DIAL Admin capabilities
DIAL Admin brings platform configuration and optional operational tools into one interface. This page maps its capabilities to the services they require; the linked Administering DIAL pages explain how to use each screen. For deployment and architecture, see DIAL Admin.
Core administration
With DIAL_CORE_API_URL configured, Admin calls DIAL Core directly using the user's token.
| Capability | Purpose | User guide |
|---|---|---|
| AI Gateway | Register models, applications, toolsets, routes, translators, application runners, and catalog schemas; configure endpoints, interfaces, pricing, and access. Inspect file-defined entries and manage entries in Core storage. | AI Gateway |
| Artifacts | Manage shared skills, files, conversations, and prompts. | Artifacts |
| Governance | Manage roles, API keys, folder permissions, interceptors, and publication review. Core enforces permissions and usage limits. | Governance |
| Global settings | Configure system-wide interceptors and other global properties. | System properties |
Core's Configuration API is Preview. Available screens and entity fields depend on the frontend and Core versions; see the Configuration API reference.
Optional operational services
| Capability | Purpose | Required service and configuration | User guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deployments | Build images; deploy, scale, and inspect models, applications, adapters, interceptors, and MCP servers; manage resources and firewall rules. | DIAL Deployment Manager; deployment settings. MCP containers use the same Deployments API. | Deployments |
| Evaluation [Preview] | Manage datasets and test suites, run model/application/MCP tests, and compare scores, cost, and timing. | DIAL Evaluations; evaluation settings. | Evaluation |
| Analytics [Preview] | Analyze usage in dashboards, query data, inspect sessions, and manage tables and enrichment/aggregation pipelines. | Analytics data-access service; optional enrichment runner and query assistant; analytics settings. | Analytics |
| Admin Backend screens and transfers | Use the Entities, Builders, and Access Management screens; the Audit group, with the telemetry Dashboards, Activity Audit, and Usage Log; and whole-configuration import/export. | Optional Admin Backend; backend settings. The legacy telemetry Dashboards read metrics through Admin Backend, from the InfluxDB that the legacy Analytics Realtime service writes; DIAL Analytics replaces them when Analytics Dashboards are enabled. Deployments and Analytics have their own transfer scopes. | Import/export workflows |
Optional service APIs must accept the user's identity-provider tokens and authorize the requested operations. Hiding a menu with DISABLE_MENU_ITEMS changes navigation; API authorization remains the responsibility of Core and each backend. Without Admin Backend, or with sign-in off, the interface treats every user as a full administrator.
Branding and observability
Admin supports custom themes and icons, home-page links to DIAL Chat and documentation, and a Grafana link. Its Next.js server exports OpenTelemetry traces and logs and exposes Prometheus metrics or pushes metrics over OTLP. These runtime signals are separate from the Analytics screens. See UI settings and OpenTelemetry.
Further reading
- Administering DIAL — use the Admin Panel
- Back up, restore, and set global properties — export, import, and global interceptors from the Admin home page
- Admin Frontend configuration — environment variables of the Admin Frontend server
- DIAL Deployment Manager — how the backend and MCP proxy manage workloads
- DIAL Evaluations — how the two evaluation services run and score test suites