental and unsupported in Grafana OSS/Enterprise.

To have access to this option you must enable experimental instance sync on purpose.

### Synchronize with external storage

After this one time step, all future updates are automatically saved to the Git repository and provisioned back to the instance.

Check the **Migrate existing resources** box to migrate your unmanaged dashboards to the provisioned folder.

### Choose additional settings

Finally, you can set up how often your configured storage is polled for updates.

To configure additional settings:

1. For **Update instance interval (seconds)**, enter how often you want the instance to pull updates from GitHub. The default value is 60 seconds.
1. Optional: Select **Read only** to ensure resources can't be modified in Grafana.
1. Optional: If you have the Grafana Image Renderer plugin configured, you can **Enable dashboards previews in pull requests**. If image rendering isn't available, then you can't select this option. For more information, refer to the [Image Renderer service](https://github.com/grafana/grafana-image-renderer).
1. Select **Finish** to proceed.

### Modify your configuration after setup is complete

To update your repository configuration after you've completed setup:

1. Log in to your Grafana server with an account that has the Grafana Admin flag set.
1. Select **Administration** in the left-side menu and then **Provisioning**.
1. Select **Settings** for the repository you wish to modify.
1. Use the **Configure repository** screen to update any of the settings.
1. Select **Save** to preserve the updates.

## Set up Git Sync as code

Alternatively, you can also configure Git Sync using `grafanactl`. Since Git Sync configuration is managed as code using Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs), you can create a Repository CRD in a YAML file and use `grafanactl` to push it to Grafana. This approach enables automated, GitOps-style workflows for managing Git Sync configuration instead of using the Grafana UI.

To set up Git Sync with `grafanactl`, follow these steps:

1. [Create the repository CRD](#create-the-repository-crd)
1. [Push the repository CRD to Grafana](#push-the-repository-crd-to-grafana)
1. [Manage repository resources](#manage-repository-resources)
1. [Verify setup](#verify-setup)

For more information, refer to the following documents:

- [grafanactl Documentation](https://grafana.github.io/grafanactl/)
- [Repository CRD Reference](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/as-code/observability-as-code/provision-resources/git-sync-setup/)
- [Dashboard CRD Format](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/as-code/observability-as-code/provision-resources/export-resources/)

### Create the repository CRD

Create a `repository.yaml` file defining your Git Sync configuration:

```yaml
apiVersion: provisioning.grafana.app/v0alpha1
kind: Repository
metadata:
  name: <REPOSITORY_NAME>
spec:
  title: <REPOSITORY_TITLE>
  type: github
  github:
    url: <GITHUB_REPO_URL>
    branch: <BRANCH>
    path: grafana/
    generateDashboardPreviews: true
  sync:
    enabled: true
    intervalSeconds: 60
    target: folder
  workflows:
    - write
    - branch
secure:
  token:
    create: <GITHUB_PAT>
```

Replace the placeholders with your values:

- _`<REPOSITORY_NAME>`_: Unique identifier for this repository resource
- _`<REPOSITORY_TITLE>`_: Human-readable name displayed in Grafana UI
- _`<GITHUB_REPO_URL>`_: GitHub repository URL
- _`<BRANCH>`_: Branch to sync
- _`<GITHUB_PAT>`_: GitHub Personal Access Token

{{< admonition type="note" >}}

Only `target: folder` is currently supported for Git Sync.

{{< /admonition >}}

#### Configuration parameters

The following configuration parameters are available:

| Field                                   | Description                                                 |
| --------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| `metadata.name`                         | Unique identifier for this repository resource              |
| `spec.title`                            | Human-readable name displayed in Grafana UI                 |
| `spec.type`                             | Repository type (`github`)                                  |
| `spec.github.url`                       | GitHub repository URL                                       |
| `spec.github.branch`                    | Branch to sync                                              |
| `spec.github.path`                      | Directory path containing dashboards                        |
| `spec.github.generateDashboardPreviews` | Generate preview images (true/false)                        |
| `spec.sync.enabled`                     | Enable synchronization (true/false)                         |
| `spec.sync.intervalSeconds`             | Sync interval in seconds                                    |
| `spec.sync.target`                      | Where to place synced dashboards (`folder`)                 |
| `spec.workflows`                        | Enabled workflows: `write` (direct commits), `branch` (PRs) |
| `secure.token.create`                   | GitHub Personal Access Token                                |

### Push the repository CRD to Grafana

Before pushing any resources, configure `grafanactl` with your Grafana instance details. Refer to the [grafanactl configuration documentation](https://grafana.github.io/grafanactl/) for setup instructions.

