What to Track

You've set up Sentry Metrics. Now what? This guide covers the high-value metric patterns that give you visibility into application health and how to drill into traces when something looks off.

Anatomy of a Metric

Sentry supports three metric types:

Every metric is trace-connected. When a metric spikes, click into samples to see the exact trace that produced it.

Sentry.metrics.count("checkout.failed", 1, {
  attributes: {
    user_tier: "premium",
    failure_reason: "payment_declined",
  },
});

Where to Track Metrics

Start with these five metrics and you'll spot issues before they become problems.

1. Business Events

Track discrete events that matter to the business. These become your KPIs.

Sentry.metrics.count("checkout.completed", 1, {
  attributes: { user_tier: "premium", payment_method: "card" },
});

Sentry.metrics.count("checkout.failed", 1, {
  attributes: { user_tier: "premium", failure_reason: "payment_declined" },
});

Explore in Sentry:

1. Go to Explore > Metrics
2. Select checkout.failed, set Aggregate to sum
3. Group by failure_reason
4. Click Samples to see individual events and their traces

2. Application Health

Track success and failure of critical operations.

Sentry.metrics.count("email.sent", 1, {
  attributes: { email_type: "welcome", provider: "sendgrid" },
});

Sentry.metrics.count("email.failed", 1, {
  attributes: { email_type: "welcome", error: "rate_limited" },
});

Sentry.metrics.count("job.processed", 1, {
  attributes: { job_type: "invoice-generation", queue: "billing" },
});

Query in Explore > Metrics: Add both email.sent and email.failed, group by email_type, compare the ratio.

3. Resource Utilization

Track the current state of pools, queues, and connections. Call these periodically (e.g., every 30 seconds).

Sentry.metrics.gauge("queue.depth", await queue.size(), {
  attributes: { queue_name: "notifications" },
});

Sentry.metrics.gauge("pool.connections_active", pool.activeConnections, {
  attributes: { pool_name: "postgres-primary" },
});

Query in Explore > Metrics: View max(queue.depth) over time to spot backlogs.

4. Latency and Performance

Track values that vary and need percentile analysis. Tip: averages can hide outliers, use p90/p95/p99 instead.

Sentry.metrics.distribution("api.latency", responseTimeMs, {
  unit: "millisecond",
  attributes: { endpoint: "/api/orders", method: "POST" },
});

Sentry.metrics.distribution("db.query_time", queryDurationMs, {
  unit: "millisecond",
  attributes: { table: "orders", operation: "select" },
});

Query in Explore > Metrics: View p95(api.latency) grouped by endpoint to find slow routes.

5. Business Values

Track amounts, sizes, and quantities for analysis.

Sentry.metrics.distribution("order.amount", order.totalUsd, {
  unit: "usd",
  attributes: { user_tier: "premium", region: "us-west" },
});

Sentry.metrics.distribution("upload.size", fileSizeBytes, {
  unit: "byte",
  attributes: { file_type: "image", source: "profile-update" },
});

Query in Explore > Metrics: View avg(order.amount) grouped by region to compare regional performance.

Alerts and Dashboard Widgets

You'll soon be able to:

• Create alert rules based on metric queries
• Add metric visualizations to dashboards
• Set up notifications when metrics cross thresholds
• Save common queries for quick access

Quick Reference

When to Use Metrics vs Traces vs Logs

All three are trace-connected. Start wherever makes sense and navigate to the others.

Explore the Metrics product walkthrough guides to learn more about the Sentry interface and discover additional tips.