Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Dashboards get noisy fast—template variables, annotation controls, and dashboard links can crowd the toolbar and pull focus from the data.
In this video, Levi (Software Engineer at Grafana Labs) walks through Grafana’s new Dashboard Controls Menu, a collapsible dropdown that consolidates variables, annotation controls, and links into one clean menu. You’ll see how the menu works, how the item count badge helps you understand what’s hidden at a glance, and how to configure each control to appear in the menu instead of the toolbar.
What you’ll learn:
Why toolbar clutter happens (and how this feature fixes it)
How the Dashboard Controls Menu organizes items (variables → annotations → links)
How to configure:
Template variables to display in the Controls Menu
Annotation controls to move into the Controls Menu
Dashboard links to show in the Controls Menu
Links/resources:
See the docs: grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/whatsnew/whats-new-in-v12-4/?src=yt
Read the 12.4 announcement blog:
Read this blog post for more info: grafana.com/blog/grafana-12-4-release-all-the-latest-features/?src=yt
Get started with the Grafana Cloud forever-free tier: grafana.com/g/cloud
Have a question? Ask Grot, your AI helper: grafana.com/grot
Reach out in our community forums: https://gra.fan/communityyf
---
Thanks for watching!
👍 Was this video helpful? Like and subscribe to our channel for more videos.
Connect with Grafana Labs:
X: (twitter.com/grafana)
LinkedIn: (linkedin.com/company/grafana-labs/)
Facebook: (facebook.com/grafana)
#Grafana #Observability #DataViz #datavisualization #opensource
Dashboards get noisy fast—template variables, annotation controls, and dashboard links can crowd the toolbar and pull focus from the data.
In this video, Levi (Software Engineer at Grafana Labs) walks through Grafana’s new Dashboard Controls Menu, a collapsible dropdown that consolidates variables, annotation controls, and links into one clean menu. You’ll see how the menu works, how the item count badge helps you understand what’s hidden at a glance, and how to configure each control to appear in the menu instead of the toolbar.
What you’ll learn:
Why toolbar clutter happens (and how this feature fixes it)
How the Dashboard Controls Menu organizes items (variables → annotations → links)
How to configure:
Template variables to display in the Controls Menu
Annotation controls to move into the Controls Menu
Dashboard links to show in the Controls Menu
Links/resources:
See the docs: grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/whatsnew/whats-new-in-v12-4/?src=yt
Read the 12.4 announcement blog:
Read this blog post for more info: grafana.com/blog/grafana-12-4-release-all-the-latest-features/?src=yt
Get started with the Grafana Cloud forever-free tier: grafana.com/g/cloud
Have a question? Ask Grot, your AI helper: grafana.com/grot
Reach out in our community forums: https://gra.fan/communityyf
---
Thanks for watching!
👍 Was this video helpful? Like and subscribe to our channel for more videos.
Connect with Grafana Labs:
X: (twitter.com/grafana)
LinkedIn: (linkedin.com/company/grafana-labs/)
Facebook: (facebook.com/grafana)
#Grafana #Observability #DataViz #datavisualization #opensource
