Oodle Drop Rules — Cost Control

This skill teaches the agent to drop or sample high-volume metrics safely: estimate the impact first, prefer sampling over dropping, and never silently delete a metric a dashboard depends on.

Prerequisites

bash

brew install oodle-ai/oodle/oodle
oodle configure

Confirm the drop-rules endpoint works:

bash

oodle drop-rules list -o json | jq 'length'

Command Execution Order

Before running any oodle command:

Check whether the target metric prefix and matchers are already in context.

If not, run

oodle metrics list --match <prefix> -o json | jq 'length'

to estimate impact.

Confirm no critical dashboards or monitors depend on the affected series:

oodle dashboards list -o json | jq '.[] | select(.panels[]?.query | contains("<metric>"))'

oodle monitors list -o json | jq '.[] | select(.query | contains("<metric>"))'

Prefer
```
action: sample
```
(e.g.
```
sampleRate: 0.1
```
) on the first attempt; switch to
```
action: drop
```
only after the sampled data confirms low value.
Run
```
oodle drop-rules create -f rule.json
```
.

Quick Reference

Task	Command
List rules	`oodle drop-rules list -o json`
Get rule	`oodle drop-rules get <id> -o json`
Create rule	`oodle drop-rules create -f rule.json`
Update rule	`oodle drop-rules update <id> -f rule.json`
Delete rule	`oodle drop-rules delete <id> --force`

Common Operations

Rule schema

json

{
  "name": "drop-noisy-debug-metrics",
  "matchers": [
    {"name": "level", "value": "debug"},
    {"name": "env",   "value": "staging"}
  ],
  "action": "drop",
  "sampleRate": null
}

Field	Meaning
`matchers`	All matchers must match for the rule to fire (logical AND)
`action`	`drop` (discard) or `sample` (keep a fraction)
`sampleRate`	Required when `action="sample"` ; float in `(0,1]` . `null` for `drop`

Estimating impact before creating a rule

bash

# ✅ CORRECT — count series that will be affected
oodle metrics list --match "debug_" -o json | jq 'length'

# ✅ CORRECT — confirm no dashboard panel queries the metric
oodle dashboards list -o json | jq '.[] | select(.panels[]?.query | contains("debug_traffic_total"))'

# ✅ CORRECT — confirm no monitor depends on it
oodle monitors list -o json | jq '.[] | select(.query | contains("debug_traffic_total"))'

# ❌ WRONG — create the rule first, find out from on-call later
oodle drop-rules create -f rule.json

Creating a

sample

rule (safer first step)

json

{
  "name": "sample-debug-metrics-staging",
  "matchers": [
    {"name": "__name__", "value": "debug_traffic_total"},
    {"name": "env",      "value": "staging"}
  ],
  "action": "sample",
  "sampleRate": 0.1
}

bash

# ✅ CORRECT — keep 10% of the series; observe for a week before dropping
oodle drop-rules create -f rule.json

Promoting a

sample

rule to

drop

bash

# ✅ CORRECT — get → switch action → update
oodle drop-rules get dr_123 -o json > rule.json
jq '.action = "drop" | .sampleRate = null' rule.json > rule.new.json
oodle drop-rules update dr_123 -f rule.new.json

# ❌ WRONG — partial payload nulls matchers
oodle drop-rules update dr_123 -f <(echo '{"action":"drop"}')

Deleting (re-enabling ingestion)

bash

# ✅ CORRECT
oodle drop-rules get dr_123 -o json > /dev/null
oodle drop-rules delete dr_123 --force

# ❌ WRONG — speculative delete by name match
oodle drop-rules delete "$(oodle drop-rules list | grep debug | awk '{print $1}')" --force

Best Practices

Estimate impact with

oodle metrics list --match <prefix> -o json | jq 'length'

before creating a rule

A drop rule that matches more series than expected can hide real signal.

bash

# ✅ CORRECT
oodle metrics list --match "kube_pod_" -o json | jq 'length'
# 1742 series — confirm with the team that all 1742 are safe to drop before creating a rule

# ❌ WRONG — create rule based on a guess; later discover a critical metric was matched
oodle drop-rules create -f rule.json

Prefer

action: sample

with

sampleRate: 0.1

on the first iteration

Sampling preserves enough signal to confirm the metric truly is low-value before fully dropping it.

