feat(api): accept exemplar settings on API- and agent-authored tiles

.changeset/exemplars-agent-surface.md

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+---
+'@hyperdx/api': minor
+---
+
+feat: accept exemplar settings on API- and agent-authored dashboard tiles
+
+`enableExemplars` and `exemplarTraceSourceId` are now accepted on line and
+stacked-bar tiles through the external v2 API and the MCP dashboard tools,
+survive the tile conversion in both directions, and are documented in the
+OpenAPI spec. Previously they validated on write and were dropped before
+persistence, so they could not be set through any surface.
+
+`exemplarTraceSourceId` is checked three ways, because a marker's "view trace"
+link is only as good as the source behind it: an ObjectId on both surfaces, the
+source must exist for the team, and it must actually be a Trace source. The
+existence and kind checks mirror the heatmap gate. Without them a well-formed id
+for a metric source saved cleanly and left every marker linking nowhere.

packages/api/openapi.json

@@ -1884,6 +1884,16 @@
             "type": "boolean",
             "description": "Only meaningful with formulas. When false, only the formula series are returned; the raw operand series are hidden.\n",
             "default": true
+          },
+          "enableExemplars": {
+            "type": "boolean",
+            "description": "Overlay exemplars: markers for individual trace-linked data points. Only renders when the tile is exemplar-eligible — a single non-ratio histogram metric series with no groupBy, aggregated with avg, min, max, quantile or last_value. Not count or sum: a counted point is not attributable to any one trace, so the overlay is accepted but stays inert.\n",
+            "default": false
+          },
+          "exemplarTraceSourceId": {
+            "type": "string",
+            "description": "ID of the Trace source an exemplar marker links to. Must exist and be a Trace source; a request naming anything else is rejected. Defaults to the chart source's linked trace source when omitted.\n",
+            "example": "65f5e4a3b9e77c001a222222"
           }
         }
       },
@@ -1961,6 +1971,16 @@
             "type": "boolean",
             "description": "Only meaningful with formulas. When false, only the formula series are returned; the raw operand series are hidden.\n",
             "default": true
+          },
+          "enableExemplars": {
+            "type": "boolean",
+            "description": "Overlay exemplars: markers for individual trace-linked data points. Only renders when the tile is exemplar-eligible — a single non-ratio histogram metric series with no groupBy, aggregated with avg, min, max, quantile or last_value. Not count or sum: a counted point is not attributable to any one trace, so the overlay is accepted but stays inert.\n",
+            "default": false
+          },
+          "exemplarTraceSourceId": {
+            "type": "string",
+            "description": "ID of the Trace source an exemplar marker links to. Must exist and be a Trace source; a request naming anything else is rejected. Defaults to the chart source's linked trace source when omitted.\n",
+            "example": "65f5e4a3b9e77c001a222222"
           }
         }
       },

packages/api/package.json

@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@
     "dev-task": "DOTENV_CONFIG_PATH=.env.development nodemon --exec 'ts-node' --transpile-only -r tsconfig-paths/register -r dotenv-expand/config -r '@hyperdx/node-opentelemetry/build/src/tracing' ./src/tasks/index.ts",
     "build": "rimraf ./build && tsc -p tsconfig.build.json && tsc-alias -p tsconfig.build.json && cp -r ./src/opamp/proto ./build/opamp/",
     "build:vercel": "rimraf ./build && tsc -p tsconfig.vercel.json && tsc-alias -p tsconfig.vercel.json && cp -r ./src/opamp/proto ./build/opamp/",
-    "lint": "npx eslint . --ext .ts --max-warnings 302",
+    "lint": "npx eslint . --ext .ts --max-warnings 304",
     "lint:fix": "npx eslint . --ext .ts --fix",
     "ci:lint": "yarn lint && yarn tsc --noEmit && yarn lint:openapi",
     "ci:unit": "jest --ci --coverage",

