Explore Overview

Learn how to use Grafana Explore for ad-hoc queries and data investigation

Explore Overview

Explore is Grafana’s query and investigation interface designed for ad-hoc data exploration. Unlike dashboards that are designed for visualization and monitoring, Explore provides a focused environment for investigating data, troubleshooting issues, and iterating on queries.

What is Explore?

Explore provides an area for quick query iteration for any connected data source. Once you select a data source, it populates the query editor at the top, and when queries are executed, results are displayed in the main section below. The data source determines:

• What kind of query editor is available
• What result visualizations are supported (graphs, logs, traces, tables, etc.)
• What supplementary features are enabled

All state in Explore is managed via URL parameters, making it easy to share your investigations with team members by simply copying the URL.

Key Features

Split View

Explore supports side-by-side split views, allowing you to:

• Compare data from different data sources
• Correlate metrics with logs
• View the same query across different time ranges
• Follow trace relationships across services

Use the Split button in the toolbar to open a second pane. Each pane maintains its own independent state.

Multiple Visualizations

Depending on your data source and query results, Explore automatically displays appropriate visualizations:

• Graph - Time series metrics visualization
• Logs - Structured log viewing with filtering and context
• Table - Tabular data display
• Trace View - Distributed tracing visualization
• Node Graph - Service dependency visualization
• Flame Graph - Performance profiling visualization
• Raw Prometheus - Native Prometheus data format

Content Outline

The content outline provides quick navigation between different result sections. Toggle it using the outline icon in the toolbar to:

• Jump between different visualization types
• See which visualizations have data
• Quickly navigate large result sets

Getting Started

Accessing Explore

1. Click the Explore icon in the left sidebar navigation
2. Or navigate from a dashboard panel by clicking the panel title > Explore
3. Or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl + E from any panel

Basic Workflow

1. Select a data source

   Choose your data source from the dropdown in the toolbar. Grafana supports Prometheus, Loki, Tempo, Jaeger, and many other data sources.

2. Build your query

   Use the query editor to construct your query. Each data source provides its own query builder or editor interface.

3. Set time range

   Select the time range for your query using the time picker in the toolbar.

4. Run the query

   Click Run query or press Shift + Enter to execute your query.

5. Analyze results

   Explore automatically displays appropriate visualizations based on your results. Use the content outline to navigate between different views.

Toolbar Actions

The Explore toolbar provides several key actions:

Action	Description
Data source picker	Select which data source to query
Time picker	Set the time range for queries
Run query	Execute the current queries (or cancel running queries)
Split	Open a second Explore pane side-by-side
Share	Generate a shortened URL to share your investigation
Outline	Toggle the content outline panel

Query Management

Multiple Queries

You can add multiple queries to compare different metrics or data:

1. Click + Add query below the query editor
2. Each query gets a unique reference ID (A, B, C, etc.)
3. Results from all queries are combined in the visualizations

Some data sources (like tracing) may have limitations on displaying multiple query results simultaneously.

Query History

Explore maintains a history of your queries:

1. Click the Query history button to open the history drawer
2. Browse previous queries by data source and time
3. Click any query to load it back into the editor
4. Star frequently used queries for quick access

Live Tail

For log data sources like Loki, Explore supports live tailing:

1. Click the Live button in the toolbar
2. New logs stream in real-time as they’re ingested
3. Use Pause to temporarily stop the stream while reviewing
4. Click Stop to exit live mode

Data Links and Correlations

Explore supports data links that connect related data across different sources:

• Click on trace IDs in logs to view the corresponding trace
• Follow service dependencies in node graphs
• Jump from metrics to related logs
• Navigate exemplars from Prometheus to traces

Data links can be configured at the data source level or defined through Grafana’s correlations feature.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Shift + Enter	Run query
Cmd/Ctrl + K	Focus data source picker
Esc	Clear time selection / Close modals

Next Steps

Querying Metrics

Learn how to query and visualize time-series metrics data

Querying Logs

Explore log data with filtering, parsing, and context viewing

Distributed Tracing

Investigate distributed traces and service dependencies

Additional Resources

• Data Sources Documentation
• Dashboard Creation Guide
• Query Variables