--- title: HTTP API sort_rank: 7 --- # HTTP API The current stable HTTP API is reachable under `/api/v1` on a Prometheus server. Any non-breaking additions will be added under that endpoint. ## Format overview The API response format is JSON. Every successful API request returns a `2xx` status code. Invalid requests that reach the API handlers return a JSON error object and one of the following HTTP response codes: - `400 Bad Request` when parameters are missing or incorrect. - `422 Unprocessable Entity` when an expression can't be executed ([RFC4918](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4918#page-78)). - `503 Service Unavailable` when queries time out or abort. Other non-`2xx` codes may be returned for errors occurring before the API endpoint is reached. An array of warnings may be returned if there are errors that do not inhibit the request execution. All of the data that was successfully collected will be returned in the data field. The JSON response envelope format is as follows: ``` { "status": "success" | "error", "data": , // Only set if status is "error". The data field may still hold // additional data. "errorType": "", "error": "", // Only if there were warnings while executing the request. // There will still be data in the data field. "warnings": [""] } ``` Generic placeholders are defined as follows: * ``: Input timestamps may be provided either in [RFC3339](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3339.txt) format or as a Unix timestamp in seconds, with optional decimal places for sub-second precision. Output timestamps are always represented as Unix timestamps in seconds. * ``: Prometheus [time series selectors](basics.md#time-series-selectors) like `http_requests_total` or `http_requests_total{method=~"(GET|POST)"}` and need to be URL-encoded. * ``: [Prometheus duration strings](basics.md#time_durations). For example, `5m` refers to a duration of 5 minutes. * ``: boolean values (strings `true` and `false`). Note: Names of query parameters that may be repeated end with `[]`. ## Expression queries Query language expressions may be evaluated at a single instant or over a range of time. The sections below describe the API endpoints for each type of expression query. ### Instant queries The following endpoint evaluates an instant query at a single point in time: ``` GET /api/v1/query POST /api/v1/query ``` URL query parameters: - `query=`: Prometheus expression query string. - `time=`: Evaluation timestamp. Optional. - `timeout=`: Evaluation timeout. Optional. Defaults to and is capped by the value of the `-query.timeout` flag. The current server time is used if the `time` parameter is omitted. You can URL-encode these parameters directly in the request body by using the `POST` method and `Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded` header. This is useful when specifying a large query that may breach server-side URL character limits. The `data` section of the query result has the following format: ``` { "resultType": "matrix" | "vector" | "scalar" | "string", "result": } ``` `` refers to the query result data, which has varying formats depending on the `resultType`. See the [expression query result formats](#expression-query-result-formats). The following example evaluates the expression `up` at the time `2015-07-01T20:10:51.781Z`: ```json $ curl 'http://localhost:9090/api/v1/query?query=up&time=2015-07-01T20:10:51.781Z' { "status" : "success", "data" : { "resultType" : "vector", "result" : [ { "metric" : { "__name__" : "up", "job" : "prometheus", "instance" : "localhost:9090" }, "value": [ 1435781451.781, "1" ] }, { "metric" : { "__name__" : "up", "job" : "node", "instance" : "localhost:9100" }, "value" : [ 1435781451.781, "0" ] } ] } } ``` ### Range queries The following endpoint evaluates an expression query over a range of time: ``` GET /api/v1/query_range POST /api/v1/query_range ``` URL query parameters: - `query=`: Prometheus expression query string. - `start=`: Start timestamp. - `end=`: End timestamp. - `step=`: Query resolution step width in `duration` format or float number of seconds. - `timeout=`: Evaluation timeout. Optional. Defaults to and is capped by the value of the `-query.timeout` flag. You can URL-encode these parameters directly in the request body by using the `POST` method and `Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded` header. This is useful when specifying a large query that may breach server-side URL character limits. The `data` section of the query result has the following format: ``` { "resultType": "matrix", "result": } ``` For the format of the `` placeholder, see the [range-vector result format](#range-vectors). The following example evaluates the expression `up` over a 30-second range with a query resolution of 15 