Create Custom Boards

Track and organize data for distinct use cases with Boards.

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What is a Board?

A Board is a workspace where you can save, organize, and share analysis components focused on a common objective. It’s designed to help you efficiently monitor data, investigate issues, and collaborate with your team. With Boards, you can:

• Monitor service health: Track key metrics to quickly identify performance issues or anomalies.
• Investigate incidents: Save important queries for easy access during ongoing investigations.
• Share frequently used queries: Make common queries available to your team for faster troubleshooting.

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How Boards Work

Boards let you collect data from multiple sources and customize how it’s presented.

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Panels

A Board can contain multiple panels, each displaying different types of data. Types of panels include:

• Queries: Visual representations of query results that make data analysis faster and easier, along with organized tables that display detailed query results.
• Service Level Objectives (SLOs): Metrics used to track and assess your service’s performance against defined goals.
• Text: Panels that provide context alongside your visualizations. Use them to explain data, highlight key insights, or link to related runbooks and playbooks. Text panels support standard Markdown syntax, allowing you to create rich, structured explanations directly on the Board.

When you open a Board, panels automatically refresh to show the latest data.

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Query Panel Defaults

Query panels on a Board can have default time ranges and granularities that control how data is displayed when the Board opens. Setting these defaults ensures that all queries start from a consistent time window and level of detail, making it easier for your team to interpret results quickly and reliably.
Individual queries can still override the defaults when more targeted analysis is needed. If no explicit defaults are set, Honeycomb automatically applies the most commonly used time range and granularity across the Board’s query panels.

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Templates

To help you get started quickly, we offer pre-configured Board Templates for common use cases. Templates let you jump straight to analysis, saving you time that would otherwise be spent building Boards manually. To explore available templates, visit Using Board Templates. Whether you start with a template or create a Board yourself, all Boards are fully customizable.

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Tags

Tags help you stay organized as your Team creates more Boards. Use them to group related Boards by project, team, service, or any other category that fits your workflow. Tags make it easier to filter and find the Boards you need, especially in shared or busy environments. Because they’re flexible and customizable, you can organize Boards in the way that works best for you.

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Access and Permissions

Any team member can create a Board. By default, Boards are public, meaning everyone on your Honeycomb Team can access and edit them. Boards can also be restricted to the creator or a specific group of Team members. When restricted, only those added as collaborators can add or edit panels. Team owners always have access to Boards, regardless of restrictions. To learn more about Board access and permissions, visit Managing Team Permissions.

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Creating a Board

Create a Board to organize related queries and SLOs, making them easier to access. For example, you can use a Board to monitor a specific service, or gather queries for a particular investigation.

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Creating a Board from a Template

You can create a Board from a pre-configured template to quickly gain insights with minimal effort and ensure a consistent approach to collaboration. Customize these templates to fit your needs or use them as-is. To create a Board from a template:

1. Select Boards () from the navigation menu.
2. Go to the Templates view, or select Create Boards and From Template.
3. Choose a template to preview with your data.
4. In the template preview, review the data displayed in the query panels.
   The progress bar shows how many queries are successfully populated with your data. To share your customized template, select Copy Link.
   If some queries aren’t displaying correctly, you may need to map required fields to your data:
   1. Go to the Setup view.
   2. Find any queries marked Unable to display.
   3. In the Required fields column, select the target field, then choose the appropriate replacement field.
      Your field mapping applies to all template queries using that target field. To revert to the original template field, select the remove icon () next to the replacement field name.
   4. Repeat this process for any additional fields or queries.
5. Select Use Template.

Your new Board appears on the Boards page. Any queries marked as unable to display during creation are not included.

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Creating a Board Manually

Creating a Board manually gives you complete control over how you organize and visualize your data. This approach is ideal when you have specific monitoring or investigation needs that aren’t covered by existing templates. To create a Board manually:

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Duplicating a Board

Duplicate a Board to preserve its structure while adapting it for a new project or making experimental changes. It’s a useful way to create a backup or repurpose an existing Board. To duplicate a Board:

1. Select Boards () from the navigation menu.
2. Select the Board you want to duplicate.
3. On the Board’s details page, select the Settings icon (), then choose Duplicate.
4. In the modal, enter details:

   Field	Description
   Title	Name of the new Board. The default name will be “Duplicate of” followed by the original Board’s name, but you can edit it to reflect the new Board’s purpose.
   Environment	Specifies the environment to which you want to copy the Board. To successfully duplicate a Board, both environments must have matching schema sets. Only queries with dataset and field names that match the destination environment will be copied; incompatible queries will be omitted.

5. Select Create duplicate.

The screen refreshes to display the new Board.

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Adding Panels to a Board

Control which work items remain easily accessible and visible within your workspace.

