simsys-metrics

A drop-in Prometheus /metrics template for Python, Node.js, and Go web apps. One install() call; consistent metric catalogue; zero-per-app dashboard work.

Monorepo layout

This repository ships three packages sharing one metric catalogue, label conventions, and cardinality rules — so a single $service-templated Grafana dashboard works across every runtime:

The Python package remains at the repo root for pip git-install compatibility. The Node and Go packages live under node/ and go/ respectively — see each subdirectory's README for install details.

A drop-in observability layer for any Python web app. Adding baseline metrics is a five-line job, and every emitted series carries the same service label so a generic $service-templated Grafana dashboard lights up automatically.

• Supported stacks: FastAPI (primary), Flask (secondary).
• Baseline metrics (zero extra code): HTTP request count + latency, process CPU/RSS/FDs, build info.
• Opt-in helpers: queue depth gauge, job counter + histogram.
• Cardinality discipline enforced by the package: route templates, status classes, allow-listed label helper. Every metric name must start with simsys_ — the registry refuses anything else.

Table of contents

• Install
• Usage
  • FastAPI
  • Flask
  • safe_label — cardinality helper
• Metric catalogue
• Cardinality rules
• commit detection
• /metrics endpoint behaviour
• Development
• Contributing
• License

Install

# FastAPI service
pip install "simsys-metrics[fastapi]"

# Flask service
pip install "simsys-metrics[flask]"

Pin to the tag. Bumping a consumer means re-pointing this URL at a newer tag.

simsys-metrics[fastapi]==2.0.0

Usage

FastAPI

from fastapi import FastAPI
from simsys_metrics import install, track_queue, track_job

app = FastAPI()
install(app, service="my-api", version="1.2.3")

# Opt-in queue gauge (polled every 5s in a daemon thread)
track_queue("inference", depth_fn=lambda: job_queue.qsize())

# Opt-in per-job timer — as a decorator
@track_job("inference")
def run_inference(...): ...

# ...or as a context manager
def run(...):
    with track_job("inference"):
        ...

# Opt-in batch-progress tracking (v0.2.0+)
from simsys_metrics import track_progress, ProgressOpts
tracker = track_progress(ProgressOpts(operation="scan", total=input_count))
try:
    for item in work:
        process(item)
        tracker.inc()
finally:
    tracker.stop()

Flask

from flask import Flask
from simsys_metrics import install

app = Flask(__name__)
install(app, service="my-worker", version="0.4.1")

install() auto-detects the framework. It sets the process-wide service label, registers the simsys process collector, wires HTTP request metrics, mounts /metrics, and populates simsys_build_info.

Default metrics_path is /metrics; override with install(..., metrics_path="/internal/metrics").

safe_label — cardinality helper

Coerce any user-facing label value into a bounded allow-list:

from simsys_metrics import safe_label

ticker = safe_label(request.args.get("ticker"), {"AAPL", "GOOG", "NVDA"})
# -> "AAPL" if in the set, else "other"

Use this for anything an external caller controls (tickers, tenant names, device IDs, free-form search terms) before it ends up as a Prometheus label.

Metric catalogue

Every baseline + opt-in metric this package emits uses the simsys_ prefix AND a service label — so cross-service PromQL like sum by (service) (rate(simsys_http_requests_total[5m])) works unmodified across every app.

Custom metrics convention: the make_counter / make_gauge / make_histogram factories enforce the simsys_ prefix but do not force service into your label list. To stay compatible with the cross-service dashboards above, include service in labelnames for any custom metric you create. The factories will warn at registration time if service is missing — see the example in Rich outcome taxonomies below.

Tier core is guaranteed in every runtime with the declared type and label names -- a $service-templated dashboard may rely on it unconditionally. Tier ext is runtime-specific; the Runtimes column is authoritative and a panel using one must tolerate its absence.

Cross-runtime caveat: simsys_process_memory_bytes.type

Memory accounting is fundamentally runtime-specific, so the type label values intentionally differ across the three sibling packages:

A $service-templated dashboard panel filtering type="vms" will return empty for Node services, and a panel showing heapUsed will return empty for Python/Go services. Either:

• Build runtime-aware dashboards (one panel per runtime, gated on service =~ "node-.*" etc.), or
• Filter on type="rss" only — the one common label value.

Rich outcome taxonomies

@track_job uses a 2-value {success, error} enum intentionally — it's the minimum useful signal for generic job timing, and the label stays cheap.