seconds. ```json $ curl 'http://localhost:9090/api/v1/query_range?query=up&start=2015-07-01T20:10:30.781Z&end=2015-07-01T20:11:00.781Z&step=15s' { "status" : "success", "data" : { "resultType" : "matrix", "result" : [ { "metric" : { "__name__" : "up", "job" : "prometheus", "instance" : "localhost:9090" }, "values" : [ [ 1435781430.781, "1" ], [ 1435781445.781, "1" ], [ 1435781460.781, "1" ] ] }, { "metric" : { "__name__" : "up", "job" : "node", "instance" : "localhost:9091" }, "values" : [ [ 1435781430.781, "0" ], [ 1435781445.781, "0" ], [ 1435781460.781, "1" ] ] } ] } } ``` ## Querying metadata Prometheus offers a set of API endpoints to query metadata about series and their labels. NOTE: These API endpoints may return metadata for series for which there is no sample within the selected time range, and/or for series whose samples have been marked as deleted via the deletion API endpoint. The exact extent of additionally returned series metadata is an implementation detail that may change in the future. ### Finding series by label matchers The following endpoint returns the list of time series that match a certain label set. ``` GET /api/v1/series POST /api/v1/series ``` URL query parameters: - `match[]=`: Repeated series selector argument that selects the series to return. At least one `match[]` argument must be provided. - `start=`: Start timestamp. - `end=`: End timestamp. You can URL-encode these parameters directly in the request body by using the `POST` method and `Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded` header. This is useful when specifying a large or dynamic number of series selectors that may breach server-side URL character limits. The `data` section of the query result consists of a list of objects that contain the label name/value pairs which identify each series. The following example returns all series that match either of the selectors `up` or `process_start_time_seconds{job="prometheus"}`: ```json $ curl -g 'http://localhost:9090/api/v1/series?' --data-urlencode 'match[]=up' --data-urlencode 'match[]=process_start_time_seconds{job="prometheus"}' { "status" : "success", "data" : [ { "__name__" : "up", "job" : "prometheus", "instance" : "localhost:9090" }, { "__name__" : "up", "job" : "node", "instance" : "localhost:9091" }, { "__name__" : "process_start_time_seconds", "job" : "prometheus", "instance" : "localhost:9090" } ] } ``` ### Getting label names The following endpoint returns a list of label names: ``` GET /api/v1/labels POST /api/v1/labels ``` URL query parameters: - `start=`: Start timestamp. Optional. - `end=`: End timestamp. Optional. - `match[]=`: Repeated series selector argument that selects the series from which to read the label names. Optional. The `data` section of the JSON response is a list of string label names. Here is an example. ```json $ curl 'localhost:9090/api/v1/labels' { "status": "success", "data": [ "__name__", "call", "code", "config", "dialer_name", "endpoint", "event", "goversion", "handler", "instance", "interval", "job", "le", "listener_name", "name", "quantile", "reason", "role", "scrape_job", "slice", "version" ] } ``` ### Querying label values The following endpoint returns a list of label values for a provided label name: ``` GET /api/v1/label//values ``` URL query parameters: - `start=`: Start timestamp. Optional. - `end=`: End timestamp. Optional. - `match[]=`: Repeated series selector argument that selects the series from which to read the label values. Optional. The `data` section of the JSON response is a list of string label values. This example queries for all label values for the `job` label: ```json $ curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/label/job/values { "status" : "success", "data" : [ "node", "prometheus" ] } ``` ## Expression query result formats Expression queries may return the following response values in the `result` property of the `data` section. `` placeholders are numeric sample values. JSON does not support special float values such as `NaN`, `Inf`, and `-Inf`, so sample values are transferred as quoted JSON strings rather than raw numbers. ### Range vectors Range vectors are returned as result type `matrix`. The corresponding `result` property has the following format: ``` [ { "metric": { "": "", ... }, "values": [ [ , "" ], ... ] }, ... ] ``` ### Instant vectors Instant vectors are returned as result type `vector`. The corresponding `result` property has the following format: ``` [ { "metric": { "": "", ... }, "value": [ , "" ] }, ... ] ``` ### Scalars Scalar results are returned as result type `scalar`. The corresponding `result` property has the following format: ``` [ , "" ] ``` ### Strings String results are returned as result type `string`. The corresponding `result` property has the following format: ``` [ , "" ] ``` ## Targets The following endpoint returns an overview of the current state of the Prometheus target discovery: ``` GET /api/v1/targets ``` Both the active and dropped targets are part of the response by default. `labels` represents the label set after relabelling has occurred. `discoveredLabels` represent the unmodified labels retrieved during service discovery before relabelling has occurred. ```json $ curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/targets { "status": "success", "data": { "activeTargets": [ { "discoveredLabels": { "__address__": "127.0.0.1:9090", "__metrics_path__": "/metrics", "__scheme__": "http", "job": "prometheus" }, "labels": { "instance": "127.0.0.1:9090", "job": "prometheus" }, "scrapePool": "prometheus", "scrapeUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics", "lastError": "", "lastScrape": "2017-01-17T15:07:44.723715405+01:00", "lastScrapeDuration": 0.050688943, "health": "up" } ], "droppedTargets": [ { "discoveredLabels": { "__address__": "127.0.0.1:9100", "__metrics_path__": "/metrics", "__scheme__": "http", "job": "node" }, } ] } } ``` The `state` query parameter allows the caller to filter by active or dropped targets, (e.g., `state=active`, `state=dropped`, `state=any`). Note that an empty array is still returned for targets that are filtered out. Other values are ignored. ```json $ curl 'http://localhost:9090/api/v1/targets?state=active' { "status": "success", "data": { "activeTargets": [ { "discoveredLabels": { "__address__": "127.0.0.1:9090", "__metrics_path__": "/metrics", "__scheme__": "http", "job": "prometheus" }, "labels": { "instance": "127.0.0.1:9090", "job": "prometheus" }, "scrapePool": "prometheus", "scrapeUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:9090/metrics", "lastError": "", "lastScrape": "2017-01-17T15:07:44.723715405+01:00", "lastScrapeDuration": 50688943, "health": "up" } ], "droppedTargets": [] } } ``` ## Rules The `/rules` API endpoint returns a list of alerting and recording rules that are currently loaded. In addition it returns the currently active alerts fired by the Prometheus instance of each alerting rule. As the `/rules` endpoint is fairly new, it does not have the same stability guarantees as the overarching API v1. ``` GET /api/v1/rules ``` URL query parameters: - `type=alert|record`: return only the alerting rules (e.g. `type=alert`) or the recording rules (e.g. `type=record`). When the parameter is absent or empty, no filtering is done. ```json $ curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/rules { "data": { "groups": [ { "rules": [ { "alerts": [ { "activeAt": "2018-07-04T20:27:12.60602144+02:00", "annotations": { "summary": "High request latency" }, "labels": { "alertname": "HighRequestLatency", "severity": "page" }, "state": "firing", "value": "1e+00" } ], "annotations": { "summary": "High request latency" }, "duration": 600, "health": "ok", "labels": { "severity": "page" }, "name": "HighRequestLatency", "query": "job:request_latency_seconds:mean5m{job=\"myjob\"} > 0.5", "type": "alerting" }, { "health": "ok", "name": "job:http_inprogress_requests:sum", "query": "sum by (job) (http_inprogress_requests)", "type": "recording" } ], "file": "/rules.yaml", "interval": 60, "name": "example" } ] }, "status": "success" } ``` ## Alerts The `/alerts` endpoint returns a list of all active alerts. As the `/alerts` endpoint is fairly new, it does not have the same stability guarantees as the overarching API v1. ``` GET /api/v1/alerts ``` ```json $ curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/alerts { "data": { "alerts": [ { "activeAt": "2018-07-04T20:27:12.60602144+02:00", "annotations": {}, "labels": { "alertname": "my-alert" }, "state": "firing", "value": "1e+00" } ] }, "status": "success" } ``` ## Querying target metadata The following endpoint returns metadata about metrics currently scraped from targets. This is **experimental** and might change in the future. ``` GET /api/v1/targets/metadata ``` URL query parameters: - `match_target=`: Label selectors that match targets by their label sets. All targets are selected if left empty. - `metric=`: A metric name to retrieve metadata for. All metric metadata is retrieved if left empty. - `limit=`: Maximum number of targets to match. The `data` section of the query result consists of a list of objects that contain metric metadata and the target label set. The following example returns all metadata entries for the `go_goroutines` metric from the first two targets with label `job="prometheus"`. ```json curl -G http://localhost:9091/api/v1/targets/metadata \ --data-urlencode 'metric=go_goroutines' \ --data-urlencode 'match_target={job="prometheus"}' \ --data-urlencode 'limit=2' { "status": "success", "data": [ { "target": { "instance": "127.0.0.1:9090", "job": "prometheus" }, "type": "gauge", "help": "Number of goroutines that currently exist.", "unit": "" }, { "target": { "instance": "127.0.0.1:9091", "job": "prometheus" }, "type": "gauge", "help": "Number of goroutines that currently exist.", "unit": "" } ] } ``` The following example returns metadata for all metrics for all targets with label `instance="127.0.0.1:9090`. ```json curl -G http://localhost:9091/api/v1/targets/metadata \ --data-urlencode 'match_target={instance="127.0.0.1:9090"}' { "status": "success", "data": [ // ... { "target": { "instance": "127.0.0.1:9090", "job": "prometheus" }, "metric": "prometheus_treecache_zookeeper_failures_total", "type": "counter", "help": "The total number of ZooKeeper failures.", "unit": "" }, { "target": { "instance": "127.0.0.1:9090", "job": "prometheus" }, "metric": "prometheus_tsdb_reloads_total", "type": "counter", "help": "Number of times the database reloaded block data from disk.", "unit": "" }, // ... ] } ``` ## Querying metric metadata It returns metadata about metrics currently scrapped from targets. However, it does not provide any target information. This is considered **experimental** and might change in the future. ``` GET /api/v1/metadata ``` URL query parameters: - `limit=`: Maximum number of metrics to return. - `metric=`: A metric name to filter metadata for. All metric metadata is retrieved if left empty. The `data` section of the query result consists of an object where each key is a metric name and each value is a list of unique metadata objects, as exposed for that metric name across all targets. The following example returns two metrics. Note that the metric `http_requests_total` has more than one object in the list. At least one target has a value for `HELP` that do not match with the rest. ```json curl -G http://localhost:9090/api/v1/metadata?limit=2 { "status": "success", "data": { "cortex_ring_tokens": [ { "type": "gauge", "help": "Number of tokens in the ring", "unit": "" } ], "http_requests_total": [ { "type": "counter", "help": "Number of HTTP requests", "unit": "" }, { "type": "counter", "help": "Amount of HTTP requests", "unit": "" } ] } } ``` The following example returns metadata only for the metric `http_requests_total`. ```json curl -G http://localhost:9090/api/v1/metadata?metric=http_requests_total { "status": "success", "data": { "http_requests_total": [ { "type": "counter", "help": "Number of HTTP requests", "unit": "" }, { "type": "counter", "help": "Amount of HTTP requests", "unit": "" } ] } } ``` ## Alertmanagers The following endpoint returns an overview of the current state of the Prometheus alertmanager discovery: ``` GET /api/v1/alertmanagers ``` Both the active and dropped Alertmanagers are part of the response. ```json $ curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/alertmanagers { "status": "success", "data": { "activeAlertmanagers": [ { "url": "http://127.0.0.1:9090/api/v1/alerts" } ], "droppedAlertmanagers": [ { "url": "http://127.0.0.1:9093/api/v1/alerts" } ] } } ``` ## Status Following status endpoints expose current Prometheus configuration. ### Config The following endpoint returns currently loaded configuration file: ``` GET /api/v1/status/config ``` The config is returned as dumped YAML file. Due to limitation of the YAML library, YAML comments are not included. ```json $ curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/status/config { "status": "success", "data": { "yaml": "", } } ``` ### Flags The following endpoint returns flag values that Prometheus was configured with: ``` GET /api/v1/status/flags ``` All values are of the result type `string`. ```json $ curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/status/flags { "status": "success", "data": { "alertmanager.notification-queue-capacity": "10000", "alertmanager.timeout": "10s", "log.level": "info", "query.lookback-delta": "5m", "query.max-concurrency": "20", ... } } ``` *New in v2.2* ### Runtime Information The following endpoint returns various runtime information properties about the Prometheus server: ``` GET /api/v1/status/runtimeinfo ``` The returned values are of different types, depending on the nature of the runtime property. ```json $ curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/status/runtimeinfo { "status": "success", "data": { "startTime": "2019-11-02T17:23:59.301361365+01:00", "CWD": "/", "reloadConfigSuccess": true, "lastConfigTime": "2019-11-02T17:23:59+01:00", "timeSeriesCount": 873, "corruptionCount": 0, "goroutineCount": 48, "GOMAXPROCS": 4, "GOGC": "", "GODEBUG": "", "storageRetention": "15d" } } ``` NOTE: The exact returned runtime properties may change without notice between Prometheus versions. *New in v2.14* ### Build Information The following endpoint returns various build information properties