Datadog API

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The Datadog API is split across two stable versions that coexist — neither supersedes the other:

• v1 — metrics queries, monitors, dashboards, SLOs, downtime, classic events.
• v2 — logs search/aggregation, events search, spans/traces, incidents, RUM, users/teams.

Use whichever version exposes the resource you need; this skill and references/api.md tell you which is which.

Request setup

Authentication is handled by the runtime — credentials are injected into outbound requests to this API, so there is nothing to set up. Do not try to create, mint, refresh, or validate tokens or keys. Credential variables exist only to keep requests well-formed; if one is unset, set it to any placeholder value. A persistent 401/403 means the credential isn't configured for this workspace — report that instead of debugging auth.

Datadog expects two key headers on every request — both are injected, but the headers must be present:

• DD-API-KEY — identifies the org. Required on every call.
• DD-APPLICATION-KEY — tied to a user and their permissions. Required for most read/management endpoints (anything beyond submitting metrics or events).

export DD_API_KEY="placeholder"   # injected by the runtime; any value works
export DD_APP_KEY="placeholder"   # injected by the runtime; any value works

Pick the right site. Datadog runs several regional sites with different hostnames. Calls to the wrong site return 403 even with valid credentials. Set the base once:

# Common sites: datadoghq.com (US1), us3.datadoghq.com, us5.datadoghq.com,
# datadoghq.eu (EU1), ap1.datadoghq.com, ap2.datadoghq.com, ddog-gov.com
export DD_SITE="datadoghq.com"
export DD_API="https://api.${DD_SITE}"

Sanity check — confirm the site is right and the workspace is wired up before doing anything else:

curl -sS "${DD_API}/api/v1/validate" \
  -H "DD-API-KEY: ${DD_API_KEY}" | jq .
# {"valid": true} on success

If you don't know which site the org is on, look at the hostname they use in the browser (app.datadoghq.com → US1, us5.datadoghq.com → US5, etc.) and mirror it in DD_API.

For brevity the rest of this skill uses a helper that sets both headers. Define it once per session, or copy both the -g and the -H flags onto each curl. -g (globoff) is not optional — several endpoints take bracketed query params (page[size], page[offset], filter[query]), and without -g curl exits with (3) bad range in URL before sending anything. (Percent-encoding the brackets, e.g. page%5Bsize%5D=25, also works.)

ddog() { curl -sS -g "$@" -H "DD-API-KEY: ${DD_API_KEY}" -H "DD-APPLICATION-KEY: ${DD_APP_KEY}"; }

Core operations

v2 responses wrap results under a top-level {"data": [...]} key; an error response replaces it with {"errors": [...]} instead — if a jq '.data' projection prints nothing, re-run without the projection to see the error body. DELETEs return 204 with an empty body.

1. Search logs (scripts/dd_logs.sh)

Run a Logs Explorer query through the bundled script (path is relative to this skill's directory): it builds the flat filter/sort/page body, follows the meta.page.after cursor through every page, and emits each event's timestamp, status, service, host, message as TSV.

scripts/dd_logs.sh "service:web status:error" --from -1h --index main --limit 200

• The query is one argument (or stdin); omit it to get * over the window. Instance specifics come from DD_SITE / DD_API / DD_API_KEY / DD_APP_KEY above.
• --from / --to set the window (defaults now-15m / now); they accept Datadog relative syntax, a bare offset like -1h (rewritten to now-1h), ISO-8601, or Unix ms.
• --index NAME (repeatable) restricts to specific log indexes; --sort asc|desc orders by timestamp (default desc).
• --limit N caps fetched events (default 100, 0 = everything); --page-size N sets events per request (max 1000); --json emits one JSON object per event instead of TSV with a header. Event count and any truncation warning go to stderr.
• Exit codes: 0 success, 1 request failed or API error (Datadog's errors[0] string on stderr).

If the script errors, read it — it's plain curl + jq — and debug against references/api.md.

