Editing is not publishing
A saved owner dashboard can contain private operational context. The publishing action therefore constructs a new public representation rather than copying the database record directly. A query can be valid PromQL and still unsuitable for public use, so membership in the Git-managed registry is required.
Preventing synchronization conflicts
Provisioning and interactive editing cannot safely share a mutable identity: the next file sync can overwrite UI changes. Distinct source, workspace and published identities make that ownership visible. A published PR does not mutate the owner copy, and a daily source update cannot replace its contents.
Scope and limitations
Grafana Cloud plugins may not run in OSS; originals remain accessible through their Cloud links. Publishing supports reviewed native metric panels, not arbitrary plugins or dashboard scripts. The owner proxy grants an editor identity while Cloud datasource access remains read-only, preserving Cloud alert and notification ownership.
Grafana provisioning matches names while enforcing unique UIDs. Preserving saved names prevents a Cloud rename from being interpreted as a new datasource, and explicit health gates detect failures after systemd starts.