Skillshub promql-cli

CLI for querying Prometheus and PromQL-compatible engines (Thanos, Cortex, VictoriaMetrics, Grafana Mimir, Grafana Tempo...) — instant queries, range queries, metric discovery (metrics/labels/meta subcommands), output formats (table/csv/json/graph). Apply when executing PromQL queries, troubleshooting performance issues on a software having observability, investigating latency/error rates/saturation, or analyzing time series data.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/ComeOnOliver/skillshub

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/ComeOnOliver/skillshub "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/Harmeet10000/skills/promql-cli" ~/.claude/skills/comeonoliver-skillshub-promql-cli && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/Harmeet10000/skills/promql-cli/SKILL.md

source content

promql-cli — Prometheus Query CLI Skill

promql-cli

(github.com/nalbury/promql-cli) is a Go CLI for querying, analyzing, and visualizing Prometheus metrics, plus PromQL fundamentals.

Reference Files

Read the relevant reference file(s) before executing tasks:

File	When to read
`references/installation.md`	User needs to install promql-cli or set up configuration (hosts, auth, token, password, multi-host)
`references/usage.md`	User wants to discover metrics/exporters/labels, run queries, or choose output formats
`references/graphing.md`	User wants to visualize Prometheus data as an ASCII chart in the terminal
`references/debugging.md`	User is investigating a performance issue, latency, errors, or saturation
`references/promql-reference.md`	User needs help writing PromQL, understanding metric types, functions, or aggregations

For most tasks, read

references/usage.md

. For PromQL help, read

references/promql-reference.md

. When debugging, read both

references/debugging.md

and

references/promql-reference.md

Setup Check

Before running any query, verify that a host is configured:

promql 'up'   # succeeds if host is reachable; fails with connection error if not configured
# or
promql --host xxx 'up'

Recognize these errors as a configuration/auth problem and refer to

references/installation.md

Error	Cause
`dial tcp ... connection refused`	No host running at the configured address
`dial tcp ... no such host`	Hostname not resolved — wrong host in config
`error querying prometheus: ...401...`	Bearer token missing or invalid
`error querying prometheus: ...403...`	Token valid but insufficient permissions
`please specify an authentication type`	Auth flags partially set — use config file instead

If any of these appear, do not create config files on behalf of the user — config files may contain credentials (tokens, passwords) that must never pass through an LLM. Instead, guide the user to set it up themselves:

"Please create
~/.promql-cli.yaml
manually with your Prometheus host (and credentials if needed). See
references/installation.md
for the exact format. Let me know once it's ready."

Only after the user confirms the config is in place should you proceed with queries.

Quick Command Reference

promql 'up'                                          # instant query
promql 'rate(http_requests_total[5m])' --start 1h    # range query (ASCII graph)
promql 'up' --output csv                             # CSV output
promql 'up' --output json                            # JSON output
promql metrics                                       # list all metric names
promql labels <metric>                               # list labels for a metric
promql meta <metric>                                 # show metric type and help
promql --config ~/.promql-cli-prod.yaml 'up'         # target a specific host

Key Principles

Use
rate()
on counters, never raw values — raw counters only ever increase; the absolute value is meaningless.
```
rate()
```
gives the per-second change rate, which is what you actually care about.
When debugging, isolate a single instance — aggregating across replicas masks per-instance anomalies. A single overloaded pod hidden behind healthy peers won't show up in averages.
Filter early with label matchers in the innermost selector — Prometheus evaluates selectors before functions, so filtering late means scanning all time series. Early filters reduce data scanned and query latency.
For histograms, keep
le
in the
by
clause before
```
histogram_quantile()
```
— the function needs all
```
le
```
buckets to interpolate percentiles; dropping
```
le
```
early produces
```
NaN
```
or wrong results.
Prefer
--output graph
for range queries — ASCII sparklines convey trend direction (rising, falling, spiking) in a compact format that LLMs parse well; raw timestamp tables require mental modeling.
Store credentials in
~/.promql-cli.yaml
and
~/.promql_token
, chmod 600 — passing tokens as CLI args exposes them in shell history and process listings.

This skill is not exhaustive. Please refer to the official promql-cli documentation and examples for up-to-date information. Context7 can help as a discoverability platform.

If you encounter a bug or unexpected behavior in promql-cli itself, open an issue at https://github.com/nalbury/promql-cli/issues.