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openclaw/docs/gateway/prometheus.md
2026-05-02 08:01:37 -07:00

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---
summary: "Expose OpenClaw diagnostics as Prometheus text metrics through the diagnostics-prometheus plugin"
title: "Prometheus metrics"
sidebarTitle: "Prometheus"
read_when:
- You want Prometheus, Grafana, VictoriaMetrics, or another scraper to collect OpenClaw Gateway metrics
- You need the Prometheus metric names and label policy for dashboards or alerts
- You want metrics without running an OpenTelemetry collector
---
OpenClaw can expose diagnostics metrics through the official `diagnostics-prometheus` plugin. It listens to trusted internal diagnostics and renders a Prometheus text endpoint at:
```text
GET /api/diagnostics/prometheus
```
Content type is `text/plain; version=0.0.4; charset=utf-8`, the standard Prometheus exposition format.
<Warning>
The route uses Gateway authentication (operator scope). Do not expose it as a public unauthenticated `/metrics` endpoint. Scrape it through the same auth path you use for other operator APIs.
</Warning>
For traces, logs, OTLP push, and OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic attributes, see [OpenTelemetry export](/gateway/opentelemetry).
## Quick start
<Steps>
<Step title="Install the plugin">
```bash
openclaw plugins install clawhub:@openclaw/diagnostics-prometheus
```
</Step>
<Step title="Enable the plugin">
<Tabs>
<Tab title="Config">
```json5
{
plugins: {
allow: ["diagnostics-prometheus"],
entries: {
"diagnostics-prometheus": { enabled: true },
},
},
diagnostics: {
enabled: true,
},
}
```
</Tab>
<Tab title="CLI">
```bash
openclaw plugins enable diagnostics-prometheus
```
</Tab>
</Tabs>
</Step>
<Step title="Restart the Gateway">
The HTTP route is registered at plugin startup, so reload after enabling.
</Step>
<Step title="Scrape the protected route">
Send the same gateway auth your operator clients use:
```bash
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN" \
http://127.0.0.1:18789/api/diagnostics/prometheus
```
</Step>
<Step title="Wire Prometheus">
```yaml
# prometheus.yml
scrape_configs:
- job_name: openclaw
scrape_interval: 30s
metrics_path: /api/diagnostics/prometheus
authorization:
credentials_file: /etc/prometheus/openclaw-gateway-token
static_configs:
- targets: ["openclaw-gateway:18789"]
```
</Step>
</Steps>
<Note>
`diagnostics.enabled: true` is required. Without it, the plugin still registers the HTTP route but no diagnostic events flow into the exporter, so the response is empty.
</Note>
## Metrics exported
| Metric | Type | Labels |
| --------------------------------------------- | --------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `openclaw_run_completed_total` | counter | `channel`, `model`, `outcome`, `provider`, `trigger` |
| `openclaw_run_duration_seconds` | histogram | `channel`, `model`, `outcome`, `provider`, `trigger` |
| `openclaw_model_call_total` | counter | `api`, `error_category`, `model`, `outcome`, `provider`, `transport` |
| `openclaw_model_call_duration_seconds` | histogram | `api`, `error_category`, `model`, `outcome`, `provider`, `transport` |
| `openclaw_model_tokens_total` | counter | `agent`, `channel`, `model`, `provider`, `token_type` |
| `openclaw_gen_ai_client_token_usage` | histogram | `model`, `provider`, `token_type` |
| `openclaw_model_cost_usd_total` | counter | `agent`, `channel`, `model`, `provider` |
| `openclaw_tool_execution_total` | counter | `error_category`, `outcome`, `params_kind`, `tool` |
| `openclaw_tool_execution_duration_seconds` | histogram | `error_category`, `outcome`, `params_kind`, `tool` |
| `openclaw_harness_run_total` | counter | `channel`, `error_category`, `harness`, `model`, `outcome`, `phase`, `plugin`, `provider` |
| `openclaw_harness_run_duration_seconds` | histogram | `channel`, `error_category`, `harness`, `model`, `outcome`, `phase`, `plugin`, `provider` |
| `openclaw_message_processed_total` | counter | `channel`, `outcome`, `reason` |
| `openclaw_message_processed_duration_seconds` | histogram | `channel`, `outcome`, `reason` |
| `openclaw_message_delivery_total` | counter | `channel`, `delivery_kind`, `error_category`, `outcome` |
| `openclaw_message_delivery_duration_seconds` | histogram | `channel`, `delivery_kind`, `error_category`, `outcome` |
| `openclaw_queue_lane_size` | gauge | `lane` |
| `openclaw_queue_lane_wait_seconds` | histogram | `lane` |
| `openclaw_session_state_total` | counter | `reason`, `state` |
| `openclaw_session_queue_depth` | gauge | `state` |
| `openclaw_memory_bytes` | gauge | `kind` |
| `openclaw_memory_rss_bytes` | histogram | none |
| `openclaw_memory_pressure_total` | counter | `level`, `reason` |
| `openclaw_telemetry_exporter_total` | counter | `exporter`, `reason`, `signal`, `status` |
| `openclaw_prometheus_series_dropped_total` | counter | none |
## Label policy
<AccordionGroup>
<Accordion title="Bounded, low-cardinality labels">
Prometheus labels stay bounded and low-cardinality. The exporter does not emit raw diagnostic identifiers such as `runId`, `sessionKey`, `sessionId`, `callId`, `toolCallId`, message IDs, chat IDs, or provider request IDs.
