<commit_before>---
title: Organizing with Tags
tags: [getting started, alerts, dashboards, events, videos]
sidebar: doc_sidebar
permalink: tags_overview.html
summary: Learn how to use tags to focus and speed up queries display and to unclutter the UI.
---
A tag is custom metadata that adds application-specific meaning to Wavefront objects such alerts, dashboards, events, and sources and metrics.

Watch the following video for an introduction to point tags and source tags:

<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tt4orZHQts&index=3&list=PLmp0id7yKiEdaWcjNtGikcyqpNcPNbn_K"><img src="/images/v_tagging_clement.png" style="width: 700px;" alt="tagging"/></a>
</p>

See [Wavefront Data Naming](wavefront_data_naming.html) for examples of tags and tag naming.

{% include tip.html content="Read the blog post [Skyline Resolves Production Incidents Faster with Alert-Based Health Dashboards](https://tanzu.vmware.com/content/blog/skyline-resolves-production-incidents-faster-with-alert-based-health-dashboards) for a discussion of a real-world example that uses alert tags." %}

## Tags Basics

You use tags in several ways:
* **[Point tags](query_language_point_tags.html)** -- Add dimensions to your query with point tags. For example, examine only metrics from a certain region.
* **Source tags** -- Group your sources. For example, examine only production hosts but not development hosts.
  {% include note.html content="Information about the source is part of each metric, but you add source tags explicitly from the UI, CLI, or API." %}
* **Alert tags** -- Find [alerts](alerts.html) or exclude tagged alerts from a maintenance window.
* **Event Tags** -- Add event tags from the Events browser or when you [create a user event](events.html#creating-a-user-event) to make it easier to filter events.
* **Object tags** -- Limit the number of objects (e.g. dashboards) and metrics. For example, you might  display only dashboards with a certain tag.
* **[Span tags](trace_data_details.html#span-tags)** -- Tags that are associated with a span. Certain span tags are required for a span to be valid. In addition, you can instrument an application with custom span tags.

You can use tags to filter alerts, dashboards, events, and sources from the Wavefront UI or with the REST API.

### How to Use Different Tag Types

<table>
<colgroup>
<col width="16%"/>
<col width="28%"/>
<col width="28%"/>
<col width="28%"/>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Tag Type</th>
<th>Usage Example</th>
<th>Add and Update</th>
<th>Query</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>point tag</td>
<td markdown="span">Filter metrics.</td>
<td markdown="span">Often part of data source, or you can add using [proxy preprocessor rules](proxies_preprocessor_rules.html#point-altering-rules). </td>
<td markdown="span"> Filter and perform [series matching](query_language_series_matching.html) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>source tag</td>
<td>Filter sources.</td>
<td markdown="span">Add source tags using API, CLI, or UI (discussed below). </td>
<td markdown="span">[Select only tagged sources](#why-source-tags) in your query.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>alert tag</td>
<td markdown="span">
[Organize related alerts](alerts_manage.html#organize-related-alerts-with-alert-tags). <br> Suppress tagged alerts during a [maintenance window](maintenance_windows_managing.html#creating-a-maintenance-window).</td>
<td markdown="span">[Create or add alert tags](alerts.html#creating-an-alert).</td>
<td markdown="span">[Reference alert metrics by tag](alerts_dependencies.html#referencing-alert-metrics).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>event tags</td>
<td>Filter and find events.</td>
<td markdown="span">[Create or add event tags](events.html#creating-a-user-event).</td>
<td markdown="span">Use filters in [events() Queries](events_queries.html).</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

### Supported Characters

Tag names can contain alphanumeric (a-z, A-Z, 0-9), dash (-), underscore (_), and forward slash (/) characters. The space character is not supported. 

When you construct a Wavefront query, you can use colon in a tag name (:), only if the tag name is in quotes. For example: `ts(<metricName>,"t:m"=tag-with-colon)`

### Tags in the UI

In the Wavefront UI:
* Tags display when you hover your mouse over a line, point, etc. in a chart.
* Tags display as gray labeled icons ![tag](images/tag.png#inline) in the filter bar and below each object in the browser for that object (e.g. dashboard or alerts browse).
* Tags on the left of the object browser allow you to filter your display.

