Cover for scheduled recording rules, with observe, decide and act steps.

Recording rules store scheduled query results

A recording rule runs a PromQL expression at scheduled evaluation times and stores the result as a new metric. Repeated dashboard queries can then read that metric instead of recomputing the expression. Calling this a cache can obscure an important difference: the recorded series has its own sample history, cadence, and labels. It is not a transparent cache of every possible query request. ...

January 26, 2028 · 4 min · XB Field Notes
Cover for recording weighted service ratios, with observe, decide and act steps.

Recording rules should preserve the components of a ratio

Repeated service-level queries are good candidates for recording rules when their cost and reuse justify precomputation. The design question is what to store. Saving only an instance’s error percentage can discard the traffic volume needed for later aggregation. Saving error rates and request rates preserves the numerator and denominator, allowing consumers to calculate a correctly weighted service fraction. ...

August 31, 2027 · 5 min · XB Field Notes