Dashboards

A dashboard is a grid of panels, each one a query rendered as a visualization, sharing one time range and refreshing together. Use them for the views you keep coming back to: an error overview, a service’s request rate, the count of 5xx responses right now. There’s no configuration or external tooling to set up; dashboards live entirely inside Logchef.

Open Dashboards from the sidebar to see every dashboard, then open one to view its panels.

Concept

A dashboard holds a set of panels laid out on a 12-column grid. Each panel is a self-contained visualization: it points at a team and source, carries its own query (LogchefQL, or native LogsQL for a VictoriaLogs source), and renders as one of the panel types below. Panels do not share a query, only the dashboard’s time range and refresh interval.

Panels run through the same team-scoped query endpoints the explorer uses, so a dashboard adds no new way to reach log data: whatever a viewer can query in the explorer, they can see in a panel.

Panel types

• Time series: a chart over time, using the same histogram data the explorer draws. You can render it as a line, area, or bars (stacked or grouped), and optionally group by a field to break the series out (for example, 5xx responses split by service).
• Stat: a single number: the total match count for the query over the current time range. Good for “how many errors in the last 15 minutes”.
• Breakdown: log counts by a required field over the selected range. Use horizontal bars (default) or a donut for a compact top-category view.
• Table: the matching rows, like the explorer results grid. Set a row limit and an optional column subset.

Time series, stat, and breakdown panels all use the source’s histogram endpoint. For native VictoriaLogs panels, write the filter portion of LogsQL: VictoriaLogs’ hits API ignores pipes while building histogram data. Table panels execute the full LogsQL query and can use pipes such as fields and unpack_json.

Grouped histograms return the top 10 series and combine any remaining series into an other bucket. Prefer fields such as service, environment, host, or severity over high-cardinality request and trace IDs.

Multiple data sources

Each panel picks its own team and source, so a single dashboard can mix panels from different backends: a ClickHouse time series next to a VictoriaLogs stat. LogchefQL compiles to whatever the panel’s source speaks, so the same filter works across backends. The panel builder also offers a native LogsQL toggle when a VictoriaLogs source is selected. Native ClickHouse SQL is not exposed in the dashboard panel builder in this release; use LogchefQL for ClickHouse panels.

If a viewer lacks access to a panel’s source, that panel renders a locked state while the rest of the dashboard loads normally, the same pattern used for shared collection items.

Build a VictoriaLogs overview

After connecting a VictoriaLogs source, a compact service-health dashboard is a good way to see the four panel types together:

1. Open Dashboards, choose New dashboard, name it, and open it.
2. Choose Edit, then Add panel.
3. Add a Stat panel for level="error" to show the current error count.
4. Add a Time series panel for env="prod", grouped by service, to show which service is driving volume.
5. Add a Breakdown panel for env="prod", grouped by level, and choose horizontal bars or a donut.
6. Add a Table panel for level="error", keep its row limit small, and pick the columns responders need first.
7. Resize and arrange the panels, then choose Save.

All four panels follow the dashboard time picker. You can switch an individual VictoriaLogs panel to native LogsQL without changing the other panels or the dashboard’s backend mix.

Time range and refresh

Every panel on a dashboard shares one time range, set from the toolbar (the same quick and absolute ranges as the explorer). Changing it re-runs all panels. New dashboards default to the last 15 minutes.

Set an auto-refresh interval (off, 30 seconds, 1 minute, or 5 minutes) to keep a wall-board style view current. There is also a manual refresh button.

Panels render correctly for viewers in any timezone: histogram buckets (time series panels) align to your local timezone, while table and stat panels use a UTC-anchored query internally so their time window doesn’t shift for non-UTC viewers.

Result caching

Because every panel re-runs on each refresh, a busy dashboard can hammer the backend: N panels open by M viewers is up to N×M queries per refresh cycle. Each dashboard has a cache TTL in its settings (default 10 minutes) that turns on a shared, server-side result cache. The first viewer’s query fills the cache and everyone else within that window is served the stored result, so a panel hits the backend at most once per TTL. Set the TTL to 0 to disable caching for that dashboard and always query live.

The cache covers dashboard panels only — explorer and other ad-hoc queries are never cached. Server-wide limits (total size, per-entry cap, entry count) are set with the [dashboard_cache] config.

Chart styles

Time series panels can render as line (default), area, or bars. Set the style per panel in the panel builder. When the style is bars, you can choose stacked (default) or grouped bar mode. The histogram data is shared with the explorer, including zero-filled gaps, so a sparse or grouped series (e.g. 5xx errors by host) renders as a continuous chart instead of isolated bars floating over dead space.

Editing

Open a dashboard and choose Edit to enter a direct-manipulation canvas:

• Move a panel: drag it by its header to a new grid position.
• Resize a panel: drag the handle on its bottom-right corner.
• Add a panel: click an empty grid slot, or the “+ Add panel” tile. This opens the panel builder, a full-height drawer where you pick the team and source, write the query in the Monaco editor (LogchefQL, or LogsQL for VictoriaLogs) with a live preview, choose the panel type, and set type-specific options: group-by and chart style for time series, a required group-by and horizontal-bar or donut view for breakdowns, and a row limit and optional column subset for tables.
• Edit or remove an existing panel via the pencil / trash icons on its header, which reopens the same panel builder drawer.

Changes stay local until you Save; Cancel discards them. Leaving with unsaved edits prompts first.

A dashboard can contain up to 24 panels.

Who can edit

• Anyone signed in can list and view dashboards.
• The creator and global admins can edit and delete a dashboard.

Per-dashboard sharing roles are not part of this release. As always, viewing a panel never grants access to its underlying source; source access is enforced when the panel’s query runs.

No configuration needed

Dashboards ship with Logchef. You don’t need to enable anything in config or run an extra service: dashboard definitions are saved in Logchef’s metadata store, right alongside your teams, sources, and saved queries.

Next steps

• Save the queries behind your panels to a Collection so teammates can reuse them
• Review Search Syntax to write the LogchefQL filters panels use
• See Alerting to get notified instead of watching a dashboard