This document contains information about Grafana frontend package versioning and releases.

We use Lerna for packages versioning and releases.

All packages are versioned according to the current Grafana version:

• Grafana v6.3.0-alpha1 -> @grafana/* packages @ 6.3.0-alpha.1
• Grafana v6.2.5 -> @grafana/* packages @ 6.2.5
• Grafana - main branch version (based on package.json, i.e. 6.4.0-pre) -> @grafana/* packages @ 6.4.0-pre- (see details below about packages publishing channels)

Please note that @grafana/ui, @grafana/data, and @grafana/runtime packages are considered ALPHA even though they are not released as alpha versions.

Even though packages are released under a stable version, they are considered ALPHA until further notice!

Stable releases are published under the latest tag on npm. If there was alpha/beta version released previously, the next tag is updated to stable version.

Alpha and beta releases are published under the next tag on npm.

Every commit to main that has changes within the packages directory is a subject of npm packages release. ALL packages must be released under version from lerna.json file with the drone build number added to it:

<lerna.json version>-<DRONE_BUILD_NUMBER>

All of the steps below must be performed on a release branch, according to Grafana Release Guide.

You must be logged in to NPM as part of Grafana NPM org before attempting to publish to the npm registry.

1. Run yarn packages:clean script from the root directory. This will delete any previous builds of the packages.

2. Run yarn packages:prepare script from the root directory. This performs tests on the packages and prompts for the version of the packages. The version should be the same as the one being released.

   • Make sure you use semver convention. So, place a dot between prerelease id and prerelease number, i.e. 6.3.0-alpha.1
   • Make sure you confirm the version bump when prompted!

3. Run yarn packages:build script that compiles distribution code in packages/grafana-*/dist.

4. Run yarn packages:pack script to compress each package into npm-artifacts/*.tgz files. This is required for yarn to replace properties in the package.json files declared in the publishConfig property.

5. Depending on whether or not it's a prerelease:

   • When releasing a prerelease run ./scripts/publish-npm-packages.sh --dist-tag 'next' --registry 'https://registry.npmjs.org/' to publish new versions.
   • When releasing a stable version run ./scripts/publish-npm-packages.sh --dist-tag 'latest' --registry 'https://registry.npmjs.org/' to publish new versions.
   • When releasing a test version run ./scripts/publish-npm-packages.sh --dist-tag 'test' --registry 'https://registry.npmjs.org/' to publish test versions.

6. Revert any changes made by the packages:prepare script.

To build individual packages, run:

yarn packages:build --scope=@grafana/<data|e2e|e2e-selectors|runtime|schema|ui>

A known issue with @grafana/* packages is that a lot of times we discover problems on canary channel(see versioning overview) when the version was already pushed to npm.

We can easily avoid that by setting up a local packages registry and test the packages before actually publishing to npm.

In this guide you will set up Verdaccio registry locally to fake npm registry. This will enable testing @grafana/* packages without the need for pushing to main.

From your terminal:

1. Navigate to devenv/local-npm directory.
2. Run docker compose up. This will start your local npm registry, available at http://localhost:4873/.
3. To test @grafana packages published to your local npm registry uncomment npmScopes and unsafeHttpWhitelist properties in the .yarnrc file.

You need to follow manual packages release procedure. The only difference is the last command in order to publish to you local registry.

From your terminal:

1. Run yarn packages:clean.
2. Run yarn packages:prepare.
3. Run yarn packages:build.
4. Run yarn packages:pack.
5. Run NPM_TOKEN=NONE ./scripts/publish-npm-packages.sh.
6. Navigate to http://localhost:4873 and verify the version was published

Locally published packages will be published under dev or canary channel, so in your plugin package.json file you can use that channel. For example:

// plugin's package.json

dependencies: {
  //... other dependencies
  "@grafana/data": "dev" // or canary
}

or you can instruct npm to install directly the specific version you published.

To use your local published package in another package you'll have to create an .npmrc file in that repository and add the following line:

@grafana:registry=http://localhost:4873/

Make sure there is no other line already defined for @grafana.