### Tags in Queries

In ts() and events() queries, you can filter:

-   Metrics with source tags and point tags
-   Events with:
    - alert tags and event tags
    - system tags added by alerts (severity, subtype, and type)
<commit_msg>Added missing period.<commit_after>---
title: Organizing with Tags
tags: [getting started, alerts, dashboards, events, videos]
sidebar: doc_sidebar
permalink: tags_overview.html
summary: Learn how to use tags to focus and speed up queries display and to unclutter the UI.
---
A tag is custom metadata that adds application-specific meaning to Wavefront objects such alerts, dashboards, events, and sources and metrics.

Watch the following video for an introduction to point tags and source tags:

<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tt4orZHQts&index=3&list=PLmp0id7yKiEdaWcjNtGikcyqpNcPNbn_K"><img src="/images/v_tagging_clement.png" style="width: 700px;" alt="tagging"/></a>
</p>

See [Wavefront Data Naming](wavefront_data_naming.html) for examples of tags and tag naming.

{% include tip.html content="Read the blog post [Skyline Resolves Production Incidents Faster with Alert-Based Health Dashboards](https://tanzu.vmware.com/content/blog/skyline-resolves-production-incidents-faster-with-alert-based-health-dashboards) for a discussion of a real-world example that uses alert tags." %}

## Tags Basics

You use tags in several ways:
* **[Point tags](query_language_point_tags.html)** -- Add dimensions to your query with point tags. For example, examine only metrics from a certain region.
* **Source tags** -- Group your sources. For example, examine only production hosts but not development hosts.
  {% include note.html content="Information about the source is part of each metric, but you add source tags explicitly from the UI, CLI, or API." %}
* **Alert tags** -- Find [alerts](alerts.html) or exclude tagged alerts from a maintenance window.
* **Event Tags** -- Add event tags from the Events browser or when you [create a user event](events.html#creating-a-user-event) to make it easier to filter events.
* **Object tags** -- Limit the number of objects (e.g. dashboards) and metrics. For example, you might  display only dashboards with a certain tag.
* **[Span tags](trace_data_details.html#span-tags)** -- Tags that are associated with a span. Certain span tags are required for a span to be valid. In addition, you can instrument an application with custom span tags.

You can use tags to filter alerts, dashboards, events, and sources from the Wavefront UI or with the REST API.

### How to Use Different Tag Types

<table>
<colgroup>
<col width="16%"/>
<col width="28%"/>
<col width="28%"/>
<col width="28%"/>
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Tag Type</th>
<th>Usage Example</th>
<th>Add and Update</th>
<th>Query</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>point tag</td>
<td markdown="span">Filter metrics.</td>
<td markdown="span">Often part of data source, or you can add using [proxy preprocessor rules](proxies_preprocessor_rules.html#point-altering-rules). </td>
<td markdown="span"> Filter and perform [series matching](query_language_series_matching.html) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>source tag</td>
<td>Filter sources.</td>
<td markdown="span">Add source tags using API, CLI, or UI (discussed below). </td>
<td markdown="span">[Select only tagged sources](#why-source-tags) in your query.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>alert tag</td>
<td markdown="span">
[Organize related alerts](alerts_manage.html#organize-related-alerts-with-alert-tags). <br> Suppress tagged alerts during a [maintenance window](maintenance_windows_managing.html#creating-a-maintenance-window).</td>
<td markdown="span">[Create or add alert tags](alerts.html#creating-an-alert).</td>
<td markdown="span">[Reference alert metrics by tag](alerts_dependencies.html#referencing-alert-metrics).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>event tags</td>
<td>Filter and find events.</td>
<td markdown="span">[Create or add event tags](events.html#creating-a-user-event).</td>
<td markdown="span">Use filters in [events() Queries](events_queries.html).</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

### Supported Characters

Tag names can contain alphanumeric (a-z, A-Z, 0-9), dash (-), underscore (_), and forward slash (/) characters. The space character is not supported. 

When you construct a Wavefront query, you can use colon in a tag name (:), only if the tag name is in quotes. For example: `ts(<metricName>,"t:m"=tag-with-colon)`.

### Tags in the UI

In the Wavefront UI:
* Tags display when you hover your mouse over a line, point, etc. in a chart.
* Tags display as gray labeled icons ![tag](images/tag.png#inline) in the filter bar and below each object in the browser for that object (e.g. dashboard or alerts browse).
* Tags on the left of the object browser allow you to filter your display.

### Tags in Queries

In ts() and events() queries, you can filter:

-   Metrics with source tags and point tags
-   Events with:
    - alert tags and event tags
    - system tags added by alerts (severity, subtype, and type)

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