Push the repository configuration:

```sh
grafanactl resources push --path <DIRECTORY>
```

The `--path` parameter has to point to the directory containing your `repository.yaml` file.

After pushing, Grafana will:

1. Create the repository resource
1. Connect to your GitHub repository
1. Pull dashboards from the specified path
1. Begin syncing at the configured interval

### Manage repository resources

#### List repositories

To list all repositories:

```sh
grafanactl resources get repositories
```

#### Get repository details

To get details for a specific repository:

```sh
grafanactl resources get repository/<REPOSITORY_NAME>
grafanactl resources get repository/<REPOSITORY_NAME> -o json
grafanactl resources get repository/<REPOSITORY_NAME> -o yaml
```

#### Update the repository

To update a repository:

```sh
grafanactl resources edit repository/<REPOSITORY_NAME>
```

#### Delete the repository

To delete a repository:

```sh
grafanactl resources delete repository/<REPOSITORY_NAME>
```

### Verify setup

Check that Git Sync is working:

```sh
# List repositories
grafanactl resources get repositories

# Check Grafana UI
# Navigate to: Administration → Provisioning → Git Sync
```

## Verify your dashboards in Grafana

To verify that your dashboards are available at the location that you specified, click **Dashboards**. The name of the dashboard is listed in the **Name** column.

Now that your dashboards have been synced from a repository, you can customize the name, change the branch, and create a pull request (PR) for it. Refer to [Manage provisioned repositories with Git Sync](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/as-code/observability-as-code/provision-resources/use-git-sync/) for more information.

## Extend Git Sync for real-time notification and image rendering

Optionally, you can extend Git Sync by enabling pull request notifications and image previews of dashboard changes.

| Capability                                            | Benefit                                                                        | Requires                               |
| ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------- |
| Adds a table summarizing changes to your pull request | Provides a convenient way to save changes back to GitHub                       | Webhooks configured                    |
| Add a dashboard preview image to a PR                 | View a snapshot of dashboard changes to a pull request without opening Grafana | Image renderer and webhooks configured |

### Set up webhooks for realtime notification and pull request integration

When connecting to a GitHub repository, Git Sync uses webhooks to enable real-time updates from GitHub public repositories or enable pull request integrations. Without webhooks, the polling interval is set in the final configuration screen, and the default is 60 seconds. If you use local storage, then Git Sync only provides periodic pulling.

You can set up webhooks with whichever service or tooling you prefer. You can use Cloudflare Tunnels with a Cloudflare-managed domain, port-forwarding and DNS options, or a tool such as `ngrok`.

To set up webhooks, you need to expose your Grafana instance to the public Internet. You can do this via port forwarding and DNS, a tool such as `ngrok`, or any other method you prefer. The permissions set in your GitHub access token provide the authorization for this communication.

After you have the public URL, you can add it to your Grafana configuration file:

```ini
[server]
root_url = https://<PUBLIC_DOMAIN>
```

Replace _`<PUBLIC_DOMAIN>`_ with your public domain.

To check the configured webhooks, go to **Administration** > **Provisioning** and click the **View** link for your GitHub repository.

#### Expose necessary paths only

If your security setup doesn't permit publicly exposing the Grafana instance, you can either choose to allowlist the GitHub IP addresses, or expose only the necessary paths.

The necessary paths required to be exposed are, in RegExp:

- `/apis/provisioning\.grafana\.app/v0(alpha1)?/namespaces/[^/]+/repositories/[^/]+/(webhook|render/.*)$`

### Set up image rendering for dashboard previews

Set up image rendering to add visual previews of dashboard updates directly in pull requests. Image rendering also requires webhooks.

To enable this capability, install the Grafana Image Renderer in your Grafana instance. For more information and installation instructions, refer to the [Image Renderer service](https://github.com/grafana/grafana-image-renderer).

## Next steps

You've successfully set up Git Sync to manage your Grafana dashboards through version control. Your dashboards are now synchronized with a GitHub repository, enabling collaborative development and change tracking.

To learn more about using Git Sync:

- [Work with provisioned dashboards](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/as-code/observability-as-code/provision-resources/provisioned-dashboards/)
- [Manage provisioned repositories with Git Sync](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/as-code/observability-as-code/provision-resources/use-git-sync/)
- [Git Sync deployment scenarios](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/as-code/observability-as-code/provision-resources/git-sync-deployment-scenarios)
- [Export resources](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/as-code/observability-as-code/provision-resources/export-resources/)
- [grafanactl documentation](https://grafana.github.io/grafanactl/)