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Adding Queries

Organize and easily revisit important queries without having to recreate them. Once added, selecting a query from the Board opens the Query Results page, where you can perform the same analysis and access all the same features as you would directly from the page. To add a query:

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Adding Service Level Objectives (SLOs)

Keep key performance indicators and related queries in one place for streamlined monitoring. Group SLOs with their corresponding queries to quickly assess service performance, identify issues, and ensure reliability targets are met. To add an SLO:

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Adding Text Panels

Text panels let you provide additional context alongside your visualizations. You can use text panels to explain what the data means, highlight key insights, or link to related runbooks and playbooks right where your team is working.

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Creating a Text Panel

1. Select Boards () from the navigation menu.
2. Select the Board to which you want to add a text panel.
3. From the Board’s details page, select the Add icon (), and choose Text ().
4. Enter your content in the editor. Text panels support Markdown, so you can format content to fit your needs.
5. Select Apply.

The page refreshes, and the Board updates to reflect your new text panel.

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Formatting with Markdown

Text panels support standard Markdown syntax. You can combine these options to create rich, structured explanations:

• Bold (**bold**) and italic (*italic*) text for emphasis
• Headings (#, ##, ###) to organize content
• Links ([link](https://www.wikipedia.org/)) to internal or external resources
• Inline code (`code`) and fenced code blocks (```) for snippets
• Blockquotes (> Note) for important callouts
• Bulleted (- item) and numbered (1. item) lists for steps or best practices
• Horizontal rules (---) to separate sections
• Highlight text with ==highlighted text== for emphasis

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Removing Queries

Remove a query to clear outdated or unnecessary visualizations. To remove a query:

1. Select Boards () from the navigation menu.
2. Select the Board that contains the query you want to delete.
3. On the Board’s details page, enter Edit mode.
4. Locate the target query and select the Show Actions icon ().
5. Select Remove Query.
6. Select Confirm.

The page refreshes, and the Board updates to reflect your changes.

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Removing SLOs

Remove an SLO to declutter your Board and ensure you are focusing on the most relevant metrics. This is useful when you no longer need to track a particular SLO or want to simplify your board for easier access to critical data. To remove an SLO:

1. Select Boards () from the navigation menu.
2. Select the Board that contains the SLO you want to remove.
3. On the Board’s details page, enter Edit mode.
4. Locate the target SLO and select the Show Actions icon ().
5. Select Remove SLO.
6. Select Confirm.

The page refreshes, and the Board updates to reflect your changes.

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Removing Text Panels

1. Select Boards () from the navigation menu.
2. Select the Board that contains the text panel you want to remove.
3. On the Board’s details page, enter Edit mode.
4. Locate the target text panel, and select the Show Actions icon ().
5. Select Remove Panel

The page refreshes, and the Board updates to reflect your changes.

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Interacting with Panels

Interacting with query and SLO panels directly from a Board lets you access detailed insights and perform familiar actions without leaving your workspace.

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Interacting with Queries

Interacting with a query from a Board gives you direct access to detailed query results, so you can monitor performance and dig deeper into data without switching pages. From a Board, you can perform familiar query actions, such as:

• Viewing visualizations and summary tables.
• Inspecting traces and events.
• Zooming in on specific time ranges.
• Adding markers to label key points in time.
• Detecting anomalies using heatmaps.
• Filtering summary tables by groups for focused analysis.

For more detailed insights, you can quickly navigate to the full query details and data views. To access full query details:

1. Select Boards () from the navigation menu.
2. Choose the Board containing the query you want to explore.
3. On the Board’s details page, select the query.
4. Interact with the query and its results as you would on the Query Results page.

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Interacting with SLOs

Interacting with an SLO from a Board provides an at-a-glance view of your service’s compliance and burn rate, helping you quickly assess service health and performance. For more in-depth analysis, you can quickly navigate to the full SLO details at any time. To access full SLO details:

1. Select Boards () from the navigation menu.
2. Choose the Board containing the SLO you want to examine.
3. On the Board’s details page, select the SLO.
4. Interact with the SLO just as you would on the SLO Details page.

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Sharing a Board

Easily share a Board with others, for quick access to content without needing to manually invite collaborators. This is ideal for sharing board details with teammates or stakeholders who need to view the board but not necessarily modify it. To learn more about changing Board access, visit Customize Boards: Changing Access.

1. Select Boards () from the navigation menu.
2. Select the Board you want to modify.
3. Select Share.
4. Select Copy link.

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Deleting a Board

If a Board is no longer needed, delete it to remove it from your workspace. To delete a Board:

1. Select Boards () from the navigation menu.
2. Select the Board you want to delete.
3. On the Board’s details page, select Manage, then choose Delete board.
4. In the modal, enter the Board’s unique identifier (listed in parentheses).
5. Select I understand the consequences. Delete this board..

The page refreshes to reflect the deletion.