| name | building-a-dashboard |
| description | Build a new dashboard, or update an existing one, from a set of insights — the same job the in-app assistant does with its upsert-dashboard tool, but over MCP. Use when a user asks to create a dashboard, put several metrics/charts together on one page, assemble a dashboard for a topic (product analytics, retention, revenue, activation, etc.), or add/remove/replace insights on a dashboard they already have. Covers deciding create vs update, reusing existing insights vs creating new ones, and using PostHog's vetted dashboard templates as reference for what a strong dashboard on a topic looks like.
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Building a dashboard
A dashboard is a collection of insight tiles on one page. Your job is to figure out which insights belong on it,
reuse what already exists, create what's missing, and lay them out sensibly — not to blindly generate charts.
Create vs update
First work out whether you're creating a new dashboard or changing an existing one.
- Search existing dashboards with
dashboards-get-all (its search param does fuzzy name/description matching). If the
user is clearly describing something that already exists, they probably want an update.
- Read a candidate with
dashboard-get to see its current tiles before you change anything.
- If the request is ambiguous — "get my financial metrics together" could mean build new or add to an existing one —
ask a short clarifying question rather than guessing.
Use templates as reference
PostHog ships vetted dashboard templates for common topics, and orgs can share their own. Consult them before you
build — they're a strong signal of which insights pair well on a topic.
dashboard-templates-list — browse templates (use search for a topic, scope to narrow to global / team /
organization). This returns names, descriptions, and tags only.dashboard-templates-retrieve — open the closest template to see its tiles: which insights it groups together and
how each is queried.
Treat templates as examples, not a spec. Take inspiration from the insights and their groupings, but tailor every
insight to the user's own events, properties, and intent. Don't copy a template verbatim, and don't force a template
onto a request it doesn't fit — a good bespoke dashboard beats a mismatched template every time.
Select the insights
Prefer reusing existing insights over recreating them.
- Search with
insights-list and read promising ones with insight-get to check they match the user's intent and
actually have data. Full-text search misses things named differently, so list broadly before concluding an insight
doesn't exist.
- For anything missing, create it with
insight-create (see the product-analytics insight skills for query shape).
- Keep the set minimal — only the insights the request needs. A focused dashboard is more useful than an exhaustive one.
Assemble the dashboard
- New dashboard:
dashboard-create with a short (3–7 word) name and a concise description, then add the insight tiles.
- Existing dashboard:
dashboard-update. Adding, replacing, or removing insights means sending the full intended set of
tiles — insights you omit are removed, so include the ones you want to keep.
- Layout: by default preserve existing tile placement. Only reflow (
dashboard-reorder-tiles) when the user explicitly
asks to rearrange, reorder, or move tiles.
- Verify with
dashboard-insights-run to confirm the tiles return data, then summarize what you built and invite the
user to refine it.
When not to use this
- Saving a single insight — just create the insight; it doesn't need a dashboard.
- Adding non-insight widget tiles (text cards, widgets) — see the widget tools (
dashboard-widget-catalog-list,
dashboard-widgets-batch-add) instead.
