Dataset Definitions
/
Set or Update Dataset Definitions

Honeycomb API (1.0.0)

The API allows programmatic management of many resources within Honeycomb.

Please report any discrepancies with actual API behavior in Pollinators Slack or to Honeycomb Support.

https://docs.honeycomb.io
Download OpenAPI description
api.json
api.yaml
Overview
E-mail support@honeycomb.io
License Apache 2.0
Languages
Servers
https://api.honeycomb.io/
https://api.eu1.honeycomb.io/

Auth

API Keys have various scopes permissions and belong to a specific Team or Environment.

Any valid Honeycomb ingest or configuration API Key will work with this endpoint. Learn more about API keys.

These endpoints can be used to validate authentication for a key, to determine what authorizations have been granted to a key, and to determine the Team and Environment that a key belongs to.

Operations

Boards

Boards are a place to pin and save useful queries and graphs you want to retain for later reuse and reference.

This API allows you to list, create, update, and delete Boards.

Operations

Burn Alerts

Operations

Columns

Columns are fields in the events you send to Honeycomb.

This API allows you to list, create, update, and delete columns in a dataset.

Operations

Datasets

A Dataset represents a collection of related events that come from the same source, or are related to the same source.

This API allows you to list, create, and update datasets.

Operations

Dataset Definitions

Dataset definitions describe the fields with special meaning in the Dataset.

Refer to the Dataset Definitions documentation for more information.

Honeycomb automatically creates these Dataset definition fields when the Dataset is created. Manual creation of Dataset definitions is not needed.

Operations

Authorization

The API key must have the Create Datasets permission. Learn more about API keys here.

Set or Update Dataset Definitions

Request

Set or update one or more definitions for a Dataset. Note: While the PATCH payload can include the column_type, Honeycomb does not use this field when updating Dataset Definitions.

Path
datasetSlugstringrequired

The dataset slug.

Bodyapplication/jsonrequired

The PATCH payload takes a map of Dataset definition type to Dataset definition. Fields not defined in the request are not modified on the server. Note: In order to CLEAR a column of a Dataset definition set the column’s name field to an empty string.

span_idnull or object

The unique identifier (ID) for each span.

trace_idnull or object

The ID of the trace this span belongs to.

parent_idnull or object

The Parent Span ID - The ID of this span's parent span, the call location the current span was called from.

namenull or object

The name of the function or method where the span was created.

service_namenull or object

The name of the instrumented service.

duration_msnull or object

Span Duration - How much time the span took, in milliseconds.

span_kindnull or object

Metadata: Kind - The kind of Span. For example, client or server. The use of this field to identify Span Events and Links is deprecated. Use the field Metadata: Annotation Type.

annotation_typenull or object

Metadata: Annotation Type - The type of span annotation. For example, span_event or link. This lets Honeycomb visualize this type of event differently in a trace. Do not use this field for other purposes.

link_span_idnull or object

Metadata: Link Span ID - Links let you tie traces and spans to one another. The Link Span ID lets you link to a different span (when used with Link Trace ID).

link_trace_idnull or object

Metadata: Link Trace ID - Links let you tie traces and spans to one another. The Link Trace Id lets you link to a different trace or a different span in the same trace (when used with Link Span ID).

errornull or object

Use a Boolean or String to indicate error.

statusnull or object

Indicates the success, failure, or other status of a request.

routenull or object

The HTTP URL or equivalent route processed by the request.

usernull or object

The user making the request in the system.

log_severitynull or object

Severity level of the event (also known as log level). Supported values: trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal, unspecified.

log_messagenull or object

A value containing the log event message. Can be a human-readable string message (including multi-line) describing the event in a free form.

curl -i -X PATCH \
  'https://api.honeycomb.io/1/dataset_definitions/{datasetSlug}' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'X-Honeycomb-Team: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE' \
  -d '{
    "duration_ms": {
      "name": "duration_we_send",
      "column_type": "derived_column"
    }
  }'

Responses

Dataset Definitions have been updated

Bodyapplication/json
span_idnull or object

The unique identifier (ID) for each span.

trace_idnull or object

The ID of the trace this span belongs to.

parent_idnull or object

The Parent Span ID - The ID of this span's parent span, the call location the current span was called from.

namenull or object

The name of the function or method where the span was created.

