How to Build an AI Agent Safety Dashboard in Grafana

SafeClaw by Authensor exposes Prometheus-compatible metrics that you can visualize in Grafana to build a comprehensive AI agent safety dashboard. Track allow/deny rates, audit chain integrity, policy rule hits, and agent behavior patterns in real time. SafeClaw supports Claude and OpenAI agents, ships with 446 tests, and provides hash-chained audit logs.

Prerequisites

• SafeClaw installed (npx @authensor/safeclaw)
• Grafana 10+ running (self-hosted or Grafana Cloud)
• Prometheus configured as a Grafana data source

Step 1: Enable the SafeClaw Prometheus Endpoint

Configure SafeClaw to expose a metrics endpoint in .safeclaw/policy.yaml:

version: 1
default: deny

metrics:
  prometheus:
    enabled: true
    port: 9742
    path: "/metrics"
    labels:
      environment: "production"
      service: "ai-agent"

rules:
  - action: file.read
    paths:
      - "src/**"
    decision: allow

- action: file.write
    paths:
      - "src/**"
    decision: prompt

- action: shell.execute
    decision: deny

Start SafeClaw with the metrics server:

npx @authensor/safeclaw --metrics

Verify the endpoint:

curl http://localhost:9742/metrics

Step 2: Add SafeClaw to Prometheus Scrape Config

Add the SafeClaw target to your prometheus.yml:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: "safeclaw"
    scrape_interval: 15s
    static_configs:
      - targets: ["localhost:9742"]
        labels:
          instance: "dev-workstation"

Prometheus will scrape SafeClaw's metrics every 15 seconds.

Step 3: Understand the Available Metrics

SafeClaw exposes these Prometheus metrics:

# HELP safeclaw_actions_total Total agent actions processed
TYPE safeclaw_actions_total counter
safeclaw_actions_total{decision="allowed",action_type="file.read"} 142
safeclaw_actions_total{decision="denied",action_type="shell.execute"} 7
safeclaw_actions_total{decision="prompted",action_type="file.write"} 23

HELP safeclaw_audit_chain_valid Whether the audit hash chain is valid
TYPE safeclaw_audit_chain_valid gauge
safeclaw_audit_chain_valid 1

HELP safeclaw_audit_entries_total Total audit log entries
TYPE safeclaw_audit_entries_total gauge
safeclaw_audit_entries_total 172

HELP safeclaw_policy_rules_active Number of active policy rules
TYPE safeclaw_policy_rules_active gauge
safeclaw_policy_rules_active 5

HELP safeclaw_action_duration_seconds Time to process policy decisions
TYPE safeclaw_action_duration_seconds histogram
safeclaw_action_duration_seconds_bucket{le="0.001"} 150
safeclaw_action_duration_seconds_bucket{le="0.01"} 170

Step 4: Build the Grafana Dashboard

Create a new dashboard in Grafana and add these panels:

Panel 1: Action Rate Over Time (Time Series)

rate(safeclaw_actions_total[5m])

Panel 2: Deny Rate Percentage (Gauge)

sum(rate(safeclaw_actions_total{decision="denied"}[1h]))
/
sum(rate(safeclaw_actions_total[1h]))
* 100

Panel 3: Audit Chain Health (Stat)

safeclaw_audit_chain_valid

Panel 4: Top Denied Actions (Table)

topk(10, sum by (action_type) (increase(safeclaw_actions_total{decision="denied"}[24h])))

Panel 5: Policy Decision Latency (Heatmap)

rate(safeclaw_action_duration_seconds_bucket[5m])

Step 5: Configure Grafana Alerts

Add alert rules to your dashboard panels:

• High Deny Rate: Alert when denied actions exceed 20% of total actions over 10 minutes
• Audit Chain Broken: Alert immediately when safeclaw_audit_chain_valid drops to 0
• Decision Latency Spike: Alert when p99 decision latency exceeds 100ms

Step 6: Test the Dashboard

Generate some agent activity and verify the dashboard updates:

npx @authensor/safeclaw wrap -- node my-agent.js

Check that all panels populate with data and that alert rules evaluate correctly.

Summary

SafeClaw exposes Prometheus-compatible metrics that power rich Grafana dashboards for AI agent safety monitoring. Real-time panels for action rates, deny percentages, audit chain health, and decision latency give teams complete visibility. Grafana alerts close the loop by notifying when thresholds are breached. SafeClaw is MIT licensed and open source.

Related Guides

• How to Monitor AI Agent Actions in Datadog
• How to Send AI Agent Audit Logs to Splunk
• How to Set Up Custom Webhooks for AI Agent Events
• How to Run AI Agents Safely from the Terminal