Observe
Signal catalogue
A signal is a measured series for an entity, such as the error rate of order-api or the remaining share of a provider limit. The signal catalogue is the list of signals MonitOps knows, with each one's kind, unit, expected cadence and recovery rule.
How it works#
Every point in a signal series carries the entity, the signal, its dimensions, a timestamp, a value, a sample count and a kind. Series are built from deduplicated log and metric records in one-minute buckets, so a replayed record does not inflate a rate.
Kind#
| Kind | Meaning | How it is evaluated |
|---|---|---|
rate | A quantity per interval, such as errors per minute | Against a baseline of its own history (see Baselines) |
state | A level or status, such as provider status or a check result | By versioned rules in alarm definitions (see Alarm definitions) |
lagging | A signal that arrives late by design | Never raises an alert; attached to an incident as evidence |
Dimensions#
Dimensions are a bounded set of labels on a series. A series is identified by its tenant, entity, environment, signal and dimensions, so production and staging are never aggregated together. A limit signal requires the name of the limit as a dimension, which gives one series for each limit.
What each entry defines#
A catalogue entry defines the unit, the mapping from named states to numbers, the expected cadence and the recovery rule. Rate signals also define a positive minimum scale, used so that a constant series does not make a small change look infinite.
Standard signals#
| Signal | Entity | Kind | Source of the data |
|---|---|---|---|
provider_status | System or component | state | The provider's status feed |
limit_remaining_pct | System, one series per limit | state | The provider's limit report |
operational_events | System | rate | Provider operational events |
log_rate, error_rate | Service | rate | Log records |
success | Synthetic check | state | The check result |
latency_ms | Synthetic check | rate | The check duration |
health | System | state | A health check |
forward_failures | The platform | rate | Failures forwarding to a log destination |
freshness_s | Every source | state | Seconds since the last successful acquisition or heartbeat |
Event time, arrival time and acquisition health are tracked separately, so a late record does not look like a fresh one.
What you see in the console#
The catalogue is behind every signal chart, alarm definition and dashboard widget. A request that names a signal or a dimension the catalogue does not contain is refused with a reason, for example when you describe a panel that cannot be built. See Dashboards and reports.
Limits and defaults#
- Lagging signals never raise alerts.
- Series are never aggregated across environments.
- A missing bucket is not a zero.
Related#
Last updated October 2026