service_namenull or object

The name of the instrumented service.

duration_msnull or object

Span Duration - How much time the span took, in milliseconds.

span_kindnull or object

Metadata: Kind - The kind of Span. For example, client or server. The use of this field to identify Span Events and Links is deprecated. Use the field Metadata: Annotation Type.

annotation_typenull or object

Metadata: Annotation Type - The type of span annotation. For example, span_event or link. This lets Honeycomb visualize this type of event differently in a trace. Do not use this field for other purposes.

link_span_idnull or object

Metadata: Link Span ID - Links let you tie traces and spans to one another. The Link Span ID lets you link to a different span (when used with Link Trace ID).

link_trace_idnull or object

Metadata: Link Trace ID - Links let you tie traces and spans to one another. The Link Trace Id lets you link to a different trace or a different span in the same trace (when used with Link Span ID).

errornull or object

Use a Boolean or String to indicate error.

statusnull or object

Indicates the success, failure, or other status of a request.

routenull or object

The HTTP URL or equivalent route processed by the request.

usernull or object

The user making the request in the system.

log_severitynull or object

Severity level of the event (also known as log level). Supported values: trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal, unspecified.

log_messagenull or object

A value containing the log event message. Can be a human-readable string message (including multi-line) describing the event in a free form.

Response
application/json
{
  "duration_ms": {
    "name": "duration_ms",
    "column_type": "column"
  },
  "error": null,
  "name": null,
  "parent_id": null,
  "route": null,
  "service_name": null,
  "span_id": {
    "name": "my_span_id",
    "column_type": "column"
  },
  "span_kind": null,
  "annotation_type": null,
  "link_trace_id": null,
  "link_span_id": null,
  "status": null,
  "trace_id": null,
  "user": null,
  "log_severity": null,
  "log_message": null
}

Get all Dataset Definitions

Request

Get all definitions for a Dataset. The response returns an object with a Dataset Definition for each set Dataset Definition type.

Path
datasetSlugstringrequired

The dataset slug.

curl -i -X GET \
  'https://api.honeycomb.io/1/dataset_definitions/{datasetSlug}' \
  -H 'X-Honeycomb-Team: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'

Responses

Success

Bodyapplication/json
span_idnull or object

The unique identifier (ID) for each span.

trace_idnull or object

The ID of the trace this span belongs to.

parent_idnull or object

The Parent Span ID - The ID of this span's parent span, the call location the current span was called from.

namenull or object

The name of the function or method where the span was created.

service_namenull or object

The name of the instrumented service.

duration_msnull or object

Span Duration - How much time the span took, in milliseconds.

span_kindnull or object

Metadata: Kind - The kind of Span. For example, client or server. The use of this field to identify Span Events and Links is deprecated. Use the field Metadata: Annotation Type.

annotation_typenull or object

Metadata: Annotation Type - The type of span annotation. For example, span_event or link. This lets Honeycomb visualize this type of event differently in a trace. Do not use this field for other purposes.

link_span_idnull or object

Metadata: Link Span ID - Links let you tie traces and spans to one another. The Link Span ID lets you link to a different span (when used with Link Trace ID).

link_trace_idnull or object

Metadata: Link Trace ID - Links let you tie traces and spans to one another. The Link Trace Id lets you link to a different trace or a different span in the same trace (when used with Link Span ID).

errornull or object

Use a Boolean or String to indicate error.

statusnull or object

Indicates the success, failure, or other status of a request.

routenull or object

The HTTP URL or equivalent route processed by the request.

usernull or object

The user making the request in the system.

log_severitynull or object

Severity level of the event (also known as log level). Supported values: trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal, unspecified.

log_messagenull or object

A value containing the log event message. Can be a human-readable string message (including multi-line) describing the event in a free form.

Response
application/json
{
  "duration_ms": {
    "name": "duration_ms",
    "column_type": "column"
  },
  "error": null,
  "name": null,
  "parent_id": null,
  "route": null,
  "service_name": null,
  "span_id": {
    "name": "my_span_id",
    "column_type": "column"
  },
  "span_kind": null,
  "annotation_type": null,
  "link_trace_id": null,
  "link_span_id": null,
  "status": null,
  "trace_id": null,
  "user": null,
  "log_severity": null,
  "log_message": null
}

Derived Columns

Derived columns allow you to run queries based on the value of an expression that is derived from the columns in an event.