Label values are redacted and must match OpenClaw's low-cardinality character policy. Values that fail the policy are replaced with `unknown`, `other`, or `none`, depending on the metric.
</Accordion>
<Accordion title="Series cap and overflow accounting">
The exporter caps retained time series in memory at **2048** series across counters, gauges, and histograms combined. New series beyond that cap are dropped, and `openclaw_prometheus_series_dropped_total` increments by one each time.
Watch this counter as a hard signal that an attribute upstream is leaking high-cardinality values. The exporter never lifts the cap automatically; if it climbs, fix the source rather than disabling the cap.
</Accordion>
<Accordion title="What never appears in Prometheus output">
- prompt text, response text, tool inputs, tool outputs, system prompts
- raw provider request IDs (only bounded hashes, where applicable, on spans — never on metrics)
- session keys and session IDs
- hostnames, file paths, secret values
</Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>
## PromQL recipes
```promql
# Tokens per minute, split by provider
sum by (provider) (rate(openclaw_model_tokens_total[1m]))
# Spend (USD) over the last hour, by model
sum by (model) (increase(openclaw_model_cost_usd_total[1h]))
# 95th percentile model run duration
histogram_quantile(
0.95,
sum by (le, provider, model)
(rate(openclaw_run_duration_seconds_bucket[5m]))
)
# Queue wait time SLO (95p under 2s)
histogram_quantile(
0.95,
sum by (le, lane) (rate(openclaw_queue_lane_wait_seconds_bucket[5m]))
) < 2
# Dropped Prometheus series (cardinality alarm)
increase(openclaw_prometheus_series_dropped_total[15m]) > 0
```
<Tip>
Prefer `gen_ai_client_token_usage` for cross-provider dashboards: it follows the OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic conventions and is consistent with metrics from non-OpenClaw GenAI services.
</Tip>
## Choosing between Prometheus and OpenTelemetry export
OpenClaw supports both surfaces independently. You can run either, both, or neither.
<Tabs>
<Tab title="diagnostics-prometheus">
- **Pull** model: Prometheus scrapes `/api/diagnostics/prometheus`.
- No external collector required.
- Authenticated through normal Gateway auth.
- Surface is metrics only (no traces or logs).
- Best for stacks already standardized on Prometheus + Grafana.
</Tab>
<Tab title="diagnostics-otel">
- **Push** model: OpenClaw sends OTLP/HTTP to a collector or OTLP-compatible backend.
- Surface includes metrics, traces, and logs.
- Bridges to Prometheus through an OpenTelemetry Collector (`prometheus` or `prometheusremotewrite` exporter) when you need both.
- See [OpenTelemetry export](/gateway/opentelemetry) for the full catalog.
</Tab>
</Tabs>
## Troubleshooting
<AccordionGroup>
<Accordion title="Empty response body">
- Check `diagnostics.enabled: true` in config.
- Confirm the plugin is enabled and loaded with `openclaw plugins list --enabled`.
- Generate some traffic; counters and histograms only emit lines after at least one event.
</Accordion>
<Accordion title="401 / unauthorized">
The endpoint requires the Gateway operator scope (`auth: "gateway"` with `gatewayRuntimeScopeSurface: "trusted-operator"`). Use the same token or password Prometheus uses for any other Gateway operator route. There is no public unauthenticated mode.
</Accordion>
<Accordion title="`openclaw_prometheus_series_dropped_total` is climbing">
A new attribute is exceeding the **2048**-series cap. Inspect recent metrics for an unexpectedly high-cardinality label and fix it at the source. The exporter intentionally drops new series instead of silently rewriting labels.
</Accordion>
<Accordion title="Prometheus shows stale series after a restart">
The plugin keeps state in memory only. After a Gateway restart, counters reset to zero and gauges restart at their next reported value. Use PromQL `rate()` and `increase()` to handle resets cleanly.
</Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>
## Related
- [Diagnostics export](/gateway/diagnostics) — local diagnostics zip for support bundles
- [Health and readiness](/gateway/health) — `/healthz` and `/readyz` probes
- [Logging](/logging) — file-based logging
- [OpenTelemetry export](/gateway/opentelemetry) — OTLP push for traces, metrics, and logs