Grafana MCP Server vs incident.io API

Grafana MCP Server

Every default tool declares typed inputs and read-only and destructive annotations in source, and --disable-write cuts the default 79 tools to 62. Writes and a general grafana_api_request tool are on by default, the default list is long at 79 tools, and usage statistics have been sent to Grafana Labs by default since 2.0.0.

incident.io API

The REST API has a public OpenAPI description with 284 operations, numeric rate limits, Retry-After on 429 and required idempotency keys on seven create calls. API and MCP access need the Team plan or higher, so the free Basic plan cannot be used by an agent, and audit logs are Enterprise only.

Grafana MCP Server

1. Start with --disable-write unless the task needs writes, and add --disable-api to remove grafana_api_request
2. Pass --enabled-tools with only the categories needed. The default list loads 79 tools
3. Use get_dashboard_summary or get_dashboard_property with a JSONPath before get_dashboard_by_uid, which returns the whole dashboard JSON
4. Set GRAFANA_USAGE_STATS=disabled or DO_NOT_TRACK=1 to stop the four-hourly usage report to stats.grafana.org
5. Use streamable HTTP, not SSE, when each caller needs its own token or organisation, and set --server-auth-token on any non-loopback address

incident.io API

1. Send Authorization: Bearer <key> to https://api.incident.io and call GET /v1/identity first to read the key's roles
2. Send a fresh idempotency_key with every create call for incidents, incident updates, timeline items, escalations and status page incidents. A repeated key returns the first result
3. Page with page_size and after until no cursor comes back. Do not stop at a short or empty page
4. Keep GET /v2/incidents under 60 requests a minute and wait the seconds in Retry-After on 429
5. Incident creation is limited to 10 an hour per key when a Slack or Teams channel is created, 300 an hour otherwise