# Creating Looker Dashboard > Looker Developer Onboarding: Step 7 (Final Step). Creates a LookML dashboard in the project, imports it as a user-defined dashboard (UDD) in Looker, and iteratively refines it based on user feedback by syncing changes. Only execute this after Step 6 (Model Setup using `creating-lookml-model`). - Skill: `looker-open-source/creating-looker-dashboard` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add looker-open-source/creating-looker-dashboard` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/looker-open-source/creating-looker-dashboard/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - License: Apache-2.0 - Author: looker-open-source (https://skillmd.com/u/looker-open-source) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/looker-open-source/creating-looker-dashboard --- # Creating Looker Dashboard & Feedback Loop This skill guides you through the final step of onboarding: building the target dashboard requested by the user. You will define the dashboard as a LookML dashboard file in the project, import it into Looker as a User-Defined Dashboard (UDD), and iteratively update and synchronize it based on the user's feedback. ## Prerequisites - Looker CLI must be installed and authenticated (Step 2 & 3). - Looker project, connection, views, and models must be fully set up and validated (Step 4, 5 & 6). ## Instructions ### 1. Retrieve Dashboard Specs & Identify Target Folder 1. Refer back to the target dashboard goal, tables, dimensions, and measures established with the user during the **Step 1 (Discovery)** interview in the conversation history (and subsequently created in **Step 7 (Model)**). You must recall these specifications to ensure the dashboard displays the correct data. 2. Locate the target Looker **Folder ID** to place the dashboard. Since this is a brand-new Looker instance, we will prescriptively place the dashboard in the default **Shared** folder: - List all folders using the Looker CLI: `looker-cli folder ls` - Find the folder named `"Shared"` in the output. In a brand-new instance, this folder is always present and its ID is almost always `"1"`. - Identify the ID of this `"Shared"` folder and use it as your target folder ID (which will be passed to the `folder_id` parameter in later steps). ### 2. Create the LookML Dashboard File (CLI) You must define the dashboard structure as a LookML dashboard file in your project: 1. **Create the `dashboards` directory**: If the `dashboards/` directory does not yet exist in the project, create it using the Looker CLI: ```bash looker-cli project directory create {project_id} dashboards ``` 2. **Generate Dashboard LookML**: Write the LookML dashboard definition locally (e.g. to `/tmp/{dashboard_name}.dashboard.lookml`). Ensure the file uses the `.dashboard.lookml` extension. 3. **Upload the Dashboard File**: Upload the file to your Looker project dashboards folder (path convention `dashboards/{dashboard_name}.dashboard.lookml`): ```bash looker-cli project file create {project_id} dashboards/{dashboard_name}.dashboard.lookml /tmp/{dashboard_name}.dashboard.lookml ``` 4. **Critical Inclusion Step**: You **MUST** include the dashboard files in your LookML model file (`{model_name}.model.lkml`) so they can be discovered by the project validator and the CLI import/sync commands: ```lkml include: "/dashboards/**/*.dashboard.lookml" ``` 5. Inside the dashboard file, write the LookML dashboard definition, configuring tiles (elements) that display the dimensions and measures you created in Step 7. It is highly recommended to use **`layout: newspaper`** (which supports grid coordinates `row`, `col`, `width`, and `height` out of 24 columns) to prevent import errors that can happen with older `layout: grid` row groupings. *Example Dashboard LookML (`layout: newspaper`):* ```yaml - dashboard: sales_performance title: Sales Performance Overview layout: newspaper preferred_viewer: dashboards-next elements: - name: total_revenue_tile title: Total Revenue Over Time model: ecommerce explore: orders type: looker_line fields: [orders.created_date, orders.total_revenue] sorts: [orders.created_date desc] limit: 500 row: 0 col: 0 width: 12 height: 8 - name: order_count_tile title: Top Countries by Orders model: ecommerce explore: orders type: looker_column fields: [users.country, orders.count] sorts: [orders.count desc] limit: 10 row: 0 col: 12 width: 12 height: 8 ``` *Note: Make sure the `model` and `explore` properties on each tile match the model and explore names defined in your project, and the `fields` use fully qualified `view_name.field_name` formats.