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Getting started with Anaphora

This guide tells you how to install and configure Anaphora for automated Kibana and Grafana reporting.

What is Anaphora?​

Anaphora is a self-hostable reporting and alerting automation system. It 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)

Main principle​

Anaphora can automate any page that a person can reach in a browser.

To do this, Anaphora uses a headless Chrome-based connector. The connector does what a person does:

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

System architecture​

Anaphora processes each job run through four pipeline stages:

Core concepts​

Job​

The main configuration unit. A job runs periodically, and captures, composes, and delivers reports. You configure it in four tabs: General, Capture, Compose and Deliver.

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

Run​

One execution of a job. Anaphora logs each run with timestamps, success or failure status, error details, and the artifacts it produced.

Snapshot​

A capture of a web view. It is the whole page, or one 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). Many jobs can share one delivery interface.

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 with 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 that combine multiple data sources
  • S3 archiving for historical compliance records

Alerts​

  • High-frequency jobs (every 5-10 minutes) with notification throttling
  • Notifications only when a value exceeds its threshold
  • Anomaly detection by AI analysis, with summaries of the context

Multi-source reports​

  • 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 has a full set of browser automation actions for complex workflows.

Compliance and auditing​

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

Security features​

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

Trial and help​

Try PRO or Enterprise features

Get a free trial key. Activation is instant, and you do not need a credit card.

Questions? Join the community

Visit the Anaphora Forum to get help from the team and other users.

Next steps​