When an app needs a richer per-operation outcome taxonomy (cache hits, validation errors, upstream failures, etc.), hand-roll a counter via make_counter from the guarded registry:

from simsys_metrics import get_service, make_counter

forecast_requests_total = make_counter(
    "simsys_forecast_requests_total",
    "Forecast requests by ticker and outcome.",
    # Always include `service` in labelnames — it's what the shared
    # `$service`-templated Grafana dashboards filter on. Omitting it
    # prints a warning at registration time and breaks the dashboard
    # contract for this metric.
    labelnames=("service", "ticker", "interval", "outcome"),
)

# Outcome enum is app-specific: e.g. {cache_hit, bad_request, upstream_error,
# success, ...} for a forecasting API, or {dead, parked, active, deferred}
# for a domain scanner.
#
# At call sites, pass service= explicitly. `get_service()` returns the
# value `install(..., service=...)` set, so you don't need to thread it
# through every call site.
forecast_requests_total.labels(
    service=get_service(),
    ticker="AAPL",
    interval="1d",
    outcome="cache_hit",
).inc()

Pair with safe_label() to cap cardinality on any dimension a user controls.

Cardinality rules

• route is the route template (/api/jobs/{id}), never the actual path.
• status is bucketed to class strings (2xx, 3xx, 4xx, 5xx, 1xx), never the raw numeric code.
• outcome on the job metrics is exactly one of success or error.
• Any user-derived label value should pass through safe_label(value, allowed_set) before being attached to a metric.
• The package refuses at registration time to register any metric whose name does not start with simsys_. Attempting so raises ValueError.

commit detection

simsys_build_info.commit is resolved in this order:

1. SIMSYS_BUILD_COMMIT environment variable (if set and non-empty).
2. git rev-parse --short HEAD in the process's current working directory.
3. Literal string "unknown" if neither is available.

In container images, set SIMSYS_BUILD_COMMIT at build time:

ARG GIT_COMMIT=unknown
ENV SIMSYS_BUILD_COMMIT=${GIT_COMMIT}

and build with docker build --build-arg GIT_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD) ..

Multiprocess mode (FastAPI only)

Scope: the multiproc support described here is currently FastAPI only. The Flask installer does not have multiproc support — when run under gunicorn workers it still registers the per-process simsys_process_* collector and serves /metrics from prometheus_client's default registry, so per-worker metrics will not aggregate. If you need multiproc-correct metrics under Flask + gunicorn today, mount prometheus_client.make_wsgi_app(MultiProcessCollector(...)) at /metrics yourself and skip install()'s /metrics route. Native Flask multiproc support is tracked for a future minor release.

When running FastAPI under uvicorn-with-workers (or gunicorn + uvicorn worker class), set PROMETHEUS_MULTIPROC_DIR so the worker processes write metric samples to a shared directory and /metrics aggregates them via prometheus_client.MultiProcessCollector. With the env var set, install() on a FastAPI app automatically:

• Mounts a multiproc-aware /metrics route that walks the shared directory on every scrape.
• Skips registration of the per-process simsys_process_* collector (SimsysProcessCollector reads /proc/self only and cannot meaningfully aggregate across workers).
• Tags simsys_queue_depth as multiprocess_mode="livesum" and simsys_build_info as multiprocess_mode="liveall".

Important — env-var ordering: PROMETHEUS_MULTIPROC_DIR is read at simsys_metrics import time (so the gauges can be constructed with the right multiprocess_mode). Set the env var in your Dockerfile / shell / process-manager config before any Python code runs. Setting it after importing — for example inside an app-factory function — leaves the gauges constructed in single-process mode and /metrics aggregation will silently fail.

A typical Dockerfile:

ENV PROMETHEUS_MULTIPROC_DIR=/tmp/prometheus_multiproc
RUN mkdir -p /tmp/prometheus_multiproc

/metrics endpoint behaviour

• Auto-mounted at /metrics on the same port as the app. No separate metrics port.
• Designed for direct scraping on a localhost or VPC interface — the package itself adds no auth on the endpoint; gate it at the reverse proxy / network layer if exposed publicly.
• app.state.simsys_exempt_paths (FastAPI) and app.extensions["simsys_metrics"] (Flask) expose the recommended auth-exempt path set so upstream middleware can skip it without hard-coding the list.

Development

git clone https://github.com/Simmons-Systems/simsys-metrics.git
cd simsys-metrics
python3 -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e '.[fastapi,flask,test]'

pytest                           # 93 unit + integration tests
bin/check-metrics-conformance.sh # end-to-end smoke test against the demo app

Release flow

1. Bump version in pyproject.toml and simsys_metrics/__init__.py.
2. Add a CHANGELOG.md entry.
3. Run pytest and bin/check-metrics-conformance.sh — both must be green.
4. git tag python-vX.Y.Z && git push --tags.
5. Consumers re-pin their install URL to the new tag.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Issues and PRs welcome — bug reports, metric-catalogue gaps, or new framework install paths (Starlette, Quart, etc.) all fair game. Security issues: see the org-level SECURITY.md.

By contributing you agree to the terms of the Code of Conduct.

License

MIT. Use it anywhere, no attribution required, no warranty.

See also

• Upstream dependencies: prometheus_client, prometheus-fastapi-instrumentator, psutil.
• Grafana dashboard template: any operator-flavored Grafana dashboard that templates over the service label will work; build it from the metric catalogue above.