MCP Grafana vs Prometheus MCP

In-depth architectural comparison of the MCP Grafana and Prometheus MCP MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose MCP Grafana when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Monitoring domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).

Explore MCP Grafana Details

Choose Prometheus MCP when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Monitoring domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: prometheus_list_metrics, prometheus_query, prometheus_query_range.

Explore Prometheus MCP Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	MCP Grafana Monitoring	Prometheus MCP Monitoring
Summary	Search & edit Grafana dashboards, query datasources (PromQL/LogQL/SQL), inspect alerts.	Prometheus MCP — query metrics, inspect alerts, and explore scrape targets (read-only).
Category & Scope	Monitoring	Monitoring
Quality signal

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-grafana": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@dockndevai/mcp-grafana"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "prometheus-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "prometheus-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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