---
title: promtool
---

# promtool

Tooling for the Prometheus monitoring system.



## Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">-h</code>, <code class="text-nowrap">--help</code> | Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man). |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--version</code> | Show application version. |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--experimental</code> | Enable experimental commands. |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--enable-feature</code> <code class="text-nowrap">...<code class="text-nowrap"> | Comma separated feature names to enable. Currently unused. |




## Commands

| Command | Description |
| --- | --- |
| help | Show help. |
| check | Check the resources for validity. |
| query | Run query against a Prometheus server. |
| debug | Fetch debug information. |
| push | Push to a Prometheus server. |
| test | Unit testing. |
| tsdb | Run tsdb commands. |
| promql | PromQL formatting and editing. Requires the --experimental flag. |




### `promtool help`

Show help.



#### Arguments

| Argument | Description |
| --- | --- |
| command | Show help on command. |




### `promtool check`

Check the resources for validity.



#### Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--extended</code> | Print extended information related to the cardinality of the metrics. |




##### `promtool check service-discovery`

Perform service discovery for the given job name and report the results, including relabeling.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--timeout</code> | The time to wait for discovery results. | `30s` |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| config-file | The prometheus config file. | Yes |
| job | The job to run service discovery for. | Yes |




##### `promtool check config`

Check if the config files are valid or not.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--syntax-only</code> | Only check the config file syntax, ignoring file and content validation referenced in the config |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--lint</code> | Linting checks to apply to the rules specified in the config. Available options are: all, duplicate-rules, none. Use --lint=none to disable linting | `duplicate-rules` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--lint-fatal</code> | Make lint errors exit with exit code 3. | `false` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--agent</code> | Check config file for Prometheus in Agent mode. |  |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| config-files | The config files to check. | Yes |




##### `promtool check web-config`

Check if the web config files are valid or not.



###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| web-config-files | The config files to check. | Yes |




##### `promtool check healthy`

Check if the Prometheus server is healthy.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--http.config.file</code> | HTTP client configuration file for promtool to connect to Prometheus. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--url</code> | The URL for the Prometheus server. | `http://localhost:9090` |




##### `promtool check ready`

Check if the Prometheus server is ready.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--http.config.file</code> | HTTP client configuration file for promtool to connect to Prometheus. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--url</code> | The URL for the Prometheus server. | `http://localhost:9090` |




##### `promtool check rules`

Check if the rule files are valid or not.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--lint</code> | Linting checks to apply. Available options are: all, duplicate-rules, none. Use --lint=none to disable linting | `duplicate-rules` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--lint-fatal</code> | Make lint errors exit with exit code 3. | `false` |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description |
| --- | --- |
| rule-files | The rule files to check, default is read from standard input. |




##### `promtool check metrics`

Pass Prometheus metrics over stdin to lint them for consistency and correctness.

examples:

$ cat metrics.prom | promtool check metrics

$ curl -s http://localhost:9090/metrics | promtool check metrics



### `promtool query`

Run query against a Prometheus server.



#### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">-o</code>, <code class="text-nowrap">--format</code> | Output format of the query. | `promql` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--http.config.file</code> | HTTP client configuration file for promtool to connect to Prometheus. |  |




##### `promtool query instant`

Run instant query.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--time</code> | Query evaluation time (RFC3339 or Unix timestamp). |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| server | Prometheus server to query. | Yes |
| expr | PromQL query expression. | Yes |




##### `promtool query range`

Run range query.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--header</code> | Extra headers to send to server. |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--start</code> | Query range start time (RFC3339 or Unix timestamp). |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--end</code> | Query range end time (RFC3339 or Unix timestamp). |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--step</code> | Query step size (duration). |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| server | Prometheus server to query. | Yes |
| expr | PromQL query expression. | Yes |




##### `promtool query series`

Run series query.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--match</code> <code class="text-nowrap">...<code class="text-nowrap"> | Series selector. Can be specified multiple times. |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--start</code> | Start time (RFC3339 or Unix timestamp). |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--end</code> | End time (RFC3339 or Unix timestamp). |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| server | Prometheus server to query. | Yes |




##### `promtool query labels`

Run labels query.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--start</code> | Start time (RFC3339 or Unix timestamp). |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--end</code> | End time (RFC3339 or Unix timestamp). |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--match</code> <code class="text-nowrap">...<code class="text-nowrap"> | Series selector. Can be specified multiple times. |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| server | Prometheus server to query. | Yes |
| name | Label name to provide label values for. | Yes |




##### `promtool query analyze`

Run queries against your Prometheus to analyze the usage pattern of certain metrics.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--server</code> | Prometheus server to query. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--type</code> | Type of metric: histogram. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--duration</code> | Time frame to analyze. | `1h` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--time</code> | Query time (RFC3339 or Unix timestamp), defaults to now. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--match</code> <code class="text-nowrap">...<code class="text-nowrap"> | Series selector. Can be specified multiple times. |  |




### `promtool debug`

Fetch debug information.



##### `promtool debug pprof`

Fetch profiling debug information.



###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| server | Prometheus server to get pprof files from. | Yes |




##### `promtool debug metrics`

Fetch metrics debug information.



###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| server | Prometheus server to get metrics from. | Yes |




##### `promtool debug all`

Fetch all debug information.



###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| server | Prometheus server to get all debug information from. | Yes |




### `promtool push`

Push to a Prometheus server.



#### Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--http.config.file</code> | HTTP client configuration file for promtool to connect to Prometheus. |




##### `promtool push metrics`

Push metrics to a prometheus remote write (for testing purpose only).



