How Grafana’s scores are calculated

The full audit trail, recomputed from the verdict data at build time through the same code that produced the leaderboard: verdict × quality × story weight per cell, cells sum to dimension scores, dimensions blend into the PA Score. Every number on the product page is reproducible from this page alone; for why the formula looks like this, see the methodology.

verdict factors: full ×1.0 · partial ×0.6 · disputed ×0.3 · none ×0.0 · n/a excluded from both sides · cell points = weight × quality × factor · cell max = weight × 10

PA Score39/100

Agent-ready 46.2 × 0.30 = 13.86

API quality 22.9 × 0.20 = 4.58

Openness 53.2 × 0.20 = 10.64

Built-in AI 27.3 × 0.15 = 4.09

Automation 38.3 × 0.15 = 5.74

(13.86 + 4.58 + 10.64 + 4.09 + 5.74) ÷ (0.30 + 0.20 + 0.20 + 0.15 + 0.15) = 38.92 ÷ 1.00 = 38.9

Scores are stored to 1 decimal; the product page’s pills round to whole numbers for display. Each dimension below shows the stories, verdicts, and cited evidence behind its number.

Agent-ready46.2/100×0.30 of the PA blend

Outside-in: can YOUR agent reach and drive this product — API, MCP, CLI, headless runs, agent docs.

Point an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docsweight 2

2 (weight) × 9 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 18.0 of 20 max

[probe] https://grafana.com/llms.txt“PROBE llms.txt: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/llms.txt # Grafana documentation > Grafana Labs builds open and composable observability software, including Grafana, Grafana Cl”
[probe] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/.md“PROBE docs-md: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/.md --- title: "Grafana OSS and Enterprise | Grafana documentation" description: "Find answers to your technical questions a”

Run the product headlessly / in CI for automationweight 2

2 (weight) × 8 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 16.0 of 20 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“You can authenticate, manage multiple environments, and perform administrative tasks from the terminal. It’s suitable for CI/CD pipelines, local development”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“Grafana has an active provisioning system that uses configuration files. You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“define dashboards, data sources, and other configurations in code, enabling version control, automated testing, and reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines”
[probe] https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json — contains "openapi" key”
[probe] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/“official CLI documented at https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/”

Plug MCP servers into this product so it can use their toolsweight 3

3 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 30 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/ai-tools/“Connect AI agents to Grafana through the fully hosted Cloud MCP Server or the self-managed open source MCP Server.”
[probe] https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana“official MCP server documented at https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana”

Connect an agent via an official MCP serverweight 3

3 (weight) × 9 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 27.0 of 30 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/ai-tools/“Connect AI agents to Grafana through the fully hosted Cloud MCP Server or the self-managed open source MCP Server.”
[probe] https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana“official MCP server documented at https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/products/cloud/“Understand production systems faster using natural language”

Use an official CLIweight 2

2 (weight) × 6 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 12.0 of 20 max

[probe] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/“official CLI documented at https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“You can authenticate, manage multiple environments, and perform administrative tasks from the terminal. It’s suitable for CI/CD pipelines, local development”

Drive the product through a documented public APIweight 3

3 (weight) × 8 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 24.0 of 30 max

[probe] https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json — contains "openapi" key”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“Grafana has an active provisioning system that uses configuration files. You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“You can authenticate, manage multiple environments, and perform administrative tasks from the terminal. It’s suitable for CI/CD pipelines, local development”
[probe] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/“official CLI documented at https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/ai-tools/“Connect AI agents to Grafana through the fully hosted Cloud MCP Server or the self-managed open source MCP Server.”
[probe] https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana“official MCP server documented at https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana”
[probe] https://grafana.com/llms.txt“PROBE llms.txt: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/llms.txt # Grafana documentation > Grafana Labs builds open and composable observability software, including Grafana, Grafana Cl”

Issue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agentweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/ai-tools/“Connect AI agents to Grafana through the fully hosted Cloud MCP Server or the self-managed open source MCP Server.”
[probe] https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana“official MCP server documented at https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana”

Build against official SDKsweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

[probe] https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json — contains "openapi" key”
[probe] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/“official CLI documented at https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/”

Subscribe to events via webhooksweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Agent-ready = 97.0 ÷ 210 × 100 = 46.2

API quality22.9/100×0.20 of the PA blend

The programmable surface once an agent is there — machine-readable spec, interactive docs, sandbox, versioning discipline.

