Containerd Metrics API

openapi: 3.1.0
info:
  title: Containerd Metrics API
  description: The containerd metrics plugin exposes a Prometheus-compatible HTTP endpoint for scraping runtime metrics. When enabled via the metrics.address configuration option in config.toml, it serves Prometheus text format metrics covering gRPC request counts, latency histograms, snapshot usage, content store statistics, and task lifecycle events. This endpoint enables integration with Prometheus, Grafana, and other observability tooling for monitoring the containerd container runtime.
  version: 2.x
  contact:
    name: Containerd Community
    url: https://containerd.io/community/
  license:
    name: Apache 2.0
    url: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
servers:
- url: http://localhost:1338
  description: Containerd metrics HTTP server. Address is configured via metrics.address in config.toml (e.g., "127.0.0.1:1338").
tags:
- name: Metrics
  description: Prometheus-compatible metrics endpoints exposing containerd runtime statistics including gRPC request rates, snapshot usage, and task lifecycle counts.
paths:
  /v1/metrics:
    get:
      operationId: getMetrics
      summary: Containerd Get Prometheus metrics
      description: Returns all containerd metrics in Prometheus text exposition format. Metrics include gRPC server request counts and latency histograms (when grpc_histogram is enabled), snapshotter usage statistics, content store byte counts, task start and exit counters, and container count gauges. Each metric is labeled by namespace, snapshotter, or plugin type as appropriate. Requires the metrics address to be configured in the containerd config.toml.
      tags:
      - Metrics
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Prometheus text format metrics.
          content:
            text/plain:
              schema:
                type: string
                description: 'Prometheus exposition format text (version 0.0.4). Lines beginning with # HELP describe the metric, # TYPE lines declare metric type (counter, gauge, histogram, summary), and sample lines contain the metric name, optional labels, value, and optional timestamp. Key metrics include container_tasks_running, container_running_time_microseconds, grpc_server_handled_total, and snapshot_stats.'
              example: '# HELP containerd_snapshotter_snapshot_inodes_usage Snapshot inodes usage in bytes.

                # TYPE containerd_snapshotter_snapshot_inodes_usage gauge

                containerd_snapshotter_snapshot_inodes_usage{snapshotter="overlayfs"} 1024

                # HELP grpc_server_handled_total Total number of RPCs completed on the server.

                # TYPE grpc_server_handled_total counter

                grpc_server_handled_total{grpc_code="OK",grpc_method="ListContainers",grpc_service="containerd.services.containers.v1.Containers",grpc_type="unary"} 42

                '
externalDocs:
  description: Containerd Documentation
  url: https://containerd.io/docs/