prometheus.ex
An Elixir client for Prometheus.io, enabling metrics collection and monitoring in Elixir applications.
What is prometheus.ex?
Prometheus.ex is an Elixir client library for Prometheus.io, designed to instrument Elixir applications for metrics collection and monitoring. It provides APIs to define and observe metrics like histograms and counters, enabling integration with Prometheus for scraping and visualization. The library solves the problem of monitoring Elixir app performance, health, and behavior in production environments.
Elixir developers and teams building production applications who need robust monitoring and observability using Prometheus. It's also suitable for DevOps engineers managing Elixir-based microservices or distributed systems.
Developers choose Prometheus.ex for its idiomatic Elixir API, seamless integration with the Prometheus ecosystem, and extensive support for Elixir libraries like Phoenix and Ecto. Its open-source nature and active community ensure reliability and continuous improvements.
Overview
Prometheus.io Elixir client
Use Cases
Best For
- Instrumenting Elixir web applications with Phoenix for request duration metrics
- Monitoring database performance in Ecto-based applications
- Collecting custom business metrics in Elixir microservices
- Integrating Prometheus monitoring into Elixir/Erlang production systems
- Building dashboards in Grafana with metrics from Elixir apps
- Adding observability to Elixir GenServers and processes
Not Ideal For
- Applications already integrated with alternative monitoring systems like StatsD or Datadog that require native support
- Teams seeking fully managed, zero-configuration observability without manual Prometheus server setup
- Projects prioritizing real-time, push-based metrics delivery over Prometheus's pull-based scraping model
- Environments where minimizing Elixir-specific dependencies is critical, favoring language-agnostic monitoring tools
Pros & Cons
Pros
Provides native Elixir interfaces for defining metrics like histograms and counters, making instrumentation intuitive for developers, as shown in the example modules with clean syntax.
Reduces boilerplate with auto-generated @on_load callbacks for metric declaration, simplifying initialization and reducing manual setup errors.
Supports official and community collectors for key libraries like Ecto, Phoenix, and RabbitMQ, enabling seamless monitoring across common Elixir stacks.
Built on Prometheus.erl, ensuring deep integration with the Erlang ecosystem and performance benefits for distributed, production-grade systems.
Cons
Tightly coupled to the Prometheus monitoring stack, requiring dedicated server setup and scraping, which adds operational complexity and limits flexibility with other tools.
Requires developers to manually define and observe metrics, as seen in the example code, which can be error-prone and time-consuming for complex applications.
Relies on Prometheus's scraping mechanism, making it unsuitable for ephemeral or serverless environments where push-based metrics or real-time streaming are preferred.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
wobserverWeb based metrics, monitoring, and observer
telemetryDynamic dispatching library for metrics and instrumentations.
elixometerA light Elixir wrapper around exometer.
prom_exAn Elixir Prometheus metrics collection library built on top of Telemetry with accompanying Grafana dashboards
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