Knowledge base/Best practices

Naming conventions

Metrics

<namespace>_<subsystem>_<name>_<unit> — for example system_cpu_usage_percent, http_requests_total, db_query_duration_seconds.

Labels

snake_case, latin + digits + underscore.

Avoid

  • Long labels (>50 characters) — overhead on every sample
  • High cardinality (user_id, session_id, timestamps) — see cardinality-management
  • Reserved: __name__, organization_id, agent_id — managed by the server