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Connect your New Relic account to enable CloudThinker agents to monitor application performance, inspect infrastructure, run NRQL queries, review alerts, and investigate incidents across your observability stack. New Relic authenticates with a User API key (NRAK-…) and connects through the New Relic AI MCP server, which must be enabled before connecting.

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Supported regions

RegionMCP endpoint
USmcp.newrelic.com
EUmcp.eu.newrelic.com
Select the region that matches your account. An EU account connected with the US region (or vice versa) will fail authentication or return empty results.

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Prerequisites

You need the New Relic AI MCP server enabled and a User API key (NRAK-…). Enable the New Relic AI MCP server: CloudThinker connects to New Relic through the New Relic AI MCP server, which is in public preview and must be turned on before connecting. Use with FedRAMP- or HIPAA-governed accounts is strictly prohibited per New Relic’s terms.
  1. In New Relic, click your username in the bottom-left corner.
  2. Go to Administration → Previews & Trials.
  3. Enable the New Relic AI MCP server preview toggle.
Create a User API key:
  1. Open API keys (user menu → API keys, or go to one.newrelic.com/api-keys; EU: one.eu.newrelic.com/api-keys).
  2. Click Create a key and set Key type to User.
  3. Name it (e.g., CloudThinker) and save.
  4. Copy the key value — the full NRAK-… key is shown only once at creation.
Use a User API key (NRAK-…). License, ingest, and query keys are for data ingestion and will not work for querying — this is the most common setup mistake.

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Setup

1

Open CloudThinker

Navigate to Connections → New Relic in your CloudThinker workspace and click Connect New Relic.
2

Name the connection

Enter an Alias (a unique identifier for this instance, e.g. production) and a Description.
3

Enter the API key

Paste your New Relic User API key (NRAK-…).
4

Select the region

Choose US (mcp.newrelic.com) or EU (mcp.eu.newrelic.com) to match your New Relic account.
5

Connect

Click Connect. CloudThinker verifies the credentials and shows a Connected status.

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Connection details

FieldDescriptionExample
NEWRELIC_API_KEYYour New Relic User API key (NRAK- prefix)NRAK-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
NEWRELIC_REGIONThe region that matches your accountUS / EU

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Required permissions

The User API key inherits the permissions of the user it belongs to. For least-privilege, scope that user to read-only access.
For MCP server access, the key’s user must be in a group assigned Organization Read Only, Organization Manager, or Organization Product Admin — or a custom role granting the MCP read permission. For least privilege, use Organization Read Only. For NRQL and NerdGraph querying, a read-only role is sufficient.

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Agent capabilities

Once connected, agents can query and investigate across your New Relic environment.
CapabilityWhat the agent can do
APMInspect application performance — throughput, error rates, and transaction traces
InfrastructureList hosts and containers, review resource utilization
NRQLRun NRQL queries via NerdGraph against any telemetry
AlertsReview alert policies, conditions, and open violations
LogsSearch and analyze logs across services and environments
EntitiesDiscover and inspect monitored entities and services
IncidentsInvestigate open issues and retrieve full incident detail
DashboardsInspect dashboard configurations
Connection healthValidate that the New Relic connection is working

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Verify the connection

@alex verify the New Relic connection and list monitored entity types and any open alert violations

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Example prompts

@alex check error rates for the checkout service in New Relic over the last hour
@alex run an NRQL query for the slowest transactions in the production app
@alex list open New Relic alert violations and investigate the root cause

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Troubleshooting

Verify you are using a User API key (NRAK-…), not a license, ingest, or query key. Confirm the key was not deleted or rotated in New Relic and that the key’s user still has access to the account.
Check that the selected region matches your account — EU accounts must use the EU endpoint. Disconnect and reconnect with the correct region.
The key’s user may lack the MCP-server read role. Assign Organization Read Only, Organization Manager, Organization Product Admin, or a custom organization-scoped role with MCP read permission. Confirm the user has access to the account whose data you expect.
Confirm the New Relic AI MCP server preview is enabled under Administration → Previews & Trials. The connection cannot function until the preview is turned on.

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Security

  • Least privilege — grant only the permissions the agents need for your use case; start read-only and widen later.
  • Read-only by default — use read-only credentials unless you want agents to make changes through this connection.
  • Rotate credentials — rotate keys and tokens on your normal schedule; CloudThinker picks up the new value when you update the connection.
  • Revoke on offboarding — remove the credential at the provider when you delete a connection or a teammate leaves.
  • User API key only — use a User key (NRAK-…); license, ingest, and query keys do not authenticate MCP requests.
  • Dedicated read-only service user — create the key under a read-only user so the key inherits minimal permissions.
https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/datadog.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=e8382167f2a1eb1e00971b5f4d703d48

Datadog Connection

Alternative APM and observability
https://mintcdn.com/cloudthinker/aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky/images/icons/grafana.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=aLd-ttc-SCW-aFky&q=85&s=c1329049025cd3c3a0909b400baef7be

Grafana Connection

Metrics and dashboards