Explore an interactive API reference with runnable examplesweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

[probe] https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json — contains "openapi" key”

Download a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent)weight 2

2 (weight) × 8 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 16.0 of 20 max

[probe] https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json — contains "openapi" key”

Test against a sandbox environment without touching production dataweight 1

1 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 10 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/loki/latest/“Try it locally. The fastest way to experiment is to run Loki in monolithic (single-binary) mode with a local filesystem backend and send logs to it with Grafana Alloy.”

Rely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policyweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

[probe] https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json — contains "openapi" key”

API quality = 16.0 ÷ 70 × 100 = 22.9

Openness53.2/100×0.20 of the PA blend

Can you leave, inspect, or self-host — data export, open source, portability.

Do everything through the API that I can do in the UIweight 2

2 (weight) × 6 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 7.2 of 20 max

[probe] https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json — contains "openapi" key”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“You can authenticate, manage multiple environments, and perform administrative tasks from the terminal. It’s suitable for CI/CD pipelines, local development”
[probe] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/“official CLI documented at https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“Grafana has an active provisioning system that uses configuration files. You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“This approach lets you define dashboards, data sources, and other configurations in code, enabling version control, automated testing, and reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“define dashboards, data sources, and other configurations in code, enabling version control, automated testing, and reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines”
[probe] https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana“official MCP server documented at https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/ai-tools/“Connect AI agents to Grafana through the fully hosted Cloud MCP Server or the self-managed open source MCP Server.”
[community] https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/items/27433552“I love using grafana however I abhor creating dashboards and trying to pull data, but that's mostly because of a lack of documentation.”

Export all of my data in open formats and leaveweight 3

3 (weight) × 5 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 9.0 of 30 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“Grafana has an active provisioning system that uses configuration files. You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“This approach lets you define dashboards, data sources, and other configurations in code, enabling version control, automated testing, and reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“define dashboards, data sources, and other configurations in code, enabling version control, automated testing, and reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines”
[probe] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/“official CLI documented at https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/”

Read the product's source under an open licenseweight 2

2 (weight) × 8 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 16.0 of 20 max

[github] https://github.com/grafana/grafana“Explore your data through ad-hoc queries and dynamic drilldown. Split view and compare different time ranges, queries and data sources side by side.”
[community] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26877528“Even though we use Grafana only internally and there would be no problem with AGPLv3 in theory I see big meetings with legal coming up which might result in us not being able to use it anymore.”
[community] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26877528“I wonder how many companies will choose to kill off Grafana use as a result of this change. Two companies I've worked for have simply banned the use of anything having a GPL type license.”

Self-host the core productweight 3

3 (weight) × 7 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 21.0 of 30 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“Grafana has an active provisioning system that uses configuration files. You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“You can authenticate, manage multiple environments, and perform administrative tasks from the terminal. It’s suitable for CI/CD pipelines, local development”
[probe] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/“official CLI documented at https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/”
[community] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26877528“Even though we use Grafana only internally and there would be no problem with AGPLv3 in theory I see big meetings with legal coming up which might result in us not being able to use it anymore.”
[community] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26877528“I wonder how many companies will choose to kill off Grafana use as a result of this change. Two companies I've worked for have simply banned the use of anything having a GPL type license.”

Openness = 53.2 ÷ 100 × 100 = 53.2

Built-in AI27.3/100×0.15 of the PA blend

Inside-out: how agentic the product itself is for its users — built-in assistants, autonomous features.

Get AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the productweight 2

2 (weight) × 5 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 6.0 of 20 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/ai-tools/“Connect AI agents to Grafana through the fully hosted Cloud MCP Server or the self-managed open source MCP Server.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/products/cloud/“Understand production systems faster using natural language”

Set up automations that run autonomously in the backgroundweight 2

2 (weight) × 5 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 6.0 of 20 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/alerting/“you create queries and expressions from multiple data sources, no matter where you store your data... create, manage, and take action on your alerts from a single, consolidated view”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/respond-to-incidents/“Use it to create on-call schedules, escalate alerts to the people who are on call, and coordinate incidents from declaration through post-incident review.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/respond-to-incidents/“create on-call schedules, escalate alerts to the people who are on call, and coordinate incidents from declaration through post-incident review”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/alerting/“Grafana Alerting allows you to learn about problems in your systems moments after they occur.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“Grafana has an active provisioning system that uses configuration files. You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“define dashboards, data sources, and other configurations in code, enabling version control, automated testing, and reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“You can authenticate, manage multiple environments, and perform administrative tasks from the terminal. It’s suitable for CI/CD pipelines, local development”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/ai-tools/“Connect AI agents to Grafana through the fully hosted Cloud MCP Server or the self-managed open source MCP Server.”

Delegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the productweight 3

3 (weight) × 3 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 5.4 of 30 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/products/cloud/“Understand production systems faster using natural language”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/ai-tools/“Connect AI agents to Grafana through the fully hosted Cloud MCP Server or the self-managed open source MCP Server.”
[probe] https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana“official MCP server documented at https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana”

Operate the product with natural-language commandsweight 2

2 (weight) × 6 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 7.2 of 20 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/ai-tools/“Connect AI agents to Grafana through the fully hosted Cloud MCP Server or the self-managed open source MCP Server.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/products/cloud/“Understand production systems faster using natural language”
[probe] https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana“official MCP server documented at https://github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana”

Built-in AI = 24.6 ÷ 90 × 100 = 27.3

Automation38.3/100×0.15 of the PA blend

Depth of automation primitives — rules, scheduling, bulk operations, webhooks.

Perform bulk operations across many items at onceweight 2

2 (weight) × 5 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 6.0 of 20 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“Grafana has an active provisioning system that uses configuration files. You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“This approach lets you define dashboards, data sources, and other configurations in code, enabling version control, automated testing, and reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“You can authenticate, manage multiple environments, and perform administrative tasks from the terminal. It’s suitable for CI/CD pipelines, local development”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/alerting/“you create queries and expressions from multiple data sources, no matter where you store your data... create, manage, and take action on your alerts from a single, consolidated view”
[probe] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/“official CLI documented at https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/cli/”
[probe] https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json“PROBE openapi: HTTP 200 at https://grafana.com/api/openapi.json — contains "openapi" key”

Define rules that trigger actions automatically on eventsweight 3

3 (weight) × 7 (quality) × 1.0 (full) = 21.0 of 30 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/alerting/“you create queries and expressions from multiple data sources, no matter where you store your data... create, manage, and take action on your alerts from a single, consolidated view”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/respond-to-incidents/“Use it to create on-call schedules, escalate alerts to the people who are on call, and coordinate incidents from declaration through post-incident review.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/respond-to-incidents/“create on-call schedules, escalate alerts to the people who are on call, and coordinate incidents from declaration through post-incident review”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/alerting/“Grafana Alerting allows you to learn about problems in your systems moments after they occur.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/alerting/“you create queries and expressions from multiple data sources, no matter where you store your data, giving you the flexibility to combine your data and alert on your metrics and logs in new and unique ways”
[community] https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/items/27433552“I use a combination of Graphite, InfluxDB, PostgreSQL, Timescale, CloudWatch, Prometheus. The alerting in Grafana supporting all those variations is a godsend.”

Schedule recurring jobs or workflowsweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/alerting/“you create queries and expressions from multiple data sources, no matter where you store your data... create, manage, and take action on your alerts from a single, consolidated view”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/respond-to-incidents/“Use it to create on-call schedules, escalate alerts to the people who are on call, and coordinate incidents from declaration through post-incident review.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“Grafana has an active provisioning system that uses configuration files. You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”

Version, review, and roll back my automationsweight 1

1 (weight) × 6 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 3.6 of 10 max

[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“Grafana has an active provisioning system that uses configuration files. You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“This approach lets you define dashboards, data sources, and other configurations in code, enabling version control, automated testing, and reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines.”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“define dashboards, data sources, and other configurations in code, enabling version control, automated testing, and reliable deployments through CI/CD pipelines”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/as-code/observability-as-code/“You can authenticate, manage multiple environments, and perform administrative tasks from the terminal. It’s suitable for CI/CD pipelines, local development”
[claimed-docs] https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/administration/provisioning/“You can define data sources and dashboards using files that can be version controlled, making GitOps more natural.”

Automation = 30.6 ÷ 80 × 100 = 38.3