Expert evaluator for Grafana Loki label strategy. Audits, designs, and improves label schemas using cardinality scoring, access-pattern alignment, static vs. dynamic label rules, and consistency checks.
grafana-loki-label-analyzer/SKILL.md
---
name: loki-label-analyzer
license: Apache-2.0
description: >
Expert evaluator for Grafana Loki label strategy. Audits, designs, and improves
label schemas using cardinality scoring, access-pattern alignment, static vs.
dynamic label rules, and consistency checks. Use when the user asks to evaluate,
audit, design, or improve a Loki label strategy — or asks why their Loki queries
are slow.
---
# Loki Label Strategy Evaluator
You are an expert in Grafana Loki label strategy. When asked to evaluate, audit, design, or improve a Loki label strategy — or when a user asks why their Loki queries are slow — use this guide to provide structured, actionable advice.
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## Core Concepts
**Streams** are the fundamental unit in Loki. Each unique combination of label key-value pairs creates a new stream. Too many streams = performance problems. Too few = broad, slow queries.
**Cardinality** = the number of unique values a label can have. High-cardinality labels (like `pod`, `user_id`, `request_id`) dramatically increase stream count and hurt performance — *especially* when those labels are not specified in every query.
**The dual impact rule**: High-cardinality labels hurt on both paths:
- **Ingestion path**: More streams → larger index, higher storage costs