Part of Grafana, not a vendor of its own. The four checks, setup and context cost live in the Grafana guide.

Part of the Grafana stack

Grafana Tempo and MCP

What it is

Grafana's trace store. It is queried with TraceQL, and unlike the rest of the stack it runs an MCP server of its own, built into the Tempo query frontend.

How an agent reaches it

Two routes, and they are not equivalent. The main Grafana connector has no TraceQL tool at all, though one tool, find_slow_requests, does search Tempo datasources for slow requests. Everything else needs Tempo's own MCP server, enabled with query_frontend.mcp_server.enabled: true and served at /api/mcp over streamable HTTP.

The tools that touch it

traceql-search

Searches for traces using a TraceQL query. Tempo's own server.

get-trace

Retrieves one trace by ID.

traceql-metrics-instant

A single metric value from a TraceQL metrics query.

traceql-metrics-range

A metric series from a TraceQL metrics query.

get-attribute-names

Attribute names available for use in TraceQL queries.

get-attribute-values

Values for one scoped attribute name.

docs-traceql

Returns TraceQL documentation: basic, aggregates, structural and metrics.

docs-config

Returns Tempo configuration documentation, overview and reference.

Eight tools, from Tempo's own MCP server documentation rather than from the Grafana capture, because this server is separate. It also publishes six documentation resources under docs://, four for TraceQL and two for configuration.

The limit an agent runs into

The main connector cannot answer a trace question. It has no TraceQL tool, so an agent asked about a trace either answers from logs and metrics instead, or says it cannot answer, unless Tempo's own server is connected alongside it.

What to do: Connect both, and expect the trace question to route to the second. Tempo's documentation warns that enabling the server may pass tracing data to an LLM provider, which is a decision to make before turning it on.

Reference

Tools in the main Grafana server

None for TraceQL. find_slow_requests searches Tempo datasources

Tempo's own server

8 tools and 6 documentation resources

Query language

TraceQL

Enable with

query_frontend.mcp_server.enabled: true

Or the flag

--query-frontend.mcp-server.enabled=true

Endpoint

/api/mcp on the query frontend

Transport

Streamable HTTP

Auth

The same authentication and multi-tenancy as other Tempo API endpoints

Vendor warning

Enabling it may pass tracing data to an LLM provider