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Temporal Cloud metrics reference

A metric is a measurement or data point that provides insights into the performance and health of a system. This document describes the metrics available on the Temporal Cloud platform. Temporal Cloud metrics help you monitor performance and troubleshoot errors. They provide insights into different aspects of the Service.

This guide covers these topics:

  • Gather metrics: Capture Temporal Cloud metrics using a Prometheus-style endpoint so they can be visualized using Prometheus and Grafana or exported to observability platforms like Datadog.
  • Available Temporal Cloud metrics: The metrics emitted by Temporal Cloud include counts of gRPC errors, requests, successful task matches to a poller, and more.
  • Metrics labels: Temporal Cloud metrics labels can filter metrics and help categorize and differentiate results.
  • Operations: An operation is a special type of label that categorizes the type of operation being performed when the metric was collected.
SDK METRICS

This document discusses metrics emitted by Temporal Cloud. Temporal SDKs also emit metrics, sourced from Temporal Clients and Worker processes. You can find information about Temporal SDK metrics on its dedicated page.

Please note:

  • SDK metrics start with the phrase temporal_.
  • Temporal Cloud metrics start with temporal_cloud_.

Gather metrics​

How do you capture and use Temporal Cloud metrics?

Temporal Cloud emits metrics in a Prometheus-supported format. Prometheus is an open-source toolkit for alerting and monitoring. The Temporal Service exposes Cloud metrics with a Prometheus HTTP API endpoint. Temporal Cloud metrics provide a compatible data source for visualizing, monitoring, and observability platforms like Grafana and Data Dog.

You can use functions like rate or increase to calculate the rate of increase for a Temporal Cloud metric:

rate(temporal_cloud_v0_frontend_service_request_count[$__rate_interval])

Or you might use Prometheus to calculate average latencies or histogram quartiles:

# Average latency
rate(temporal_cloud_v0_service_latency_sum[$__rate_interval])
/ rate(temporal_cloud_v0_service_latency_count[$__rate_interval])

# Approximate 99th percentile latency broken down by operation
histogram_quantile(0.99, sum(rate(temporal_cloud_v0_service_latency_bucket[$__rate_interval])) by (le, operation))

Set up Grafana with Temporal Cloud observability to view metrics by creating or getting your Prometheus endpoint for Temporal Cloud metrics and enabling SDK metrics.

Available Temporal Cloud metrics​

What metrics are emitted from Temporal Cloud?

The following metrics are emitted for your Namespaces:

Frontend Service metrics​

temporal_cloud_v0_frontend_service_error_count​

This is a count of gRPC errors returned aggregated by operation.

temporal_cloud_v0_frontend_service_request_count​

This is a count of gRPC requests received aggregated by operation.

temporal_cloud_v0_resource_exhausted_error_count​

gRPC requests received that were rate-limited by Temporal Cloud, aggregated by cause.

temporal_cloud_v0_state_transition_count​

Count of state transitions for each Namespace.

temporal_cloud_v0_total_action_count​

Approximate count of Temporal Cloud Actions.

Poll metrics​

temporal_cloud_v0_poll_success_count​

Tasks that are successfully matched to a poller.

temporal_cloud_v0_poll_success_sync_count​

Tasks that are successfully sync matched to a poller.

temporal_cloud_v0_poll_timeout_count​

When no tasks are available for a poller before timing out.

Replication lag metrics​

temporal_cloud_v0_replication_lag_bucket​

A histogram of replication lag during a specific time interval for a multi-region Namespace.

temporal_cloud_v0_replication_lag_count​

The replication lag count during a specific time interval for a multi-region Namespace.

temporal_cloud_v0_replication_lag_sum​

The sum of replication lag during a specific time interval for a multi-region Namespace.

Schedule metrics​

temporal_cloud_v0_schedule_action_success_count​

Successful execution of a Scheduled Workflow.

temporal_cloud_v0_schedule_buffer_overruns_count​

When average schedule run length is greater than average schedule interval while a buffer_all overlap policy is configured.

temporal_cloud_v0_schedule_missed_catchup_window_count​

Skipped Scheduled executions when Workflows were delayed longer than the catchup window.

temporal_cloud_v0_schedule_rate_limited_count​

Workflows that were delayed due to exceeding a rate limit.

Service latency metrics​

temporal_cloud_v0_service_latency_bucket​

Latency for SignalWithStartWorkflowExecution, SignalWorkflowExecution, StartWorkflowExecution operations.

temporal_cloud_v0_service_latency_count​

Count of latency observations for SignalWithStartWorkflowExecution, SignalWorkflowExecution, StartWorkflowExecution operations.

temporal_cloud_v0_service_latency_sum​

Sum of latency observation time for SignalWithStartWorkflowExecution, SignalWorkflowExecution, StartWorkflowExecution operations.