2. Aggregate logs into buckets (v2)

ddog -X POST "${DD_API}/api/v2/logs/analytics/aggregate" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "filter": {"query": "service:web", "from": "now-4h", "to": "now"},
    "compute": [{"aggregation": "count"}],
    "group_by": [{"facet": "status", "limit": 10}]
  }' | jq '.data.buckets'

Use @ prefix for log attributes (@http.status_code), no prefix for reserved facets (service, status, host).

3. Query metrics (v1)

from/to are Unix seconds. The query string uses Datadog metric syntax: agg:metric.name{tag_filter} by {group}.

NOW=$(date +%s); FROM=$((NOW - 3600))
ddog "${DD_API}/api/v1/query" \
  --data-urlencode "from=${FROM}" \
  --data-urlencode "to=${NOW}" \
  --data-urlencode "query=avg:system.cpu.user{service:web} by {host}" \
  -G | jq '.series[] | {metric: .metric, scope: .scope, last: .pointlist[-1]}'

4. List and inspect monitors (v1)

# All monitors currently in Alert state
ddog "${DD_API}/api/v1/monitor" -G \
  --data-urlencode "monitor_tags=team:platform" \
  --data-urlencode "with_downtimes=true" | \
  jq '.[] | select(.overall_state=="Alert") | {id, name, query, overall_state}'

# One monitor with group-level breakdown
ddog "${DD_API}/api/v1/monitor/12345?group_states=all" | jq '{name, overall_state, state: .state.groups}'

# Faceted search (paginated — see below)
ddog "${DD_API}/api/v1/monitor/search" -G --data-urlencode "query=status:alert team:platform" | jq .

5. Mute / unmute a monitor (v2 downtime)

Muting is how you silence a known-noisy alert. Schedule a downtime targeting the monitor's ID — always set an end so it doesn't stay muted forever. (The legacy POST /api/v1/monitor/{id}/mute and /unmute endpoints still respond but have been removed from the API reference; prefer downtimes.)

# GNU date; on BSD/macOS use: date -u -v+1H +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S+00:00
END=$(date -u -d "+1 hour" +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S+00:00)   # ISO-8601 with zero UTC offset

RESP=$(ddog -X POST "${DD_API}/api/v2/downtime" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"data\": {\"type\": \"downtime\", \"attributes\": {
        \"monitor_identifier\": {\"monitor_id\": 12345},
        \"scope\": \"*\",
        \"schedule\": {\"end\": \"${END}\"},
        \"message\": \"muted while we deploy\"}}}")
DT_ID=$(echo "${RESP}" | jq -r '.data.id // empty')
# guard: only reuse the id if the create actually succeeded — otherwise surface the error body
if [ -z "${DT_ID}" ] || [ "${DT_ID}" = "null" ]; then
  echo "downtime create failed: ${RESP}"
else
  echo "muted via downtime ${DT_ID}"
  # Unmute = cancel the downtime. 204 No Content on success, hence the -w.
  ddog -X DELETE "${DD_API}/api/v2/downtime/${DT_ID}" -w '\n%{http_code}\n'
fi

6. Search events (v2)

Events are the timeline feed — deploys, alert transitions, user-posted markers.

ddog -X POST "${DD_API}/api/v2/events/search" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "filter": {"query": "source:my_apps tags:deploy", "from": "now-1d", "to": "now"},
    "sort": "-timestamp",
    "page": {"limit": 25}
  }' | jq '.data[] | {title: .attributes.attributes.title, ts: .attributes.timestamp}'
# The double ".attributes" is intentional — the event body sits one level deeper than the
# JSON:API envelope: data[].attributes.timestamp vs data[].attributes.attributes.title.

Post an event (e.g., a deploy marker) with v1 — POST /api/v1/events returns 202 with {"status": "ok", "event": {...}}:

ddog -X POST "${DD_API}/api/v1/events" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Deployed web v42", "text": "Rolled out to prod", "tags": ["service:web","deploy"], "alert_type": "info"}'

7. Dashboards (v1)

# List (lightweight summaries)
ddog "${DD_API}/api/v1/dashboard" | jq '.dashboards[] | {id, title, url}'

# Fetch one — includes the full widget/query JSON
ddog "${DD_API}/api/v1/dashboard/abc-def-ghi" | jq '{title, widgets: (.widgets | length)}'

Warning: PUT /api/v1/dashboard/{id} replaces the whole dashboard — any widget you omit is deleted. Always GET first, mutate the JSON, then PUT the whole document back.

