prometheus / prometheus/docs

Naming conventions: _total vs. _count

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kind/enhancement
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Description

The Metric and label naming documentation page states that "an accumulating count has a total as a suffix".

The Histograms and summaries best practice page however uses _count as the suffix for a counter.

Are these two recommendations not contradictory? Is the count+sum pair an exception to the general counter case, and thus warrants its own suffix? (If that's the case, it would probably make sense to mention that in the "Metric and label naming" page).

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Research direction

Read the linked Metric and label naming and Histograms and summaries documentation pages first, comparing their guidance on _total and _count. Resolve whether the count-and-sum convention is an exception, then update the relevant wording so the recommendations are consistent and the relationship is explicit.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
prometheus
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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