packages/api/src/mcp/tools/dashboards/__tests__/exemplarSettings.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+import { Types } from 'mongoose';
+
+import { mcpTilesParam } from '@/mcp/tools/dashboards/schemas';
+
+/**
+ * `enableExemplars` and `exemplarTraceSourceId` are the two exemplar settings an
+ * MCP agent can put on a tile. The trace source id has to survive as something
+ * the source lookup can actually resolve — it is read back as a Mongo ObjectId —
+ * so accepting any string here would persist a tile whose markers silently never
+ * link to a trace.
+ */
+const tile =
+  (displayType: 'line' | 'stacked_bar') =>
+  (config: Record<string, unknown>) => [
+    {
+      name: 'Latency',
+      config: {
+        displayType,
+        sourceId: new Types.ObjectId().toString(),
+        select: [{ aggFn: 'count', alias: 'Requests' }],
+        ...config,
+      },
+    },
+  ];
+
+// The two tile types declare the exemplar fields in separate schema blocks, so
+// an edit that only updates one would otherwise go unnoticed.
+const lineTile = tile('line');
+const barTile = tile('stacked_bar');
+
+describe('MCP tile exemplar settings', () => {
+  it('accepts a valid ObjectId as the exemplar trace source', () => {
+    const traceSourceId = new Types.ObjectId().toString();
+    const parsed = mcpTilesParam.parse(
+      lineTile({ enableExemplars: true, exemplarTraceSourceId: traceSourceId }),
+    );
+    expect(parsed[0].config).toMatchObject({
+      enableExemplars: true,
+      exemplarTraceSourceId: traceSourceId,
+    });
+  });
+
+  it.each([
+    ['a source name rather than an id', 'Traces'],
+    ['a truncated id', '507f1f77bcf86cd7994390'],
+    ['an over-long id', '507f1f77bcf86cd799439011ff'],
+    ['an empty string', ''],
+    ['a non-hex id of the right length', 'zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'],
+  ])('rejects %s as the exemplar trace source', (_label, value) => {
+    expect(() =>
+      mcpTilesParam.parse(lineTile({ exemplarTraceSourceId: value })),
+    ).toThrow(/Invalid ObjectId/);
+  });
+
+  // Worth recording because it is surprising: Mongo also accepts a 12-character
+  // string as 12 raw bytes, so `Types.ObjectId.isValid` — and therefore every
+  // objectIdSchema field in this codebase, not just this one — lets one through.
+  // Such an id simply resolves to no source, the same outcome as an id that
+  // does not exist, so it is not worth diverging from the shared validator
+  // here.
+  it('lets a 12-character string through, as every other id field does', () => {
+    expect(() =>
+      mcpTilesParam.parse(lineTile({ exemplarTraceSourceId: 'trace-source' })),
+    ).not.toThrow();
+  });
+
+  it('leaves both settings optional', () => {
+    const parsed = mcpTilesParam.parse(lineTile({}));
+    expect(parsed[0].config).not.toHaveProperty('enableExemplars');
+    expect(parsed[0].config).not.toHaveProperty('exemplarTraceSourceId');
+  });
+
+  it.each([
+    ['line', lineTile],
+    ['stacked_bar', barTile],
+  ])('validates the trace source on a %s tile', (_label, build) => {
+    expect(() =>
+      mcpTilesParam.parse(build({ exemplarTraceSourceId: 'Traces' })),
+    ).toThrow(/Invalid ObjectId/);
+    const id = new Types.ObjectId().toString();
+    expect(
+      mcpTilesParam.parse(build({ exemplarTraceSourceId: id }))[0].config,
+    ).toMatchObject({ exemplarTraceSourceId: id });
+  });
+});

packages/api/src/mcp/tools/dashboards/schemas.ts

@@ -753,6 +753,25 @@ export const mcpLineTileSchema = mcpTileLayoutSchema.extend({
       lineInterpolation: LineInterpolationSchema.optional().describe(
         'How points are connected: "smooth" (default), "linear", or "step".',
       ),
+      enableExemplars: z
+        .boolean()
+        .optional()
+        .describe(
+          'Overlay exemplars: markers for individual trace-linked data points. ' +
+            'Only renders on an exemplar-eligible tile — a single non-ratio ' +
+            'histogram metric series with no groupBy, aggregated with avg, min, ' +
+            'max, quantile or last_value. Not count or sum: a counted point is ' +
+            'not attributable to any one trace, so the overlay stays inert with ' +
+            'no error.',
+        ),
+      exemplarTraceSourceId: objectIdSchema
+        .optional()
+        .describe(
+          'Trace source an exemplar marker links to. Must be an existing Trace ' +
+            'source — use clickstack_list_sources and pick one whose kind is ' +
+            '"trace"; anything else is rejected on save. Defaults to the chart ' +
+            "source's linked trace source when omitted.",
+        ),
     })
     .describe('Line chart query and display settings.'),
 });
@@ -786,6 +805,25 @@ export const mcpBarTileSchema = mcpTileLayoutSchema.extend({
         .literal('stacked_bar')
         .describe('Stacked bar chart over time'),
       ...mcpStackedTimeChartConfigFields,
+      enableExemplars: z
+        .boolean()
+        .optional()
+        .describe(
+          'Overlay exemplars: markers for individual trace-linked data points. ' +
+            'Only renders on an exemplar-eligible tile — a single non-ratio ' +
+            'histogram metric series with no groupBy, aggregated with avg, min, ' +
+            'max, quantile or last_value. Not count or sum: a counted point is ' +
+            'not attributable to any one trace, so the overlay stays inert with ' +
+            'no error.',
+        ),
+      exemplarTraceSourceId: objectIdSchema
+        .optional()
+        .describe(
+          'Trace source an exemplar marker links to. Must be an existing Trace ' +
+            'source — use clickstack_list_sources and pick one whose kind is ' +
+            '"trace"; anything else is rejected on save. Defaults to the chart ' +
+            "source's linked trace source when omitted.",
+        ),
     })
     .describe('Stacked bar chart query and display settings.'),
 });