Folder access control

目录

Folders are the primary way to organize and control access to resources in Grafana. When you assign permissions to a folder, those permissions apply to all resources within that folder, including dashboards, alert rules, SLOs, and more.

This page explains how folder permissions work and how to use them effectively to manage access for teams and users.

Before you begin

{{< admonition type="caution" >}} Folder limitations:

Default permissions for new folders

How a folder is created determines its initial permissions:

How folder permissions work

Folder permissions follow a simple principle: a user's effective access to a resource is determined by their folder permission level.

When you grant a user or team permission on a folder:

Permission levels

Folders support three permission levels. Each level includes all capabilities of the levels below it.

Permission Folder capabilities Resource capabilities
View View folder and navigate its contents View dashboards, read alert rules, read silences, read annotations, read library panels
Edit Create subfolders, modify folder properties, delete folder Create and edit dashboards, create and write alert rules, create and write silences, create and write annotations, create and manage library panels
Admin Manage folder permissions All Edit capabilities plus manage dashboard permissions

Detailed action breakdown

View permission grants:

Edit permission grants (in addition to View):

Admin permission grants (in addition to Edit):

Permission inheritance

Permissions cascade from parent folders to child folders. A user with Edit permission on a parent folder automatically has Edit permission on all subfolders.

Production/                    # User has Edit permission here
├── Team A Dashboards/         # User inherits Edit permission
│   └── Service Metrics/       # User inherits Edit permission
└── Team B Dashboards/         # User inherits Edit permission

{{< admonition type="note" >}} You cannot grant a user lower permissions on a subfolder than they have on a parent folder. Permission inheritance always flows downward. {{< /admonition >}}

Resources that use folder permissions

The following resources are stored in folders and respect folder permissions:

Resource How folder permissions apply
Dashboards View/Edit/Admin directly controlled by folder permission
Subfolders Inherit parent folder permissions, can add additional permissions
Alert rules View/Edit controlled by folder permission
Alert silences View/Create/Edit controlled by folder permission
Library panels View/Create/Edit/Delete controlled by folder permission
SLOs Folder permission + SLO role determines effective access (refer to Plugin permissions)
Annotations Stored on dashboards; inherit permissions from the dashboard's parent folder

Plugin permissions

Some Grafana Cloud plugins use a two-layer permission model where effective access is determined by both folder permissions and a plugin-specific role:

Effective plugin access = minimum(folder permission, plugin role)

For example, with SLOs:

For more information, refer to SLO access control.

Manage folder permissions

Folders are accessed through the Dashboards section in Grafana. You can manage permissions from the folder's context menu or from within the folder view.

View current permissions

  1. In the left navigation, click Dashboards.
  2. Navigate to the folder you want to inspect.
  3. Click the folder name to open it, or click the ⋮ menu next to the folder.
  4. Select Manage permissions.

The permissions dialog shows all users, teams, and roles with access to this folder.

Add a permission

  1. Open the folder's Manage permissions dialog.
  2. Click Add a permission.
  3. Select who to grant access to:
    • User - A specific user account
    • Team - All members of a team
    • Service Account - A service account for API or automation access
    • Role - Users with a specific organization role (Viewer, Editor, Admin)
  4. Select the permission level (View, Edit, or Admin).
  5. Click Save.

Change a permission

  1. Open the folder's Manage permissions dialog.
  2. Find the user, team, or role in the list.
  3. Use the permission dropdown to select a new level.
  4. The change saves automatically.

Remove a permission

  1. Open the folder's Manage permissions dialog.
  2. Find the user, team, or role in the list.
  3. Click the × button to remove their access.
  4. Confirm the removal.

{{< admonition type="warning" >}} Removing a permission removes access to the folder and all its contents. The user or team will no longer see dashboards, alert rules, or other resources in that folder. {{< /admonition >}}

Design your folder structure to manage permissions

A well-designed folder structure makes permission management simpler. The recommended pattern is to create top-level folders for each team, with subfolders for organizing content:

SRE Team/                      # SRE team has Admin
├── Production Monitoring/     # Inherited Admin
├── On-Call Dashboards/        # Inherited Admin
└── Runbooks/                  # Inherited Admin

Platform Team/                 # Platform team has Admin
├── Infrastructure/            # Inherited Admin
└── Cost Tracking/             # Inherited Admin

Shared/                        # Everyone has View, specific teams have Edit
├── Company KPIs/              # Marketing team has Edit
└── Executive Dashboards/      # Leadership has View

This pattern provides:

For detailed guidance on folder organization patterns, including automation with Terraform and SCIM provisioning, refer to:

版本号 #2
由 壳壳虫 创建于 2026-10-31 15:37:49 UTC
由 壳壳虫 更新于 2026-10-31 15:37:51 UTC