* ### 3. Validate and Commit LookML Validate the project to ensure the dashboard syntax is perfect and has no reference errors: ```bash looker-cli api project validate_project {project_id} ``` If errors are returned, fix the LookML dashboard definition and re-validate until clean. ### 4. Import LookML Dashboard as UDD (CLI) Import the LookML dashboard into your target Folder as a User-Defined Dashboard (UDD). This converts it from a static file into a database-backed dashboard in Looker. 1. Construct the `lookml_dashboard_id` in the format `{model_name}::{dashboard_name}` (e.g. `ecommerce::sales_performance`). 2. **Ensure Dev Mode Workspace Context**: By default, Looker CLI sessions execute in the production workspace. Since your newly created dashboard exists only in Development Mode, you **MUST** switch the CLI session to the dev workspace immediately prior to importing/syncing. Chain the session update command to the import command: ```bash looker-cli session update dev && looker-cli dashboard import lookml {model_name}::{dashboard_name} {folder_id} ``` 3. The command will return a JSON object containing the details of the imported UDD. Record the dashboard numeric `id` (e.g., `45`) or `slug` from the response. ### 5. Validate Dashboard Content (SQL Query Verification Check) Looker's project validation only checks LookML syntax—it does **not** verify if the SQL queries for each tile execute successfully against the database. To guarantee that the dashboard is 100% free of query errors before presenting it to the user, you **MUST** retrieve and execute the query behind every single dashboard tile: 1. Retrieve the dashboard element details (specifically targeting `query_id`) for your newly imported UDD dashboard: ```bash looker-cli dashboard cat {udd_id} --fields "dashboard_elements(query_id)" ``` 2. For each unique `query_id` returned in the JSON results (excluding any null values from text tiles), execute the query to verify database correctness: ```bash looker-cli query runquery {query_id} ``` 3. Verify that each query executes successfully and returns data without SQL or database errors. If any query fails (indicating a database column mismatch, bad SQL dialect function, or GCP permission issue), you **MUST** resolve the issue in your LookML views, commit the changes, re-run `looker-cli api project validate_project {project_id}`, synchronize using `looker-cli dashboard sync lookml`, and re-verify using this sequence until all queries execute successfully. ### 6. Present and Iterate with User (Interactive Step) 1. Present the imported dashboard link to the user: `{instance_url}/dashboards/{udd_id}` (or `/dashboards-next/{udd_id}`). 2. **STOP AND ASK** the user for feedback on the layout, chart types, or labels: > "I have successfully built and imported your new dashboard! You can view > it here: {dashboard_url} > > Does this look good to you? Let me know if you'd like me to change any > chart types, add new metrics, or adjust the layout!" 3. **STOP AND WAIT** for the user's response. Do not call any tools. ### 7. Refine and Synchronize Changes If the user requests changes to the dashboard (e.g., "make the order count a bar chart instead of column," or "add a filter"): 1. Edit your local LookML dashboard file and update it on the Looker server: ```bash looker-cli project file update {project_id} dashboards/{dashboard_name}.dashboard.lookml /tmp/{dashboard_name}.dashboard.lookml ``` 2. Validate the project: ```bash looker-cli api project validate_project {project_id} ``` 3. Propagate your changes directly to the imported UDD dashboard using the CLI sync command: ```bash looker-cli dashboard sync lookml {model_name}::{dashboard_name} ``` 4. **Re-run Query Validation**: Run the query verification check again to ensure your refinements did not introduce any new SQL or database errors: - Fetch the UDD elements again (to capture any new tile queries): `looker dashboard cat {udd_id} --fields "dashboard_elements(query_id)"` - For each returned `query_id`, run the query to verify SQL correctness: `looker-cli query runquery {query_id}` 5. Ask the user to refresh their browser and review the changes. Repeat this loop until the user is fully satisfied!