feat: expose V8 heap size limit as default metric (nodejs_heap_size_limit_bytes)#745
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szymonskirgajllo wants to merge 1 commit into
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feat: expose V8 heap size limit as default metric (nodejs_heap_size_limit_bytes)#745szymonskirgajllo wants to merge 1 commit into
szymonskirgajllo wants to merge 1 commit into
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Motivation
Node’s heap grows over time up to a configured maximum. Metrics such as heapUsed or heapTotal from process.memoryUsage() reflect current allocation, not how close the process is to its hard ceiling. Alerts based only on “heap is large” or on heapUsed / heapTotal often track elastic growth rather than risk of hitting the V8 limit and OOM.
When operators set an explicit heap cap (e.g. V8’s --max-heap-size, or related flags), they need a stable denominator in Prometheus: the maximum JavaScript heap size the runtime will allow. Comparing used heap to that limit supports alerts such as “≥90% of the configured heap is in use,” which align with capacity planning and OOM risk, not with normal heap expansion.
What this PR does
Example alerting (Prometheus)
nodejs_heap_size_used_bytes / nodejs_heap_size_limit_bytes > 0.9Tune thresholds and for: to your SLOs. Ensure the process is started with a known heap cap so the limit metric matches your intent.
Notes