Dynatrace Dashboard Skill

Overview

Dynatrace dashboards are JSON documents stored in the Document Store containing tiles (content/visualizations), layouts (grid positioning), and variables (dynamic query parameters).

When to use: Creating, modifying, querying, or analyzing dashboards.

Dashboard JSON Structure

{
  "name": "My Dashboard",
  "type": "dashboard",
  "content": {
    "version": 21,
    "variables": [],
    "tiles": { "<id>": { "type": "data|markdown", ... } },
    "layouts": { "<id>": { "x": 0, "y": 0, "w": 24, "h": 8 } }
  }
}

• Tile IDs in tiles must match IDs in layouts
• Grid is 24 units wide. Common widths: 24 (full), 12 (half), 6 (quarter)
• Two tile types: markdown (text content) and data (DQL query + visualization)

Optional content properties: settings, refreshRate, annotations

Reading & Analyzing

Fetch full content with dtctl get dashboard <id> -o json --plain (describe returns metadata only), then inspect the JSON to discover its available properties. Carefully read references/analyzing.md before analyzing.

Create/Update Workflow (Mandatory Order)

Carefully follow the workflow described in references/create-update.md.

Key rules:

• Load domain skills BEFORE generating queries — do not invent DQL
• Validate ALL queries before adding to dashboard
• No time-range filters in queries unless explicitly requested by user
• Set name before deploying
• Updating — ALWAYS download first: dtctl get dashboard <id> -o json --plain > dashboard.json, modify, then deploy the downloaded file. Never reconstruct JSON from scratch or inject an id manually — both silently overwrite any UI edits the user made since last deployment.
• Deploy with dtctl apply — validation runs automatically, and the local file is deleted on success.

Visualization Types

• Time-series (require timeseries/makeTimeseries): lineChart, areaChart, barChart, bandChart
• Categorical (summarize ... by:{field}): categoricalBarChart, pieChart, donutChart
• Single value/gauge (single numeric record): singleValue, meterBar, gauge
• Tabular (any data shape): table, raw, recordList
• Distribution/status: histogram, honeycomb
• Maps: choroplethMap, dotMap, connectionMap, bubbleMap
• Matrix: heatmap, scatterplot

Required field types per visualization: references/tiles.md

Variables Quick Reference

{ "version": 2, "key": "Service", "type": "query", "visible": true,
  "editable": true, "input": "smartscapeNodes SERVICE | fields name",
  "multiple": false }

• Single-select: filter service.name == $Service
• Multi-select: filter in(service.name, array($Service))
• Types: query (DQL-populated), csv (static list), text (free-form)

Full variable reference: references/variables.md

References

File	When to Load
create-update.md	Creating/updating dashboards
tiles.md	Tile types, visualization field requirements, settings
variables.md	Variable types, replacement strategies, patterns
analyzing.md	Reading dashboards, extracting queries, health assessment