Workflow metrics​

temporal_cloud_v0_workflow_cancel_count​

Workflows canceled before completing execution.

temporal_cloud_v0_workflow_continued_as_new_count​

Workflow Executions that were Continued-As-New from a past execution.

temporal_cloud_v0_workflow_failed_count​

Workflows that failed before completion.

temporal_cloud_v0_workflow_success_count​

Workflows that successfully completed.

temporal_cloud_v0_workflow_terminate_count​

Workflows terminated before completing execution.

temporal_cloud_v0_workflow_timeout_count​

Workflows that timed out before completing execution.

Metrics labels​

What labels can you use to filter metrics?

Temporal Cloud metrics include key-value pairs called labels in their associated metadata. Labels help you categorize and differentiate metrics for precise filtering, querying, and aggregation. Use labels to specific attributes or compare values, such as numeric buckets in histograms. This added context enhances the monitoring and analysis capabilities, providing deeper insights into your data.

Metrics for all Namespaces in your account are available from the metrics endpoint. Use the following labels to filter metrics:

LabelExplanation
leLess than or equal to (le) is used in histograms to categorize observations into buckets based on their value being less than or equal to a predefined upper limit.
operationThis includes operations such as:
  • SignalWorkflowExecution
  • StartBatchOperation
  • StartWorkflowExecution
  • TaskQueueMgr
  • TerminateWorkflowExecution
  • UpdateNamespace
  • UpdateSchedule
See: Metric Operations
resource_exhausted_causeCause for resource exhaustion.
task_typeActivity or Workflow.
temporal_accountTemporal Account.
temporal_namespaceTemporal Namespace.
temporal_service_typeFrontend or Matching or History or Worker.
is_backgroundThis label on temporal_cloud_v0_total_action_count indicates when actions are produced by a Temporal background job, for example: hourly Workflow Export.
namespace_modeThis label on temporal_cloud_v0_total_action_count indicates if actions are produced by an active vs a standby Namespace. For a regular Namespace, namespace_mode will always be β€œactive”.

The following is an example of how you can filter metrics using labels:

temporal_cloud_v0_poll_success_count{__rollup__="true", operation="TaskQueueMgr", task_type="Activity", temporal_account="12345", temporal_namespace="your_namespace.12345", temporal_service_type="matching"}

Operations​

What operation labels are captured by Temporal Cloud?

Operations are a special class of metrics label. They describe the context during which a metric was captured. Temporal Cloud includes the following operations labels:

  • AdminDescribeMutableState
  • AdminGetWorkflowExecutionRawHistory
  • AdminGetWorkflowExecutionRawHistoryV2
  • AdminReapplyEvents
  • CountWorkflowExecutions
  • CreateSchedule
  • DeleteSchedule
  • DeleteWorkflowExecution
  • DescribeBatchOperation
  • DescribeNamespace
  • DescribeSchedule
  • DescribeTaskQueue
  • DescribeWorkflowExecution
  • GetWorkerBuildIdCompatibility
  • GetWorkerTaskReachability
  • GetWorkflowExecutionHistory
  • GetWorkflowExecutionHistoryReverse
  • ListBatchOperations
  • ListClosedWorkflowExecutions
  • OperatorDeleteNamespace
  • PatchSchedule
  • PollActivityTaskQueue
  • PollWorkflowExecutionHistory
  • PollWorkflowExecutionUpdate
  • PollWorkflowTaskQueue
  • QueryWorkflow
  • RecordActivityTaskHeartbeat
  • RecordActivityTaskHeartbeatById
  • RegisterNamespace
  • RequestCancelWorkflowExecution
  • ResetStickyTaskQueue
  • ResetWorkflowExecution
  • RespondActivityTaskCanceled
  • RespondActivityTaskCompleted
  • RespondActivityTaskCompletedById
  • RespondActivityTaskFailed
  • RespondActivityTaskFailedById
  • RespondQueryTaskCompleted
  • RespondWorkflowTaskCompleted
  • RespondWorkflowTaskFailed
  • SignalWithStartWorkflowExecution
  • SignalWorkflowExecution
  • StartBatchOperation
  • StartWorkflowExecution
  • StopBatchOperation
  • TerminateWorkflowExecution
  • UpdateNamespace
  • UpdateSchedule
  • UpdateWorkerBuildIdCompatibility
  • UpdateWorkflowExecution

As the following table shows, certain metrics groups support operations for aggregation and filtering:

Metrics Group / OperationsAll OperationsSignalWithStartWorkflowExecution / SignalWorkflowExecution / StartWorkflowExecutionTaskQueueMgrCompletionStats
Frontend Service MetricsX
Service Latency MetricsX
Poll MetricsX
Workflow MetricsX