Migrate Selected Assets

Migrate selected dashboards / alerting rules

Goal: migrate a deliberately chosen subset of the user's source assets into Kibana — more than the single-dashboard trial, less than a full sweep. Scope with the uniform --select-* metadata flags (folder / tag / datasource / team / last-updated / starred), available on obs-migrate migrate for both sources and both dashboards and alerts. Some dimensions a given source/asset genuinely cannot supply — those degrade gracefully (the asset is kept and a WARN names the skipped dimension), so be explicit about what filters effectively and what passes through.

This skill writes the selected assets to the target. It is otherwise read-only on the source.

Which command form to use (package vs. repo)

Assume the user installed the package (obs-migrate, grafana-migrate, datadog-migrate on PATH); prefix .venv/bin/ only for a repo checkout. Every command and artifact below ships in the installed wheel — no scripts/, infra/, or examples/ directory is required.

The selection surface (read this before scoping)

Two layers of selectors, combinable:

1. Uniform metadata --select-* flags (both sources, both dashboards and alerts). Each is repeatable or comma-separated; values OR within a flag, and flags AND together. Client-side filter applied after extraction.

Matching is case-insensitive exact (not prefix/glob). A selector for a dimension a source/asset can't supply does not drop the asset — it's kept with a WARN (see availability below).

2. Source-native id/query selectors (Datadog only), useful for precise picks or pushing the filter to the Datadog side:

Which --select-* dimensions are effective per source/asset

⚠️ degrade = the asset is kept and a WARN is printed; the dimension simply doesn't narrow that source/asset.

Step 1 — Scope to the selection

By metadata (--select-*, either source, dashboards or alerts)

# Grafana dashboards in the "Production" folder, tagged team:infra, updated this year:
obs-migrate migrate \
  --source grafana --input-mode api \
  --grafana-url "$GRAFANA_URL" --grafana-token "$GRAFANA_TOKEN" \
  --select-folder Production --select-tag team:infra \
  --select-updated-after 2026-01-01 \
  --output-dir selected_out --assets dashboards --data-view "metrics-*"

# Datadog dashboards + monitors for the payments team (team: tag), one sweep:
obs-migrate migrate \
  --source datadog --input-mode api --env-file datadog_creds.env \
  --select-team payments \
  --output-dir selected_out --assets all --field-profile otel --data-view "metrics-*"

--select-* flags combine with the id/query selectors below (AND). Watch the run output: Selected N of M … confirms the narrowing, and any WARN: … selection requested but unavailable … tells you a dimension degraded for that source/asset (per the availability table above) — relay those lines to the user.

Datadog dashboards — by id

export DD_API_KEY="..." DD_APP_KEY="..." DD_SITE="datadoghq.com"
obs-migrate migrate \
  --source datadog \
  --input-mode api \
  --dashboard-ids abc-def-123,ghi-jkl-456 \
  --output-dir selected_out \
  --assets dashboards \
  --field-profile otel \
  --data-view "metrics-*"

Datadog alerts — by id list or search query

# Explicit monitor ids:
obs-migrate migrate \
  --source datadog --input-mode api \
  --env-file datadog_creds.env \
  --monitor-ids 12345678,23456789 \
  --output-dir selected_out \
  --assets alerts --field-profile otel --data-view "metrics-*"

# Or a Datadog monitor search query (e.g. by tag/team/name in Datadog's own syntax):
obs-migrate migrate \
  --source datadog --input-mode api \
  --env-file datadog_creds.env \
  --monitor-query "team:payments status:alert" \
  --output-dir selected_out \
  --assets alerts --field-profile otel --data-view "metrics-*"

--monitor-query is passed to Datadog's monitor search — it filters on the Datadog side using Datadog's query syntax, so "by team/tag" works only to the extent Datadog itself supports it. The engine does not re-implement filtering.

Grafana dashboards — by --select-* or a curated input directory

Grafana API mode has no --dashboard-ids. Either scope with --select-folder/-tag/-datasource/-starred against the live API (above), or migrate a hand-picked set by putting just those dashboards' exported JSON in one directory and running a files migration (--select-* still applies on top if you want):

# Collect only the chosen dashboard exports into ./selected_dashboards/ first, then:
obs-migrate migrate \
  --source grafana \
  --input-mode files \
  --input-dir ./selected_dashboards \
  --output-dir selected_out \
  --assets dashboards \
  --data-view "metrics-*"

Export each chosen dashboard's JSON from the Grafana UI (Share → Export → Save to file) or GET /api/dashboards/uid/<uid>, into the same directory. The selection is the directory contents.

Grafana alerts — subset with --select-*

Grafana alert selection now works via the metadata flags. Legacy (panel-embedded) alerts inherit their dashboard's folder/tags/datasource, so --select-folder/--select-tag scope them through the dashboard. Unified alerting rules filter on their labels (--select-tag, --select-team) and datasource; their folder is exposed only as a UID, so --select-folder degrades on unified rules (kept + WARN). There is still no per-rule id selector — scope by metadata, not by an invented id flag.

