# Graphite-API documentation

Graphite-API is an alternative to Graphite-web, without any built-in dashboard. Its role is solely to fetch metrics from a time-series database (whisper, cyanite, etc.) and rendering graphs or JSON data out of these time series. It is meant to be consumed by any of the numerous Graphite dashboard applications.

Graphite-API is a fork of Graphite-web and couldn’t have existed without the fantastic prior work done by the Graphite team.

## Why should I use it?

Graphite-API offers a number of improvements over Graphite-web that you might find useful. Namely:

- The Graphite-API application is completely stateless and doesn’t need a SQL database. It only needs to talk to a time series database.
- Python 2 and 3 are both supported.
- The HTTP API accepts JSON data additionnaly to form data and querystring parameters.
- The application is extremely simple to install and configure.
- The architecture has been drastically simplified and there are many fewer moving parts than in graphite-web:
  - No memcache integration – rendering is live.
  - No support for the Pickle format when rendering.
  - Plugin architecture for integrating with time series databases or adding more analysis functions.
- The codebase has been thoroughly updated with a focus on test coverage and code quality.

Note

Graphite-API does not provide any web/graphical interface. If you currently rely on the built-in Graphite composer, Graphite-API might not be for you. However, if you’re using a third-party dashboard interface, Graphite-API will do just fine.

## Contents

- Installation
  - Debian / Ubuntu: native package
  - Python package
- Configuration
  - /etc/graphite-api.yaml
  - Custom location
- Deployment
  - Gunicorn + nginx
  - Apache + mod_wsgi
  - Docker
  - Nginx + uWSGI
  - Other deployment methods
- HTTP API
  - The Metrics API
  - The Render API – `/render`
- Built-in functions
  - Usage
  - List of functions
- Storage finders
  - Custom finders
  - Fetching multiple paths at once
  - Installing custom finders
  - Configuration
- Custom functions
- Graphite-API releases
  - 1.1.3 – 2016-05-23
  - 1.1.2 – 2015-11-19
  - 1.1.1 – 2015-10-23
  - 1.1 – 2015-10-05
  - 1.0.1 – 2014-03-21
  - 1.0.0 – 2014-03-20

# Indices and tables

- Index
- Module Index
- Search Page