Backend

The Go backend lives under pkg/ and a complementary apps/ tree of Kubernetes-style API modules. It is responsible for HTTP/gRPC API serving, persistence, alert evaluation, plugin hosting, datasource query execution, and live streaming.

What's in pkg/

pkg/
├── api/                     # Legacy REST/HTTP handlers (one file per resource)
├── apis/                    # New k8s-style group/version/kind manifests
├── apimachinery/            # Shared k8s-flavored helpers
├── apiserver/               # apiserver scaffolding glue
├── aggregator/              # k8s aggregator-style routing
├── build/                   # Build helpers (used by `scripts/build/`)
├── cmd/grafana/             # Server binary entry point (main.go)
├── cmd/grafana-cli/         # CLI subcommands (admin, plugins, db, …)
├── cmd/grafana-server/      # `grafana server` subcommand
├── codegen/                 # Generators (CUE → Go, etc.)
├── components/              # Cross-cutting components (engine helpers)
├── expr/                    # Expression engine for alerting/server-side queries
├── extensions/              # Build-tag-gated enterprise extension hooks
├── infra/                   # Logging, tracing, metrics, DB connection
├── kinds/                   # Bridges legacy "kinds" registry
├── middleware/              # HTTP middleware (auth, recovery, request ID, …)
├── modules/                 # Optional service modes (e.g. backend-only)
├── operators/               # Pluggable side-process operators
├── plugins/                 # Plugin host (loader, registry, sandbox)
├── registry/                # Service registry (background services lifecycle)
├── server/                  # Wire DI graph + Server/HTTPServer init
├── services/                # Domain services (the bulk of business logic)
├── setting/                 # Configuration (INI parsing & defaults)
├── storage/                 # Unified storage layer (app-platform backend)
├── tests/                   # Cross-package integration test helpers
├── tsdb/                    # Backend datasource implementations
├── util/                    # Generic helpers (errutil, retry, …)
└── web/                     # HTTP routing primitives (mux, contexts)

pkg/services/ is the largest single tree in the repo with 73 service domains. Most services follow the same pattern: an interface + types in <svc>.go, a concrete implementation under <svc>impl/ (or directly), an HTTP boundary either embedded inside pkg/api/ or under a per-service api/, and a store/ (or database/) for SQL access.

Sub-pages

• API layer — pkg/api/ and HTTP routing.
• Services overview — survey of domains under pkg/services/.
• Authentication & access control — auth, authn, accesscontrol, sso, ldap, anonymous.
• Dashboards (backend) — folder/dashboard/library-element services.
• Alerting (ngalert) — pkg/services/ngalert/.
• Datasources & expressions — pkg/services/datasources, pkg/expr, plugin proxy.
• Plugin host — pkg/plugins/ and pkg/services/pluginsintegration/.
• TSDB query backends — pkg/tsdb/<name>/.
• SQL store and migrations — pkg/services/sqlstore/.
• Unified storage / app-platform — pkg/storage/, pkg/services/apiserver/.
• Server init and wiring — pkg/server/, pkg/registry/, pkg/modules/.
• Live streaming — pkg/services/live/.
• Feature management — pkg/services/featuremgmt/.

Key entry points

File	Role
pkg/cmd/grafana/main.go	Binary entry point — wires grafana cli and grafana server subcommands
pkg/cmd/grafana-server/commands/server.go	Server boot
pkg/server/server.go	Server struct that owns lifecycle
pkg/server/wire.go	Wire DI graph (regenerate with make gen-go)
pkg/api/api.go	Legacy REST route registration
pkg/api/http_server.go	HTTPServer container that holds dependencies for handlers
pkg/middleware/middleware.go	Request middleware chain
pkg/registry/registry.go	Background service lifecycle controller