Support Grafana's new Kubernetes-style HTTP API for dashboard operations

[igor-raits]

Summary

Grafana is transitioning to a new Kubernetes-style HTTP API that follows the pattern:

/apis/<group>/<version>/namespaces/<namespace>/<resource>[/<name>]

For dashboards specifically, the new API is documented at:
https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/developer-resources/api-reference/http-api/dashboard/

Currently, mcp-grafana uses the legacy API endpoints via grafana-openapi-client-go (e.g., POST /api/dashboards/db, GET /api/dashboards/uid/:uid). It would be beneficial to add support for (or migrate to) the new API.

New Dashboard API Endpoints

Operation	Legacy API	New API
Get	GET /api/dashboards/uid/:uid	GET /apis/dashboard.grafana.app/v1beta1/namespaces/:ns/dashboards/:name
Get (with access info)	—	GET /apis/dashboard.grafana.app/v1beta1/namespaces/:ns/dashboards/:name/dto
Create	POST /api/dashboards/db	POST /apis/dashboard.grafana.app/v1beta1/namespaces/:ns/dashboards
Update	POST /api/dashboards/db	PUT /apis/dashboard.grafana.app/v1beta1/namespaces/:ns/dashboards/:name

The new API uses a k8s-style resource envelope:

{
  "apiVersion": "dashboard.grafana.app/v1beta1",
  "kind": "Dashboard",
  "metadata": {
    "name": "my-dashboard-uid",
    "annotations": {
      "grafana.app/folder": "<folder-uid>",
      "grafana.app/message": "commit message"
    }
  },
  "spec": { ... }
}

Considerations

• Namespace resolution: The new API requires a namespace parameter (default for OSS, org-<id> for multi-org, stacks-<id> for Grafana Cloud).
• No existing Go client: There doesn't appear to be a dedicated Go client library for consuming the new API (the grafana-app-sdk is for building Grafana apps, not consuming the API). Raw HTTP calls would likely be needed, similar to the pattern already used for Sift, CloudWatch, Loki, etc.
• Stability: The new API is currently at v1beta1.
• Backwards compatibility: The legacy API still works. It may make sense to support both and detect which is available, or require a minimum Grafana version.
• Scope: Beyond dashboards, the new API pattern also covers folders, playlists, and other resources that mcp-grafana interacts with.

[igor-raits]

One of the reasons I am asking for this is that old API does not work well (= at all) with dashboards for modifications when GitSync feature is used.

[sd2k]

#481 begins to tackle this but yeah, the lack of official client and need to fall back makes it a bit painful...