#  Best practices for Python backend + Grafana integration 

**URL:** <https://community.grafana.com/t/best-practices-for-python-backend-grafana-integration/156749>\
**Category:** Grafana\
**Tags:** api, iframe, plugins, dashboard\
**Created:** [August 26, 2025, 9:20am UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/best-practices-for-python-backend-grafana-integration/156749 "2025-08-26T09:20:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fpilz2006](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/90db22/32.png) [@fpilz2006](https://community.grafana.com/u/fpilz2006)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 9:20am UTC](https://community.grafana.com/t/best-practices-for-python-backend-grafana-integration/156749/1 "2025-08-26T09:20:36Z")

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Hi Grafana community,

I’m building a custom monitoring dashboard with the following architecture and would appreciate your guidance on the most secure implementation approach:

**Current Setup:**

- Python/Flask backend application

- Custom frontend (HTML/JavaScript)

- Grafana instance for visualization

- Authentik (OAuth/OIDC) handling all authentication

- Users should never see Grafana’s native login

**Requirements:**

- All Grafana requests must flow through my Python backend (no direct frontend-to-Grafana communication)

- Single sign-on via Authentik for the entire application

- Secure dashboard embedding without exposing Grafana credentials

- Role-based access control managed by my backend

**Questions:**

1. **Auth Proxy vs API approach** : Should I use Grafana’s auth proxy feature with nginx, or implement everything through Grafana’s HTTP API? What are the security trade-offs?

2. **Session handling** : How do you recommend handling user sessions between my application and Grafana? Currently considering:

3. **Dashboard embedding** : For secure iframe embedding of dashboards, should I:

4. **Best practices** : Are there established patterns for this type of integration? I want to ensure I’m not reinventing the wheel or introducing security vulnerabilities.

**Current Considerations:** I’m leaning toward auth proxy configuration where my Python backend validates sessions and forwards appropriate headers to Grafana, but I’m concerned about session synchronization and potential security gaps.

Has anyone implemented a similar architecture? What pitfalls should I watch out for, especially regarding cookie handling and cross-origin requests in embedded scenarios?

Any insights or references to documentation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!