# Metrics

Metrics are numerical values that represent the state, performance, or behavior of your application over time. They are the core building blocks of the analytics platform — enabling insights, dashboards, alerts, and aggregation across many data sources.

# What is a Metric?

A metric is:

Identified by a name (e.g. cpu_usage_percent, online_players, npc_type_pig)
Reported by one or more senders (e.g., a game server, plugin, or application)
Includes exact one numeric value

Each metric is sent at a point in time and represents a measurable value from your application or environment.

# What Can Be a Metric?

Anything that can be measured numerically:

Metric Name	Example Value	Description
`cpu_usage_percent`	`42.5`	Current CPU usage in percent
`online_players`	`10`	Number of players online
`npc_count`	`123`	Total NPCs spawned on a game server
`npc_count_pig`	`5`	Number of pig NPCs
`plugin_enabled`	`1` (true)	Boolean values are converted to 1/0
`tps`	`20`	Ticks per second
`network_in_kb`	`512`	Incoming network traffic