monitoring-expert
Configures monitoring systems, implements structured logging pipelines, creates Prometheus/Grafana dashboards, defines alerting rules, and instruments distributed tracing. Implements Prometheus/Grafana stacks, conducts load testing, performs application profiling, and plans infrastructure capacity. Use when setting up application monitoring, adding observability to services, debugging production issues with logs/metrics/traces, running load tests with k6 or Artillery, profiling CPU/memory bottlenecks, or forecasting capacity needs.
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Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/jeffallan/claude-skills --skill monitoring-expert- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads monitoring-expert automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
Security audits
Independent scans of the skill's instructions and bundled files.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
Monitoring Expert
Observability and performance specialist implementing comprehensive monitoring, alerting, tracing, and performance testing systems.
Core Workflow
- Assess — Identify what needs monitoring (SLIs, critical paths, business metrics)
- Instrument — Add logging, metrics, and traces to the application (see examples below)
- Collect — Configure aggregation and storage (Prometheus scrape, log shipper, OTLP endpoint); verify data arrives before proceeding
- Visualize — Build dashboards using RED (Rate/Errors/Duration) or USE (Utilization/Saturation/Errors) methods
- Alert — Define threshold and anomaly alerts on critical paths; validate no false-positive flood before shipping
Quick-Start Examples
Structured Logging (Node.js / Pino)
import pino from 'pino';
const logger = pino({ level: 'info' });
// Good — structured fields, includes correlation ID
logger.info({ requestId: req.id, userId: req.user.id, durationMs: elapsed }, 'order.created');
// Bad — string interpolation, no correlation
console.log(`Order created for user ${userId}`);
Prometheus Metrics (Node.js)
import { Counter, Histogram, register } from 'prom-client';
const httpRequests = new Counter({
name: 'http_requests_total',
help: 'Total HTTP requests',
labelNames: ['method', 'route', 'status'],
});
const httpDuration = new Histogram({
name: 'http_request_duration_seconds',
help: 'HTTP request latency',
labelNames: ['method', 'route'],
buckets: [0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1, 2, 5],
});
// Instrument a route
app.use((req, res, next) => {
const end = httpDuration.startTimer({ method: req.method, route: req.path });
res.on('finish', () => {
httpRequests.inc({ method: req.method, route: req.path, status: res.statusCode });
end();
});
next();
});
// Expose scrape endpoint
app.get('/metrics', async (req, res) => {
res.set('Content-Type', register.contentType);
res.end(await register.metrics());
});
OpenTelemetry Tracing (Node.js)
import { NodeSDK } from '@opentelemetry/sdk-node';
import { OTLPTraceExporter } from '@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http';
import { trace } from '@opentelemetry/api';
const sdk = new NodeSDK({
traceExporter: new OTLPTraceExporter({ url: 'http://jaeger:4318/v1/traces' }),
});
sdk.start();
// Manual span around a critical operation
const tracer = trace.getTracer('order-service');
async function processOrder(orderId) {
const span = tracer.startSpan('order.process');
span.setAttribute('order.id', orderId);
try {
const result = await db.saveOrder(orderId);
span.setStatus({ code: SpanStatusCode.OK });
return result;
} catch (err) {
span.recordException(err);
span.setStatus({ code: SpanStatusCode.ERROR });
throw err;
} finally {
span.end();
}
}
Prometheus Alerting Rule
groups:
- name: api.rules
rules:
- alert: HighErrorRate
expr: |
rate(http_requests_total{status=~"5.."}[5m])
/ rate(http_requests_total[5m]) > 0.05
for: 2m
labels:
severity: critical
annotations:
summary: "Error rate above 5% on {{ $labels.route }}"
k6 Load Test
import http from 'k6/http';
import { check, sleep } from 'k6';
export const options = {
stages: [
{ duration: '1m', target: 50 }, // ramp up
{ duration: '5m', target: 50 }, // sustained load
{ duration: '1m', target: 0 }, // ramp down
],
thresholds: {
http_req_duration: ['p(95)<500'], // 95th percentile < 500 ms
http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'], // error rate < 1%
},
};
export default function () {
const res = http.get('https://api.example.com/orders');
check(res, { 'status is 200': (r) => r.status === 200 });
sleep(1);
}
Reference Guide
Load detailed guidance based on context:
| Topic | Reference | Load When |
|---|---|---|
| Logging | references/structured-logging.md | Pino, JSON logging |
| Metrics | references/prometheus-metrics.md | Counter, Histogram, Gauge |
| Tracing | references/opentelemetry.md | OpenTelemetry, spans |
| Alerting | references/alerting-rules.md | Prometheus alerts |
| Dashboards | references/dashboards.md | RED/USE method, Grafana |
| Performance Testing | references/performance-testing.md | Load testing, k6, Artillery, benchmarks |
| Profiling | references/application-profiling.md | CPU/memory profiling, bottlenecks |
| Capacity Planning | references/capacity-planning.md | Scaling, forecasting, budgets |
Constraints
MUST DO
- Use structured logging (JSON)
- Include request IDs for correlation
- Set up alerts for critical paths
- Monitor business metrics, not just technical
- Use appropriate metric types (counter/gauge/histogram)
- Implement health check endpoints
MUST NOT DO
- Log sensitive data (passwords, tokens, PII)
- Alert on every error (alert fatigue)
- Use string interpolation in logs (use structured fields)
- Skip correlation IDs in distributed systems
Maintained by @jeffallan, Principal Consultant at Synergetic Solutions
FAQ
What does the monitoring-expert skill do?
Configures monitoring systems, implements structured logging pipelines, creates Prometheus/Grafana dashboards, defines alerting rules, and instruments distributed tracing. Implements Prometheus/Grafana stacks, conducts load testing, performs application profiling, and plans infrastructure capacity. Use when setting up application monitoring, adding observability to services, debugging production issues with logs/metrics/traces, running load tests with k6 or Artillery, profiling CPU/memory bottlenecks, or forecasting capacity needs.
How do I install monitoring-expert?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/jeffallan/claude-skills --skill monitoring-expert in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/monitoring-expert/ (personal) or .claude/skills/monitoring-expert/ (project).
Which AI agents can use monitoring-expert?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is monitoring-expert safe to install?
Security partners have reviewed it: Gen Agent Trust Hub flagged risks; Socket passed; Snyk passed; Runlayer flagged items to review; ZeroLeaks passed. As with any skill, read the SKILL.md and bundled scripts before installing.
Who maintains monitoring-expert?
It is published by jeffallan in jeffallan/claude-skills. It has 5,636 recorded installs.
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