Grafana Loki MCP vs Heimdall MCP

In-depth architectural comparison of the Grafana Loki MCP and Heimdall 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 Grafana Loki MCP when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Monitoring domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: API Key required (Free / Open Source).
• You have access to required keys: GRAFANA_URL, GRAFANA_API_KEY.
• Primary tools included: query, start, end.

Explore Grafana Loki MCP Details

Choose Heimdall 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: read_file, read_text_file, read_media_file.

Explore Heimdall MCP Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Grafana Loki MCP tumf Monitoring	Heimdall MCP enmanuelmag Monitoring
Summary	An MCP server that allows querying Loki logs through the Grafana API.	Transparent proxy for any MCP server that intercepts all JSON-RPC messages, measures latency, and stores traces in SQLite, PostgreSQL, or MySQL. Exports OpenTelemetry (OTLP) spans to Jaeger, Tempo, or Grafana. Supports stdio, HTTP, and SSE transports. npx @cardor/heimdall-mcp
Category & Scope

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": {
    "tumf-grafana-loki-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "grafana-loki-mcp",
        "-u",
        "GRAFANA_URL",
        "-k",
        "GRAFANA_API_KEY"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GRAFANA_URL": "YOUR_GRAFANA_URL_HERE",
        "GRAFANA_API_KEY": "YOUR_GRAFANA_API_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "enmanuelmag-heimdall-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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