Prometheus Configuration

When to use this skill

Use Prometheus Configuration when an AI agent needs a reusable SKILL.md workflow for this job: Set up Prometheus for comprehensive metric collection, storage, and monitoring of infrastructure and applications. Use when implementing metrics collection, setting up monitoring infrastructure, or configuring alerting systems.

When not to use it

Skip Prometheus Configuration when the task is outside the coding category, or when a more specific skill in this directory already covers the same workflow with clearer triggers.

How to install

1. Personal install: create ~/.claude/skills/prometheus-configuration/SKILL.md (and any bundled scripts) so Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and compatible agents can load it in every project.
2. Project install: commit the same folder at .claude/skills/prometheus-configuration/ so teammates get the skill with the repo.
3. Restart the agent session after copying files so it re-scans the skills directory, then ask for the task in words that match the skill description.

Full install guide for Claude, Cursor, and Codex

What this skill does

# Prometheus Configuration

Complete guide to Prometheus setup, metric collection, scrape configuration, and recording rules.

## Purpose

Configure Prometheus for comprehensive metric collection, alerting, and monitoring of infrastructure and applications.

## When to Use

- Set up Prometheus monitoring - Configure metric scraping - Create recording rules - Design alert rules - Implement service discovery

## Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in `references/details.md`. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

## Best Practices

1. **Use consistent naming** for metrics (prefix_name_unit) 2. **Set appropriate scrape intervals** (15-60s typical) 3. **Use recording rules** for expensive queries 4. **Implement high availability** (multiple Prometheus instances) 5. **Configure retention** based on storage capacity 6. **Use relabeling** for metric cleanup 7. **Monitor Prometheus itself** 8. **Implement federation** for large deployments 9. **Use Thanos/Cortex** for long-term storage 10. **Document custom metrics**

## Troubleshooting

**Check scrape targets:**

```bash curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/targets ```

**Check configuration:**

```bash curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/status/config ```

**Test query:**

```bash curl 'http://localhost:9090/api/v1/query?query=up' ```

## Related Skills

- `grafana-dashboards` - For visualization - `slo-implementation` - For SLO monitoring - `distributed-tracing` - For request tracing

Intended uses

• Set up Prometheus monitoring
• Configure metric scraping
• Create recording rules
• Design alert rules
• Implement service discovery