Prometheus API Skill
Query Prometheus monitoring systems via HTTP API at /api/v1.
Quick Reference
Instant Query
curl 'http://<prometheus>:9090/api/v1/query?query=<promql>&time=<timestamp>'
Range Query
curl 'http://<prometheus>:9090/api/v1/query_range?query=<promql>&start=<ts>&end=<ts>&step=<duration>'
Response Format
All responses return JSON:
{
"status": "success" | "error",
"data": <result>,
"errorType": "<string>",
"error": "<string>",
"warnings": ["<string>"]
}
HTTP codes: 400 (bad params), 422 (expression error), 503 (timeout).
Query Endpoints
| Endpoint | Purpose | Key Parameters |
|---|---|---|
/api/v1/query | Instant query | query, time, timeout, limit |
/api/v1/query_range | Range query | query, start, end, step, timeout, limit |
/api/v1/format_query | Format PromQL | query |
/api/v1/series | Find series by labels | match[], start, end, limit |
/api/v1/labels | List label names | start, end, match[], limit |
/api/v1/label/<name>/values | Label values | start, end, match[], limit |
/api/v1/query_exemplars | Query exemplars | query, start, end |
Metadata & Status Endpoints
| Endpoint | Purpose |
|---|---|
/api/v1/targets | Target discovery status (state=active|dropped|any) |
/api/v1/targets/metadata | Metric metadata from targets |
/api/v1/metadata | All metric metadata |
/api/v1/rules | Alerting/recording rules |
/api/v1/alerts | Active alerts |
/api/v1/alertmanagers | Alertmanager discovery |
/api/v1/status/config | Current config YAML |
/api/v1/status/flags | CLI flags |
/api/v1/status/runtimeinfo | Runtime info |
/api/v1/status/buildinfo | Build info |
/api/v1/status/tsdb | TSDB cardinality stats |
/api/v1/status/walreplay | WAL replay progress |
Admin Endpoints (require --web.enable-admin-api)
| Endpoint | Method | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
/api/v1/admin/tsdb/snapshot | POST | Create TSDB snapshot |
/api/v1/admin/tsdb/delete_series | POST | Delete series (match[], start, end) |
/api/v1/admin/tsdb/clean_tombstones | POST | Clean deleted data |
Common PromQL Patterns
# Rate of counter over 5m
rate(http_requests_total[5m])
# Sum by label
sum by (job) (rate(http_requests_total[5m]))
# Percentile from histogram
histogram_quantile(0.95, rate(http_request_duration_seconds_bucket[5m]))
# Filter by label
up{job="prometheus", instance=~".*:9090"}
# Increase over time
increase(http_requests_total[1h])
# Average over time range
avg_over_time(process_cpu_seconds_total[5m])
Result Types
- vector:
[{"metric": {...}, "value": [timestamp, "value"]}] - matrix:
[{"metric": {...}, "values": [[ts, "val"], ...]}] - scalar:
[timestamp, "value"] - string:
[timestamp, "string"]
Scripts
Query script: scripts/prom_query.py
# Instant query
python scripts/prom_query.py http://localhost:9090 'up'
# Range query
python scripts/prom_query.py http://localhost:9090 'rate(http_requests_total[5m])' \
--start '2024-01-01T00:00:00Z' --end '2024-01-01T01:00:00Z' --step '1m'
# Output: table, json, csv
python scripts/prom_query.py http://localhost:9090 'up' --format table
Health check: scripts/prom_health.py
python scripts/prom_health.py http://localhost:9090
Detailed Reference
For complete API documentation: references/api_reference.md
For PromQL functions: references/promql_functions.md