---
type: reference
title: Observability Provisioning
description: How Prometheus config/rules and Grafana datasources/dashboards are provisioned as code in serverAppConfigs — the config triad, deploy copiers, planner mappings, seam tests, entry points for each change type, and API verification.
tags: [observability, prometheus, grafana, provisioning, deployment]
timestamp: 2026-10-05T00:00:00-07:00
---

# Observability Provisioning

The monitoring stack is **provisioned as code**: dashboards, datasources,
scrape jobs and alert rules live in the repo and ride the normal deploy flow.
No hand-edits inside containers — they are wiped on recreate and never
committed.

## The config triad

| Repo path | What it holds |
|---|---|
| `shared/prometheus/prometheus.yml` | scrape jobs (global + per-host) |
| `shared/prometheus/rules/llm-fleet.yml` | alert rules + recording rules |
| `shared/grafana/provisioning/` | datasources + dashboards (provisioned tree) |

Targets and datasources reference **container names** (`loki:3100`,
`alloy:12345`), never loopback-published ports; the LLM endpoints are reached
by LAN IP (`192.168.0.143:7770`, `:7771`, `192.168.0.235:7770`) because they
are host-netns services, not containers. Prometheus 3 refuses HTML responses
as metrics — HTML-scraped "probes" are structurally inert and need a blackbox
exporter (see [[Stale Signal Audit]]).

## The deploy path

`scripts/deploy-remote.sh` carries two copier functions:

- `copy_prometheus_config` → `/opt/prometheus/config/` on the target
- `copy_grafana_provisioning` → `/opt/grafana/provisioning/`

`scripts/deploy-plan.py` maps changes under `shared/prometheus/**` and
`shared/grafana/**` to the `prometheus`/`grafana` services, so
`deploy.sh dankclaw --service grafana` (etc.) restarts only what the change
touched. Seam tests in `tests/observability_quadlet.bats` pin: unit files
exist, the copier functions exist, and the provisioned paths match the units'
mounts.

## Entry points

**Add a scrape target** — edit `shared/prometheus/prometheus.yml`. Decide the
vantage first: container name if the exporter is a container on the same
netns; host LAN IP if it is a host process (LLM endpoints); a blackbox module
if it is an HTTP probe, not a metrics endpoint.

**Add an alert/recording rule** — edit `shared/prometheus/rules/llm-fleet.yml`.
Current delivered set: 5 alert rules + 1 recording rule for the LLM fleet.
Rules reload with the prometheus service.

**Add a datasource** — drop a YAML file into
`shared/grafana/provisioning/datasources/`. Point it at the container name of
the backend (`http://prometheus:9090`), not loopback.

**Add a dashboard** — drop the JSON into
`shared/grafana/provisioning/dashboards/`. Provisioned dashboards live in
unified storage, not (only) the SQLite table — grep the API, not the DB, when
verifying (see the verify section of [[Fleet Audit and Posture]]).

## Verify through the APIs, not the filesystem

```bash
# prometheus: rules and targets actually loaded
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9090/api/v1/rules | python3 -m json.tool | head
curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:9090/api/v1/targets?state=active" | \
  python3 -c "import json,sys; [print(t['labels'].get('job'), t['health'], (t['lastError'] or '')[:60]) for t in json.load(sys.stdin)['data']['activeTargets']]"
# grafana: datasource + dashboard provisioned
curl -s -u admin:<pw> http://127.0.0.1:3002/api/datasources | python3 -m json.tool | grep -E '"name"|"url"'
```

Health answers from a stale process and provisioned resources can hide in
unified storage — a file existing on disk is not proof the running server
loaded it. See [[Stale Signal Audit]] for the never-green-target decision
table (refused = outage, 404/HTML = config defect).

## Current delivered state (2026-09-17)

Prometheus → Alertmanager (`dankclaw/observability/quadlet/alertmanager.container`,
loopback `:9093`) → host-side Signal relay (`scripts/signal-relay.py`, user
unit, `192.168.0.143:18093` — the LAN IP, the one bind a container can reach
via `host.containers.internal`) → signal-cli. Some targets read down for
structural reasons (HTML-scraped "probes", Gitea metrics off); the remedy is
the blackbox exporter. See [[Observability]].

## Related

- [[Observability]] — stack topology and the alert delivery chain
- [[Stale Signal Audit]] — classifying down targets before "fixing" them
- [[Quadlet Lifecycle]] — the units that host these services
- [[Deploy State Triage]] — how the planner selects these services