bash

# ✅ CORRECT — week 1: sample at 10%, observe dashboards
"action": "sample", "sampleRate": 0.1
# week 2: if no dashboards or monitors regressed, switch to drop
"action": "drop", "sampleRate": null

# ❌ WRONG — drop on first attempt; can break a dashboard nobody remembered
"action": "drop"

Always include both

env

and

service

(or

__name__

) in matchers

Broad matchers like

{level: debug}

alone can match production metrics that happen to share a label.

bash

# ✅ CORRECT — scoped to one env
"matchers": [{"name":"level","value":"debug"},{"name":"env","value":"staging"}]

# ❌ WRONG — also drops debug metrics in prod
"matchers": [{"name":"level","value":"debug"}]

Always

get

before

update

to preserve fields

Update is a full-document replace.

bash

# ✅ CORRECT
oodle drop-rules get dr_123 -o json > rule.json
jq '.sampleRate = 0.05' rule.json > rule.new.json
oodle drop-rules update dr_123 -f rule.new.json

# ❌ WRONG — drops matchers and action
oodle drop-rules update dr_123 -f <(echo '{"sampleRate":0.05}')

Name rules with

<action>-<metric-or-domain>-<scope>

Predictable names make it easy to find and revert a rule when a dashboard breaks.

bash

# ✅ CORRECT
"name": "drop-debug-metrics-staging"
"name": "sample-kube-pod-info-prod"

# ❌ WRONG
"name": "rule1"

Failure Handling

Error	Cause	Fix
401 Unauthorized	Invalid or missing API key	Run `oodle configure` or set `OODLE_API_KEY`
404 Not Found	Drop rule ID does not exist	Verify with `oodle drop-rules list -o json`
connection refused	Wrong `OODLE_DEPLOYMENT` URL	Check `OODLE_DEPLOYMENT` env var
`sampleRate required`	`action: sample` without `sampleRate`	Add `sampleRate` between 0 and 1 (e.g. 0.1)
Dashboard panel suddenly empty	Drop rule matched a metric the panel queries	Run `oodle drop-rules list -o json` to find the rule; delete it ( `oodle drop-rules delete <id> --force` ) or narrow its matchers
Monitor went into `no data`	Drop rule matched the monitor's metric	Same fix as above; alternatively switch the rule from `drop` to `sample`
Cost did not decrease	Matchers don't actually match the high-volume series	Re-run `oodle metrics list --match ...` and compare label sets to the rule's matchers
429 Too Many Requests	Bulk drop-rule sync	Add `--retries 3` , throttle to <10 creates per second

oodle-drop-rules

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Oodle Drop Rules — Cost Control

Prerequisites

Command Execution Order

Quick Reference

Common Operations

Rule schema

Estimating impact before creating a rule

Creating a
`sample`
rule (safer first step)

Promoting a
`sample`
rule to
`drop`

Deleting (re-enabling ingestion)

Best Practices

Estimate impact with
`oodle metrics list --match <prefix> -o json | jq 'length'`
before creating a rule

Prefer
`action: sample`
with
`sampleRate: 0.1`
on the first iteration

Always include both
`env`
and
`service`
(or
`name`
) in matchers

Always
`get`
before
`update`
to preserve fields

Name rules with
`<action>-<metric-or-domain>-<scope>`

Failure Handling

References

oodle-drop-rules

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Oodle Drop Rules — Cost Control

Prerequisites

Command Execution Order

Quick Reference

Common Operations

Rule schema

Estimating impact before creating a rule

Creating a sample rule (safer first step)

Promoting a sample rule to drop

Deleting (re-enabling ingestion)

Best Practices

Estimate impact with oodle metrics list --match <prefix> -o json | jq 'length' before creating a rule

Prefer action: sample with sampleRate: 0.1 on the first iteration

Always include both env and service (or __name__) in matchers

Always get before update to preserve fields

Name rules with <action>-<metric-or-domain>-<scope>

Failure Handling

References

Creating a
`sample`
rule (safer first step)

Promoting a
`sample`
rule to
`drop`

Estimate impact with
`oodle metrics list --match <prefix> -o json | jq 'length'`
before creating a rule

Prefer
`action: sample`
with
`sampleRate: 0.1`
on the first iteration

Always include both
`env`
and
`service`
(or
`name`
) in matchers

Always
`get`
before
`update`
to preserve fields

Name rules with
`<action>-<metric-or-domain>-<scope>`