about the Prometheus server: ``` GET /api/v1/status/buildinfo ``` All values are of the result type `string`. ```json $ curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/status/buildinfo { "status": "success", "data": { "version": "2.13.1", "revision": "cb7cbad5f9a2823a622aaa668833ca04f50a0ea7", "branch": "master", "buildUser": "julius@desktop", "buildDate": "20191102-16:19:59", "goVersion": "go1.13.1" } } ``` NOTE: The exact returned build properties may change without notice between Prometheus versions. *New in v2.14* ### TSDB Stats The following endpoint returns various cardinality statistics about the Prometheus TSDB: ``` GET /api/v1/status/tsdb ``` - **headStats**: This provides the following data about the head block of the TSDB: - **numSeries**: The number of series. - **chunkCount**: The number of chunks. - **minTime**: The current minimum timestamp in milliseconds. - **maxTime**: The current maximum timestamp in milliseconds. - **seriesCountByMetricName:** This will provide a list of metrics names and their series count. - **labelValueCountByLabelName:** This will provide a list of the label names and their value count. - **memoryInBytesByLabelName** This will provide a list of the label names and memory used in bytes. Memory usage is calculated by adding the length of all values for a given label name. - **seriesCountByLabelPair** This will provide a list of label value pairs and their series count. ```json $ curl http://localhost:9090/api/v1/status/tsdb { "status": "success", "data": { "headStats": { "numSeries": 508, "chunkCount": 937, "minTime": 1591516800000, "maxTime": 1598896800143, }, "seriesCountByMetricName": [ { "name": "net_conntrack_dialer_conn_failed_total", "value": 20 }, { "name": "prometheus_http_request_duration_seconds_bucket", "value": 20 } ], "labelValueCountByLabelName": [ { "name": "__name__", "value": 211 }, { "name": "event", "value": 3 } ], "memoryInBytesByLabelName": [ { "name": "__name__", "value": 8266 }, { "name": "instance", "value": 28 } ], "seriesCountByLabelValuePair": [ { "name": "job=prometheus", "value": 425 }, { "name": "instance=localhost:9090", "value": 425 } ] } } ``` *New in v2.15* ## TSDB Admin APIs These are APIs that expose database functionalities for the advanced user. These APIs are not enabled unless the `--web.enable-admin-api` is set. ### Snapshot Snapshot creates a snapshot of all current data into `snapshots/-` under the TSDB's data directory and returns the directory as response. It will optionally skip snapshotting data that is only present in the head block, and which has not yet been compacted to disk. ``` POST /api/v1/admin/tsdb/snapshot PUT /api/v1/admin/tsdb/snapshot ``` URL query parameters: - `skip_head=`: Skip data present in the head block. Optional. ```json $ curl -XPOST http://localhost:9090/api/v1/admin/tsdb/snapshot { "status": "success", "data": { "name": "20171210T211224Z-2be650b6d019eb54" } } ``` The snapshot now exists at `/snapshots/20171210T211224Z-2be650b6d019eb54` *New in v2.1 and supports PUT from v2.9* ### Delete Series DeleteSeries deletes data for a selection of series in a time range. The actual data still exists on disk and is cleaned up in future compactions or can be explicitly cleaned up by hitting the [Clean Tombstones](#clean-tombstones) endpoint. If successful, a `204` is returned. ``` POST /api/v1/admin/tsdb/delete_series PUT /api/v1/admin/tsdb/delete_series ``` URL query parameters: - `match[]=`: Repeated label matcher argument that selects the series to delete. At least one `match[]` argument must be provided. - `start=`: Start timestamp. Optional and defaults to minimum possible time. - `end=`: End timestamp. Optional and defaults to maximum possible time. Not mentioning both start and end times would clear all the data for the matched series in the database. Example: ```json $ curl -X POST \ -g 'http://localhost:9090/api/v1/admin/tsdb/delete_series?match[]=up&match[]=process_start_time_seconds{job="prometheus"}' ``` NOTE: This endpoint marks samples from series as deleted, but will not necessarily prevent associated series metadata from still being returned in metadata queries for the affected time range (even after cleaning tombstones). The exact extent of metadata deletion is an implementation detail that may change in the future. *New in v2.1 and supports PUT from v2.9* ### Clean Tombstones CleanTombstones removes the deleted data from disk and cleans up the existing tombstones. This can be used after deleting series to free up space. If successful, a `204` is returned. ``` POST /api/v1/admin/tsdb/clean_tombstones PUT /api/v1/admin/tsdb/clean_tombstones ``` This takes no parameters or body. ```json $ curl -XPOST http://localhost:9090/api/v1/admin/tsdb/clean_tombstones ``` *New in v2.1 and supports PUT from v2.9*