This API allows you to list, create, update, and delete derived columns in a dataset or across a whole environment, paralleling the behavior of the Schema tab within a Dataset's or Environment's Settings UI.

Operations

Events

The Events API endpoints are the lowest-level way to send Events to Honeycomb. This should be your last resort!

If unsure where to start when instrumenting an application, read about how to Send Data to Honeycomb.

If you are building a tracing or metrics library, we recommend using OpenTelemetry.

Operations

Environments

This API allows you to list, create, and update, and delete Environments.

Operations

Key Management

This API allows you to list, create, update, and delete API Keys for a Team.

Operations

Kinesis Events

The Kinesis Events API endpoints allow Honeycomb to process streaming events from Amazon Kinesis.

Refer to the Honeycomb AWS integrations documentation for more information.

Operations

Markers

Markers indicate points in time on graphs where interesting things happen, such as deploys or outages.

This API allows you to list, create, update, and delete Markers.

Operations

Marker Settings

Marker Settings apply to groups of similar Markers. For example, "deploys" markers appear with the same color on a graph.

This API allows you to list, create, update, and delete Marker Settings.

Operations

Queries

Queries in Honeycomb are specifications for queries, and are used to identify queries in other parts of the API - in particular: boards, triggers, and query annotations.

This API allows you to create and get query objects.

Operations

Query Annotations

Query Annotations in Honeycomb allow you to associate names and descriptions to queries to add additional information in collaboration features.

This API allows you to list, create, update, and delete Query Annotations.

Operations

Query Data

This feature is available as part of the Honeycomb Enterprise plan.

Query Results are the aggregated data from a Query, similar to what is displayed in graphs or heatmaps within the Honeycomb UI. Receiving results from a Query is a three-step process:

Create the Query (or Query Spec), which validates that the query parameters are valid. Creating a query does not actually run the query to get results. Run the query asynchronously by creating a Query Result referencing the Query’s ID. This returns a Query Result ID. Poll the query result endpoint (with the Query Result ID) until the data is ready.

Note that many Query Results can be created from a single Query. This is particularly useful when using a relative time_range parameter in the Query. For example, a Query with time_range: 7200 and no explicit start_time or end_time can be re-run over and over, with each resulting Query Result containing the most recent 2 hours of data. This is conceptually similar to clicking Run Query in the Honeycomb UI without changing any query parameters.

IMPORTANT API RESTRICTIONS:

To ensure the stability of Honeycomb systems, we have enabled the following API restrictions. These restrictions may change over time.

  • Query Results can only be created for events with timestamps within the past 7 days.

  • When creating a Query Result, the time ranges from the Query are truncated according to the following rules. For queries with a time range of:

    • less than or equal to 6 hours, results are truncated to the nearest 1 minute. For example, a start/end time of 2021-04-22T05:28:12Z will be truncated to 2021-04-22T05:28:00Z.

    • greater than 6 hours and less than or equal to 2 days, results are truncated to the nearest 5 minutes. For example, a start/end time of 2021-04-22T05:28:12Z will be truncated to 2021-04-22T05:25:00Z.

    • greater than 2 days and less than or equal to 7 days, results are truncated to the nearest 30 minutes. For example, a start/end time of 2021-04-22T05:28:12Z will be truncated to 2021-04-22T05:00:00Z.

  • Creating a Query Result is rate limited to 10 requests per minute. Status code 429 will be returned when rate limited.

  • Query Results cannot take longer than 10 seconds to run.

Operations

Recipients

Honeycomb Recipients allow you to define and manage the Recipients that will get notified by a Trigger or Burn Alert.

The types of Recipients supported are: PagerDuty, Email, Webhook, Microsoft Teams, and Slack.

Operations

SLOs

This feature is available as part of the Honeycomb Pro and Enterprise plans.

Honeycomb SLOs allow you to define and monitor Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for your organization.

This API allows you to list, create, update, and delete SLO objects.

Operations

Triggers

Triggers let you receive notifications when your data in Honeycomb crosses the thresholds that you configure. The graph on which to alert is as flexible as a Honeycomb query, which helps reduce false positives due to known errors.Triggers fire

This API allows you to list, create, update, and delete Triggers.

Operations

Errors

The Honeycomb API returns standardized error responses, as documented here.