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Getting Started with Anaphora

Welcome to Anaphora! This guide will help you install and configure Anaphora for automated Kibana and Grafana reporting.

What is Anaphora?​

Anaphora is a self-hostable reporting and alerting automation system that turns authenticated dashboards and web applications into:

  • Snapshots — Page or panel captures from Kibana, Grafana, or any web UI
  • Reports — PDFs assembled from snapshots with text, images, and custom layouts
  • Deliveries — Email, webhook, Slack, or S3 archiving
  • Alerts — High-frequency jobs that notify only on relevant findings (with throttling)

The Key Principle​

If a human can reach it in a browser, Anaphora can automate it.

The enabling technology is a headless Chrome-based connector that does what a human does:

  • Navigate to URLs
  • Authenticate (including complex SSO flows)
  • Click, type, and submit forms
  • Reach desired view states
  • Capture snapshots deterministically

System Architecture​

Anaphora processes each job run through four pipeline stages:

Core Concepts​

Job​

The main configuration unit — a periodic execution that captures, composes, and delivers reports. Configured across four tabs: General, Capture, Composer, and Delivery.

Job configuration showing the General tab with name, description, and timing settings

Run​

One execution of a job. Logged with timestamps, success/failure status, error details, and produced artifacts.

Snapshot​

A captured representation of a web view — either whole page or per-visualization (for Kibana dashboards).

Basic Capture tab showing connector, URL, authentication, and snapshot settings

Report​

A rendered PDF assembled from snapshots, text blocks, layout elements, and branding.

Delivery Interface​

A reusable destination configuration (webhook, SMTP, Mailgun, S3) that can be shared across jobs.

Space​

A "share-nothing" container that isolates jobs, delivery interfaces, AI providers, and artifacts for multi-tenant deployments.

Supported Connectors​

ConnectorStatusDescription
KibanaAvailableDashboards, Canvas, Discover with auto-detection
GrafanaAvailableDashboards and panels via API
Generic WebAvailableAny authenticated web application
MetabaseComing SoonMetabase dashboards and questions

Quick Start​

  1. Install Anaphora using Docker or your preferred method
  2. Configure your connections and settings
  3. Follow the Basic Examples to create your first job

Use Cases​

Scheduled Reports​

  • Daily Kibana dashboard snapshots for stakeholders
  • Weekly metric summaries from Grafana
  • Monthly trend reports combining multiple data sources
  • S3 archiving for historical compliance records

Intelligent Alerts​

  • High-frequency jobs (every 5-10 minutes) with notification throttling
  • Conditional notifications only when thresholds are exceeded
  • AI-analyzed anomaly detection with contextual summaries

Multi-Source Reports​

  • Combine captures from multiple dashboards in one report
  • Advanced capture workflows for complex navigation paths
  • Multi-step browser automation for authenticated applications

Advanced capture mode with available browser actions

Advanced mode provides a full suite of browser automation actions for complex workflows.

Compliance & Auditing​

  • Automated evidence capture for compliance requirements
  • Historical archive via S3 ("what did this dashboard look like on date X?")
  • Audit trails with timestamps and delivery confirmations

Security Features​

  • Encryption at rest for internal database
  • Enterprise authentication via LDAP, SAML, OpenID Connect
  • Role-based access control with Space isolation
  • Session management with admin visibility and forced logout
  • Self-monitoring with health API for external monitoring systems

Get Started Now​

🚀 Try PRO or Enterprise Features

Get a free trial key → — Instant activation, no credit card required.

💬 Questions? Join the Community

Visit the Anaphora Forum → — Get help from the team and other users.

Next Steps​