---
title: "Navigate to documentation and install a data source | Grafana Labs"
description: "Learn how to find data source documentation and connect your first data source to Grafana Cloud."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Navigate to documentation and install a data source

Data sources are the foundation of observability in Grafana Cloud. They connect your monitoring platform to systems, applications, and infrastructure, enabling you to visualize and analyze telemetry data from across your environment.

Grafana Cloud supports numerous data sources including Prometheus for metrics, Loki for logs, Tempo for traces, and many third-party systems. Finding the right data source documentation helps you establish these connections efficiently.

In this section, you’ll open the data source docs in a new tab so you can keep this guide and your Grafana stack open.

1. Open the **Data sources** documentation in a new browser tab.
2. Browse the list to find a data source that matches your monitoring needs. For example, if you have a Prometheus server, look for **Prometheus**.
3. Open that data source’s documentation and note the configuration requirements.

You opened the docs in a separate tab and noted the settings you’ll need.

In this section, you’ll open **Connections**, add a data source, and verify the connection. The steps use **Prometheus** as an example — choose the data source that matches your environment.

1. In the navigation menu, go to **Connections > Data sources**.
2. Click **Add new data source**. Skip this step if you don’t have permission to add data sources.
3. In the search field, enter `Prometheus` (or the name of the data source you chose from the docs).
4. Select **Prometheus** from the list of data sources (or select your chosen data source).
5. Configure the data source settings according to the documentation you reviewed: enter the server URL, configure authentication if required, and set any additional options.
6. Click **Save & test** to verify the connection.

You added a data source and verified the connection. A successful test shows a green checkmark.

The data source is connected and ready to use for creating dashboards and alerts. You can query data from this source to build visualizations that help monitor your systems.

In the next milestone, you’ll explore the integrations documentation to install pre-built monitoring solutions for specific technologies.

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### More to explore (optional)

At this point in your journey, you can explore the following paths:

- [Manage data sources](/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/#manage-data-sources)
- [Connect to a Prometheus data source in Grafana Cloud](/docs/learning-paths/prometheus/)