Dashboards

A dashboard is a set of LSQL queries laid out on a grid, sharing one time range and one set of variables. Every element is a query you could have run in Explore.

Building one

1. 1

   Start from a query

   Get the result right in Explore, then Add to dashboard. Charts built from a working query beat charts built from a blank element.

2. 2

   Pick the element type

   A time column plus a number gives a time series. Two dimensions give a table or a heatmap. One number gives a statistic.

3. 3

   Add variables

   Anything you would otherwise hard-code — service, environment, region — becomes a variable.

4. 4

   Set the default range

   Match it to the audience. An on-call board wants 1h; a weekly review wants 7d.

Dashboards people actually read

• One question per dashboard. "Is checkout healthy?" beats "everything about checkout".
• Put the answer at the top left. That is where eyes land, and it is where the on-call engineer stops reading.
• Six to eight elements. Past that, nobody scrolls.
• Annotate deploys — see annotations. Half of all dashboard questions are answered by a vertical line.