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benenharrington merged 2 commits into from
Aug 5, 2026
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docs: remove otel.metric.unit tag, document unit display on Datasets tab #696

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8df6a4f
docs: remove otel.metric.unit tag, document unit display on Datasets tab
benenharrington Jul 31, 2026
07ecc34
docs: drop unit tooltip sentence and unit metadata bullet
benenharrington Jul 31, 2026
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10 changes: 10 additions & 0 deletions content/docs/(documentation)/query-data/datasets.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -46,6 +46,16 @@ On the right, you see the following:
- [Saved queries](#saved-queries)
- [Query history](#query-history)

### Explore metrics datasets

When you select a metrics dataset, Axiom displays the list of metrics in the dataset instead of a list of fields. Each row displays the type, the name, and the unit of the metric.

Axiom displays the unit of a metric in one of the following ways:

- Units without braces are standard [UCUM](https://ucum.org/) units that Axiom recognizes and displays as readable labels. For example, a metric ingested with the unit `By` appears as `bytes`, and a metric ingested with the unit `ms` appears as `milliseconds`. The dimensionless unit `1` appears as `dimensionless`.
- Units in curly braces are values that Axiom doesn’t translate. These are UCUM annotations like `{requests}` or unit values that aren’t valid UCUM units. Axiom displays the value inside braces as it was ingested.
- Empty braces (`{}`) mean that unit information isn’t available for the metric. This happens when the metric was ingested without a unit or when the unit of the metric isn’t consistent within the selected time range.

### Edit field

To edit a field:
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1 change: 0 additions & 1 deletion content/docs/(documentation)/query-data/metrics.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -138,7 +138,6 @@ MetricsDB applies the following transformations to improve query performance and

- **Timestamp precision**: Truncate nanosecond timestamps to second precision. MetricsDB is built for use cases where second-level granularity is sufficient, and this optimization significantly improves compression ratios and query speed.
- **Unified tag namespace**: Flatten resource, scope, and metric tags into a single namespace. This simplification makes queries more straightforward and enables faster dimensional filtering. You don’t need to remember which tags came from which scope.
- **Unit normalization**: Convert the `unit` attribute to `otel.metric.unit` for consistent handling across all metric types.
- **Histogram handling**: Assume equal-width histograms and don’t preserve histogram metadata. This trade-off supports the most common histogram analysis patterns (percentiles, distribution visualization) while reducing storage requirements.

These design choices reflect real-world metrics usage patterns. If your use case requires capabilities not currently supported, [contact Axiom](https://axiom.co/contact) to discuss your requirements. Your feedback helps shape MetricsDB’s evolution.
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