Database Observability

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Monitoring database performance
• Diagnosing slow queries
• Setting up DB observability for RDS / Aurora / Cloud SQL / Azure Database / self-managed instances
• Correlating DB metrics with APM

Example prompts

• “my database is slow”
• “find the slow queries”
• “monitor RDS”
• “/database-observability”

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Add the Alloy config block from references/alloy-config.md § PostgreSQL
2. 2Restart Alloy and wait ~60s for first scrape
3. 3Verify in Grafana Cloud → Database Observability — the instance should appear with non-empty db_query_total{db_instance="mydb"} series. If…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 1ccacf2. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are sql).

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

  • grafana.com

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Database Observability loads about 1.1k tokens when it runs, and up to ~2k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 208 tokens; SKILL.md has 252 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~208

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.1k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from grafana/skills at commit 1ccacf2, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© grafana). 252 words, ~1,111 tokens.

name

database-observability

description

Set up Grafana Cloud Database Observability for MySQL and PostgreSQL — enables `pg_stat_statements` / Performance Schema, creates a least-privilege monitoring user, configures the `database_observability.postgres` / `database_observability.mysql` Alloy components, ships query samples + visual explain plans + RED metrics + schema details to Grafana Cloud, and correlates slow queries with application traces via `db.statement` / `db.system` OTel attributes. Use when monitoring database performance, diagnosing slow queries, setting up DB observability for RDS / Aurora / Cloud SQL / Azure Database / self-managed instances, correlating DB metrics with APM, or alerting on query latency — even when the user says "my database is slow", "find the slow queries", or "monitor RDS" without saying "observability".

license

Apache-2.0

-- 1. Enable pg_stat_statements (requires restart)
--    In postgresql.conf:  shared_preload_libraries = 'pg_stat_statements'
--    Then restart PostgreSQL.

-- 2. Create a least-privilege monitoring user
CREATE USER grafana_monitoring WITH PASSWORD 'secret';
GRANT pg_monitor TO grafana_monitoring;
GRANT CONNECT ON DATABASE mydb TO grafana_monitoring;

-- 3. Enable the extension on each monitored DB
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_stat_statements;

-- 4. Verify
SELECT count(*) FROM pg_stat_statements;
-- Should return >= 0 (not an error). If "relation does not exist": step 3 didn't run.

-- 1. Create least-privilege monitoring user
CREATE USER 'grafana_monitoring'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'secret';
GRANT SELECT, PROCESS, REPLICATION CLIENT ON *.* TO 'grafana_monitoring'@'%';
GRANT SELECT ON performance_schema.* TO 'grafana_monitoring'@'%';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

-- 2. Verify performance_schema is enabled (default in MySQL 8+)
SELECT @@performance_schema;
-- Returns 1 → enabled. 0 → set performance_schema=ON in my.cnf + restart.

© grafana, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files (references) in skills/grafana-cloud/database-observability of grafana/skills.

• SKILL.md
• references/alloy-config.md
• references/queries-alerts.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 1ccacf2