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--label</code> | Label to attach to metrics. Can be specified multiple times. | `job=promtool` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--timeout</code> | The time to wait for pushing metrics. | `30s` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--header</code> | Prometheus remote write header. |  |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| remote-write-url | Prometheus remote write url to push metrics. | Yes |
| metric-files | The metric files to push, default is read from standard input. |  |




### `promtool test`

Unit testing.



#### Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--junit</code> | File path to store JUnit XML test results. |




##### `promtool test rules`

Unit tests for rules.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--run</code> <code class="text-nowrap">...<code class="text-nowrap"> | If set, will only run test groups whose names match the regular expression. Can be specified multiple times. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--debug</code> | Enable unit test debugging. | `false` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--diff</code> | [Experimental] Print colored differential output between expected & received output. | `false` |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| test-rule-file | The unit test file. | Yes |




### `promtool tsdb`

Run tsdb commands.



##### `promtool tsdb bench`

Run benchmarks.



##### `promtool tsdb bench write`

Run a write performance benchmark.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--out</code> | Set the output path. | `benchout` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--metrics</code> | Number of metrics to read. | `10000` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--scrapes</code> | Number of scrapes to simulate. | `3000` |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| file | Input file with samples data, default is (../../tsdb/testdata/20kseries.json). | `../../tsdb/testdata/20kseries.json` |




##### `promtool tsdb analyze`

Analyze churn, label pair cardinality and compaction efficiency.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--limit</code> | How many items to show in each list. | `20` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--extended</code> | Run extended analysis. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--match</code> | Series selector to analyze. Only 1 set of matchers is supported now. |  |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| db path | Database path (default is data/). | `data/` |
| block id | Block to analyze (default is the last block). |  |




##### `promtool tsdb list`

List tsdb blocks.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">-r</code>, <code class="text-nowrap">--human-readable</code> | Print human readable values. |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| db path | Database path (default is data/). | `data/` |




##### `promtool tsdb dump`

Dump samples from a TSDB.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--sandbox-dir-root</code> | Root directory where a sandbox directory will be created, this sandbox is used in case WAL replay generates chunks (default is the database path). The sandbox is cleaned up at the end. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--min-time</code> | Minimum timestamp to dump. | `-9223372036854775808` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--max-time</code> | Maximum timestamp to dump. | `9223372036854775807` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--match</code> <code class="text-nowrap">...<code class="text-nowrap"> | Series selector. Can be specified multiple times. | `{__name__=~'(?s:.*)'}` |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| db path | Database path (default is data/). | `data/` |




##### `promtool tsdb dump-openmetrics`

[Experimental] Dump samples from a TSDB into OpenMetrics text format, excluding native histograms and staleness markers, which are not representable in OpenMetrics.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--sandbox-dir-root</code> | Root directory where a sandbox directory will be created, this sandbox is used in case WAL replay generates chunks (default is the database path). The sandbox is cleaned up at the end. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--min-time</code> | Minimum timestamp to dump. | `-9223372036854775808` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--max-time</code> | Maximum timestamp to dump. | `9223372036854775807` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--match</code> <code class="text-nowrap">...<code class="text-nowrap"> | Series selector. Can be specified multiple times. | `{__name__=~'(?s:.*)'}` |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| db path | Database path (default is data/). | `data/` |




##### `promtool tsdb create-blocks-from`

[Experimental] Import samples from input and produce TSDB blocks. Please refer to the storage docs for more details.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">-r</code>, <code class="text-nowrap">--human-readable</code> | Print human readable values. |
| <code class="text-nowrap">-q</code>, <code class="text-nowrap">--quiet</code> | Do not print created blocks. |




##### `promtool tsdb create-blocks-from openmetrics`

Import samples from OpenMetrics input and produce TSDB blocks. Please refer to the storage docs for more details.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description |
| --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--label</code> | Label to attach to metrics. Can be specified multiple times. Example --label=label_name=label_value |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Default | Required |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| input file | OpenMetrics file to read samples from. |  | Yes |
| output directory | Output directory for generated blocks. | `data/` |  |




##### `promtool tsdb create-blocks-from rules`

Create blocks of data for new recording rules.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--http.config.file</code> | HTTP client configuration file for promtool to connect to Prometheus. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--url</code> | The URL for the Prometheus API with the data where the rule will be backfilled from. | `http://localhost:9090` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--start</code> | The time to start backfilling the new rule from. Must be a RFC3339 formatted date or Unix timestamp. Required. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--end</code> | If an end time is provided, all recording rules in the rule files provided will be backfilled to the end time. Default will backfill up to 3 hours ago. Must be a RFC3339 formatted date or Unix timestamp. |  |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--output-dir</code> | Output directory for generated blocks. | `data/` |
| <code class="text-nowrap">--eval-interval</code> | How frequently to evaluate rules when backfilling if a value is not set in the recording rule files. | `60s` |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| rule-files | A list of one or more files containing recording rules to be backfilled. All recording rules listed in the files will be backfilled. Alerting rules are not evaluated. | Yes |




### `promtool promql`

PromQL formatting and editing. Requires the `--experimental` flag.



##### `promtool promql format`

Format PromQL query to pretty printed form.



###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| query | PromQL query. | Yes |




##### `promtool promql label-matchers`

Edit label matchers contained within an existing PromQL query.



##### `promtool promql label-matchers set`

Set a label matcher in the query.



###### Flags

| Flag | Description | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <code class="text-nowrap">-t</code>, <code class="text-nowrap">--type</code> | Type of the label matcher to set. | `=` |




###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| query | PromQL query. | Yes |
| name | Name of the label matcher to set. | Yes |
| value | Value of the label matcher to set. | Yes |




##### `promtool promql label-matchers delete`

Delete a label from the query.



###### Arguments

| Argument | Description | Required |
| --- | --- | --- |
| query | PromQL query. | Yes |
| name | Name of the label to delete. | Yes |