Datadog Cheat Sheet
Reference for Datadog Agent configuration, tagging conventions, monitor definitions, and query syntax for metrics and logs.
2 PagesIntermediateFeb 10, 2026
Agent Configuration
datadog.yaml key settings for the Datadog Agent.
yaml
api_key: <YOUR_API_KEY>site: datadoghq.comtags: - env:production - team:platformlogs_enabled: trueapm_config: enabled: trueprocess_config: process_collection: enabled: true
Custom Metrics (DogStatsD)
Sending custom metrics from application code via DogStatsD.
python
from datadog import statsdstatsd.increment('orders.processed', tags=['env:prod'])statsd.gauge('queue.depth', 42, tags=['queue:orders'])statsd.histogram('request.duration', 0.235, tags=['endpoint:/checkout'])statsd.event('Deploy finished', 'Deployed version 1.4.2 to prod')
Monitor Definition
A metric-based monitor alerting on high CPU usage.
json
{ "name": "High CPU usage", "type": "metric alert", "query": "avg(last_5m):avg:system.cpu.user{env:production} > 85", "message": "CPU usage is high on {{host.name}} @slack-platform-alerts", "options": { "thresholds": { "critical": 85, "warning": 70 }, "notify_no_data": true }}
Key Concepts
Core Datadog terminology.
- tags- key:value labels applied to hosts/metrics enabling flexible filtering and grouping
- DogStatsD- Local UDP protocol/daemon used to submit custom metrics from app code
- monitor- A configured alert condition on metrics, logs, or APM data
- dashboard- Visual collection of widgets/graphs built from queries
- APM trace- End-to-end request trace spanning services, used for latency/error analysis
Pro Tip
Standardize on a small, consistent tag taxonomy (env, service, team) applied via the Agent's global tags rather than ad-hoc per-metric tags — inconsistent tagging is the most common cause of unusable dashboards at scale.
Was this cheat sheet helpful?
Explore Topics
#Datadog#DatadogCheatSheet#DevOps#Intermediate#AgentConfiguration#CustomMetricsDogStatsD#MonitorDefinition#KeyConcepts#Databases#CheatSheet#SkillVeris
