prometheus-probe

Last updated on Apr 20, 2026

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Prometheus probe allows you to run Prometheus queries and match the resulting output against specific conditions. The probe runs the query on a Prometheus server and checks whether the output satisfies the specified criteria.

When to use

• Track response latency or error rates via PromQL while injecting faults (e.g., verify p99 latency stays below a threshold during pod-delete)
• Validate custom application metrics exposed to Prometheus as steady-state indicators
• Define metrics-based SLOs declaratively and use them as experiment pass/fail criteria

Prerequisites

• A running Prometheus server
• Access to the Prometheus API endpoint from the Kubernetes execution plane
• Proper configuration of your application to expose metrics to Prometheus

Steps to configure

1. Navigate to Project Settings > Chaos Probes and click + New Probe

2. Select APM Probe, provide a name, and select Prometheus under APM Type

3. Under Variables, define any reusable values you want to reference in probe properties or run properties. For each variable, specify the type (String or Number), name, value (fixed or runtime input), and whether it's required at runtime.

4. Under Prometheus Connector, select an existing connector or click + New Connector to create one. Provide the Prometheus server URL, configure the delegate, verify the connection, and click Finish.

5. Under Probe Properties, configure:

   Field	Description
   Query	PromQL query to retrieve the desired metrics. All double quotes must be escaped. Example: avg_over_time(probe_duration_seconds{job=\"prometheus-blackbox-exporter\"}[60s:1s])*1000. See PromQL documentation
   TLS Config (optional)	TLS certificate validation for the Prometheus server. See Prometheus TLS configuration
   CA File (optional)	File path of the CA certificates for server TLS verification
   Cert File (optional)	File path of the client certificates for TLS verification
   Key File (optional)	File path of the client key for TLS verification
   Insecure Skip Verify (optional)	Toggle to skip TLS certificate checks

   Under Prometheus Data Comparison, provide:

   Field	Description
   Type	Data type for comparison: Float or Int
   Comparison Criteria	Comparison operator: >=, <=, ==, !=, >, <, oneOf, between
   Value	The expected value to compare against the query result

6. Provide the Run Properties:

   Field	Description
   Timeout	Maximum time for probe execution (e.g., 10s)
   Interval	Time between successive executions (e.g., 2s)
   Attempt	Number of retry attempts (e.g., 1)
   Polling Interval	Time between retries (e.g., 30s)
   Initial Delay	Delay before first execution (e.g., 5s)
   Verbosity	Log detail level
   Stop On Failure (optional)	Stop the experiment if the probe fails

7. Click Create Probe