Step 2 — Add the target, validate, upload

Add the target endpoints you have, re-run Step 1 with live validation, then upload. For alerts, --create-alert-rules creates the emitted rules disabled and tagged obs-migration.

export ELASTICSEARCH_ENDPOINT="https://...es..." KIBANA_ENDPOINT="https://...kbn..." KEY="<api-key>"

# Dashboards: re-run Step 1 appending live discovery, then upload:
#   ...append: --es-url "$ELASTICSEARCH_ENDPOINT" --es-api-key "$KEY"
obs-migrate upload \
  --yaml-dir selected_out/dashboards \
  --kibana-url "$KIBANA_ENDPOINT" \
  --kibana-api-key "$KEY"

# Alerts (selected): create the rules in one shot, disabled + tagged:
obs-migrate migrate \
  --source datadog --input-mode api --env-file datadog_creds.env \
  --monitor-ids 12345678,23456789 \
  --output-dir selected_out --assets alerts \
  --kibana-url "$KIBANA_ENDPOINT" --kibana-api-key "$KEY" \
  --create-alert-rules

• obs-migrate upload recompiles YAML internally via kb-dashboard-cli and accepts either the yaml/ directory or the dashboard artifacts dir with a sibling yaml/ (so selected_out/dashboards works).
• --create-alert-rules requires an alert-capable selection (--assets alerts or all) plus --kibana-url and --kibana-api-key. Rules land disabled — enable them in Kibana (or audit with obs-migrate audit-rules) after review.
• Custom-CA / self-signed clusters: every CLI here accepts --ca-cert <path> (env OBS_MIGRATE_CA_CERT) to verify against a private CA, or --insecure (env OBS_MIGRATE_INSECURE) for testing only. They cover source, Elasticsearch, Kibana, and the Node upload step.

Step 3 — Confirm the selection landed

• Dashboards: read selected_out/dashboards/migration_summary.md (verdict, scorecard, per-dashboard table, must-fix worklist); drill into selected_out/dashboards/migration_manifest.json (dashboards[], panels[].status, panels[].reasons). Confirm the count matches what you selected.
• Alerts: the rule-creation summary is selected_out/alerts/monitor_rule_upload_results.json (Datadog) or selected_out/alerts/alert_rule_upload_results.json (Grafana). Then obs-migrate audit-rules --kibana-url ... --kibana-api-key ... lists the migrated rules in Kibana and reports which are enabled.

Honest limits (tell the user)

• Some dimensions degrade per source/asset. --select-* is uniform, but not every dimension is supplyable everywhere (see the availability table): Datadog dashboard folders live in the Dashboard-Lists API the engine doesn't fetch; Datadog/Grafana-unified starred and Datadog-monitor folder/datasource aren't available; Grafana dashboards have no first-class team. Those degrade gracefully (asset kept + WARN) rather than dropping assets — surface the WARN lines, don't pretend the filter applied.
• Selectors are exact + client-side. Matching is case-insensitive exact (no prefix/glob); filtering happens after extraction. A --select-* set that matches nothing for dashboards exits non-zero; for alerts it yields an empty alert set.
• --monitor-query is Datadog-side. Its expressiveness is Datadog's, not ours; it composes with --select-* (which then narrows further client-side).
• No id selector for Grafana. Grafana has no --dashboard-ids or alert-id flag — scope Grafana by --select-* or a curated --input-dir.
• Created rules are disabled. A selected alert migration does not arm anything; rules are disabled and tagged obs-migration until a human enables them.
• Degrade gracefully (panels too): unsupported panels/rules in the selection are surfaced as requires_manual / not_feasible with reasons — relay them, never hide them.

Do NOT

• Do not invent selectors beyond the real surface (a Grafana --dashboard-ids / alert-id flag, or --select-* dimensions not listed above). Confirm with obs-migrate migrate --help if unsure.
• Do not claim a degraded dimension filtered anything — if the run printed a WARN that a dimension was unavailable, that source/asset was not narrowed on it.
• Do not claim a selected alert migration enabled rules — it creates them disabled.
• Do not treat an offline run (no --es-url, no upload smoke) as proof the selected panels render against real data.
• Do not bulk-migrate here. Migrating everything supported is migrate-all-supported-assets; a single proof dashboard is try-one-source-dashboard.

See also

• scan-o11y-environment skill — inventory the assets so the user knows what to select.
• assess-migration-readiness skill — feasibility verdict + evidence level before committing the selection.
• try-one-source-dashboard skill — one dashboard end-to-end for a side-by-side.
• migrate-all-supported-assets skill — migrate everything supported (use when selection isn't needed).
• revert-migration skill — remove the selected assets if the user changes their mind.
• obs-migrate migrate --help — authoritative selector list for the installed version.
• docs/command-contract.md — asset-scope contract, selectors, and artifact paths (online docs / repo).