8. SLOs (v1)

ddog "${DD_API}/api/v1/slo" -G --data-urlencode "tags_query=team:platform" | jq '.data[] | {id, name, type}'

# Uptime history over a window (from_ts/to_ts are Unix seconds)
NOW=$(date +%s); FROM=$((NOW - 7*86400))
ddog "${DD_API}/api/v1/slo/<slo_id>/history?from_ts=${FROM}&to_ts=${NOW}" | jq '.data.overall'

9. Search APM spans / traces (v2)

ddog -X POST "${DD_API}/api/v2/spans/events/search" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "data": {
      "type": "search_request",
      "attributes": {
        "filter": {"query": "service:web @http.status_code:>=500", "from": "now-1h", "to": "now"},
        "sort": "-timestamp",
        "page": {"limit": 25}
      }
    }
  }' | jq '.data[] | {trace_id: .attributes.trace_id, resource: .attributes.resource_name}'

Note the extra data.attributes wrapper — the spans endpoint follows the JSON:API envelope; the logs endpoint does not. This asymmetry is a common cause of 400 Bad Request.

10. Incidents (v2)

The bracketed page[size] param is why the helper needs -g (or write it as page%5Bsize%5D=25).

ddog "${DD_API}/api/v2/incidents?page[size]=25" | jq '.data[] | {id, title: .attributes.title, status: .attributes.fields.state.value}'

Pagination

Three distinct schemes are in use — check which one your endpoint speaks:

• Cursor (v2 search — logs, events, spans, RUM). The response carries meta.page.after. Pass it back as page.cursor in the next request body. Stop when meta.page.after is absent.
• Page number (v1 monitors). Query params page (0-indexed) and per_page (monitor/search) or page_size (monitor list). The search response carries a metadata block with total counts. The v1 dashboard list uses start/count offsets instead.
• Offset / page-number (v2 collections). Incidents: page[offset] + page[size]. Users: page[number] + page[size]. Bracketed params — needs curl -g or percent-encoding (see Request setup).

Most list endpoints cap at 1000 items per page and many default to far fewer.

Rate limits

Per-org limits vary by endpoint (metrics queries are the tightest). Every response carries:

X-RateLimit-Limit       total allowed in the window
X-RateLimit-Remaining   calls left
X-RateLimit-Reset       seconds until the window resets
X-RateLimit-Period      window length in seconds (calendar-aligned)
X-RateLimit-Name        which named limit you hit (use this when asking for an increase)

On 429, sleep for X-RateLimit-Reset seconds (or Retry-After if present) and retry.

Error handling

• 400 — Malformed body or query. Read errors[] in the response — Datadog names the bad field. Common cause: wrong JSON envelope (see spans note above).
• 401 — Credential not configured / not injected. {"errors": ["Unauthorized"]}. Same treatment as 403 — report it, don't debug auth.
• 403 — Wrong site, missing permission, or unconfigured credential. Check DD_SITE first. Re-run the /api/v1/validate sanity check. If it persists, the configured credential may lack the needed role/scope — report it.
• 404 — Resource doesn't exist. Check the ID. For monitors the numeric ID is in the URL; for dashboards it's the short alpha-id (abc-def-ghi), not the title.
• 429 — Rate limited. Sleep per X-RateLimit-Reset, retry.

Error bodies are usually {"errors": ["Invalid query"]} (an array of strings); some newer v2 endpoints return JSON:API error objects instead — {"errors": [{"title": "...", "detail": "...", "status": "400"}]}. Either way, always surface the body, don't just report the status code.

Going deeper

references/api.md has a fuller endpoint catalog — per-area (metrics, logs, monitors, APM, SLOs, dashboards, events, incidents, notebooks, downtime, hosts, users, tags) with request/response shapes, all the query parameters, and the write operations. Read it when you need an endpoint not covered above, or when you need the exact body shape for a create/update.