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# Dashboard YAML properties
Dashboards have several components:
- Templating variables.
- Panel groups, which consist of panels.
- Panels, which support one or more metrics.
The following tables outline the details of expected properties.
## **Dashboard (top-level) properties**
| Property | Type | Required | Description |
| ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ |
| `dashboard` | string | yes | Heading for the dashboard. Only one dashboard should be defined per file. |
| `panel_groups` | array | yes | The panel groups which should be on the dashboard. |
| `templating` | hash | no | Top level key under which templating related options can be added. |
| `links` | array | no | Add links to display on the dashboard. |
## **Templating (`templating`) properties**
| Property | Type | Required | Description |
| -------- | ---- | -------- | ----------- |
| `variables` | hash | yes | Variables can be defined here. |
Read the documentation on [templating](../../../user/project/integrations/prometheus.md#templating-variables-for-metrics-dashboards).
## **Links (`links`) properties**
| Property | Type | Required | Description |
| -------- | ---- | -------- | ----------- |
| `url` | string | yes | The address of the link. |
| `title` | string | no | Display title for the link. |
| `type` | string | no | Type of the link. Specifies the link type, can be: `grafana` |
Read the documentation on [links](../../../user/project/integrations/prometheus.md#add-related-links-to-custom-dashboards).
## **Panel group (`panel_groups`) properties**
| Property | Type | Required | Description |
| ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ |
| `group` | string | required | Heading for the panel group. |
| `priority` | number | optional, defaults to order in file | Order to appear on the dashboard. Higher number means higher priority, which will be higher on the page. Numbers do not need to be consecutive. |
| `panels` | array | required | The panels which should be in the panel group. |
Panels in a panel group are laid out in rows consisting of two panels per row. An exception to this rule are single panels on a row: these panels will take the full width of their containing row.
## **Panel (`panels`) properties**
| Property | Type | Required | Description |
| ------ | ------ | ------ | ------- |
| `type` | enum | no, defaults to `area-chart` | Specifies the chart type to use, can be: `area-chart`, `line-chart` or `anomaly-chart`. |
| `title` | string | yes | Heading for the panel. |
| `y_label` | string | no, but highly encouraged | Y-Axis label for the panel. |
| `y_axis` | string | no | Y-Axis configuration for the panel. |
| `weight` | number | no, defaults to order in file | Order to appear within the grouping. Lower number means higher priority, which will be higher on the page. Numbers do not need to be consecutive. |
| `metrics` | array | yes | The metrics which should be displayed in the panel. Any number of metrics can be displayed when `type` is `area-chart` or `line-chart`, whereas only 3 can be displayed when `type` is `anomaly-chart`. |
| `links` | array | no | Add links to display on the chart's [context menu](index.md#chart-context-menu). |
| `name` | string | no, but highly encouraged | Y-Axis label for the panel. Replaces `y_label` if set. |
| `format` | string | no, defaults to `engineering` | Unit format used. See the [full list of units](../../../user/project/integrations/prometheus_units.md). |
| `precision` | number | no, defaults to `2` | Number of decimal places to display in the number. | |
## **Metrics (`metrics`) properties**
| Property | Type | Required | Description |
| ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ |
| `id` | string | no | Used for associating dashboard metrics with database records. Must be unique across dashboard configuration files. Required for [alerting](../../../user/project/integrations/prometheus.md#setting-up-alerts-for-prometheus-metrics) (support not yet enabled, see [relevant issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/27980)). |
| `unit` | string | yes | Defines the unit of the query's return data. |
| `label` | string | no, but highly encouraged | Defines the legend-label for the query. Should be unique within the panel's metrics. Can contain time series labels as interpolated variables. |
| `query` | string | yes if `query_range` is not defined | Defines the Prometheus query to be used to populate the chart/panel. If defined, the `query` endpoint of the [Prometheus API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/) will be utilized. |
| `query_range` | string | yes if `query` is not defined | Defines the Prometheus query to be used to populate the chart/panel. If defined, the `query_range` endpoint of the [Prometheus API](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/) will be utilized. |
| `step` | number | no, value is calculated if not defined | Defines query resolution step width in float number of seconds. Metrics on the same panel should use the same `step` value. |
## Dynamic labels
Dynamic labels are useful when multiple time series are returned from a Prometheus query.
When a static label is used and a query returns multiple time series, then all the legend items will be labeled the same, which makes identifying each time series difficult:
For labels to be more explicit, using variables that reflect time series labels is a good practice. The variables will be replaced by the values of the time series labels when the legend is rendered:
The resulting rendered legend will look like this:
There is also a shorthand value for dynamic dashboard labels that make use of only one time series label:
```yaml
metrics:
- id: my_metric_id
query_range: 'http_requests_total'
label: "Method"
unit: "count"
```
This works by lowercasing the value of `label` and, if there are more words separated by spaces, replacing those spaces with an underscore (`_`). The transformed value is then checked against the labels of the time series returned by the Prometheus query. If a time series label is found that is equal to the transformed value, then the label value will be used and rendered in the legend like this:
