Ontology Overview¶

The ontology package provides a comprehensive labeling system for organizing and categorizing SLOs across multiple dimensions.

Core Labels¶

The core ontology contains 12 generic labels that apply to any SLO:

Label	Description	Example Values
`framework`	Monitoring methodology	`red`, `use`, `custom`
`layer`	System layer	`service`, `infrastructure`, `business`, `application`
`scope`	Impact scope	`customer-facing`, `internal`, `business-outcome`
`audience`	Target audience	`sre`, `engineering`, `product`, `executive`
`category`	Metric category	`availability`, `latency`, `throughput`, `quality`
`severity`	Alert severity	`critical`, `high`, `medium`, `low`
`tier`	Priority tier	`p0`, `p1`, `p2`, `p3`
`metric-type`	Type of metric	`rate`, `errors`, `duration`, `utilization`
`resource-type`	Resource being measured	`cpu`, `memory`, `disk`, `network`
`service`	Service name	Custom value
`team`	Owning team	Custom value
`environment`	Deployment environment	`production`, `staging`, `development`

Usage¶

import (
    v1 "github.com/OpenSLO/go-sdk/pkg/openslo/v1"
    "github.com/grokify/slogo/ontology"
)

metadata := v1.Metadata{
    Name:        "api-latency-p99",
    DisplayName: "API Latency P99",
    Labels: ontology.NewLabels(map[string]string{
        ontology.LabelFramework:  ontology.FrameworkRED,
        ontology.LabelLayer:      ontology.LayerService,
        ontology.LabelScope:      ontology.ScopeCustomerFacing,
        ontology.LabelAudience:   ontology.AudienceSRE,
        ontology.LabelCategory:   ontology.CategoryLatency,
        ontology.LabelSeverity:   ontology.SeverityHigh,
        ontology.LabelTier:       ontology.TierP1,
        ontology.LabelMetricType: ontology.MetricTypeDuration,
    }),
}

Framework Values¶

RED (Request-driven)¶

For services that handle requests:

Rate - Requests per second
Errors - Failed requests
Duration - Latency distribution

ontology.LabelFramework: ontology.FrameworkRED

USE (Resource-focused)¶

For infrastructure resources:

Utilization - Percentage of resource used
Saturation - Queue depth, backlog
Errors - Error counts

ontology.LabelFramework: ontology.FrameworkUSE

Custom¶

For business metrics and custom implementations:

ontology.LabelFramework: ontology.FrameworkCustom

Layer Values¶

Value	Description	Use Case
`service`	Application services	APIs, microservices
`infrastructure`	Underlying resources	CPU, memory, disk, network
`business`	Business metrics	Revenue, conversion, retention
`application`	Application-level	User sessions, feature usage

Scope Values¶

Value	Description	Example
`customer-facing`	Affects end users	API latency, error rates
`internal`	Internal operations	Build times, CI/CD
`business-outcome`	Business KPIs	Conversion rate, churn

Audience Values¶

Value	Description	Typical Metrics
`sre`	Site Reliability Engineers	Availability, latency
`engineering`	Development teams	Build success, test coverage
`product`	Product managers	Engagement, adoption
`executive`	Leadership	Revenue impact, growth
`customer-success`	Customer-facing teams	Satisfaction, retention

Category Values¶

Value	Description
`availability`	Uptime, success rate
`latency`	Response time, duration
`throughput`	Requests per second, rate
`quality`	Error rate, accuracy
`resource`	CPU, memory, disk
`engagement`	DAU, MAU, stickiness
`conversion`	Signup, activation
`cost`	Efficiency, spend

Severity & Tier¶

Severity Levels¶

Value	Description	Response Time
`critical`	Service down	Immediate
`high`	Major degradation	< 1 hour
`medium`	Minor impact	< 4 hours
`low`	Minimal impact	Next business day

Priority Tiers¶

Value	Description	Error Budget
`p0`	Mission-critical	99.99%
`p1`	High priority	99.9%
`p2`	Standard	99.5%
`p3`	Best effort	99%

Next Steps¶

See Domain Packages for specialized labels
Explore Examples using the ontology