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Flux

Flux is a custom metrics and events platform that lets you track anything and see everything in your Rails application.

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Features

Custom Events

Track any discrete occurrence in your application

Metrics

Gauges, counters, distributions, and sets

Dashboards

Build custom dashboards with widgets

Anomaly Detection

AI-powered detection of spikes, drops, and trends

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Quick Start

Add the gem and configure:
Gemfile
gem 'brainzlab'
config/initializers/brainzlab.rb
BrainzLab.configure do |config|
  config.secret_key = ENV['BRAINZLAB_SECRET_KEY']
  config.flux_enabled = true
end
Track your first event: 
BrainzLab::Flux.track("user.signup", {
  user_id: user.id,
  plan: "pro",
  value: 29.99
})

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Event Tracking

Events are discrete occurrences with a name, timestamp, and optional properties: 
# Track a simple event
BrainzLab::Flux.track("button.clicked")

# Track with properties
BrainzLab::Flux.track("order.placed", {
  user_id: user.id,
  properties: { product: "widget", quantity: 3 },
  tags: { environment: "production" },
  value: 149.99
})
Events support:
  • Properties - Arbitrary key/value data
  • Tags - Indexed metadata for filtering
  • Value - Numeric value for aggregations
  • User ID - Link events to users

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Metrics

Track four types of metrics:
TypeUse CaseExample
GaugeCurrent valueusers.online, queue.depth
CounterIncrementingapi.requests, emails.sent
DistributionStats (avg, p95)response_time, order_value
SetUnique countsdaily_active_users
# Gauge - current value
BrainzLab::Flux.gauge("users.online", 234)

# Counter - increment
BrainzLab::Flux.increment("api.requests")
BrainzLab::Flux.increment("api.requests", 5)

# Distribution - statistical aggregation
BrainzLab::Flux.distribution("response_time", 145.2)

# Set - unique count
BrainzLab::Flux.set("daily_active_users", user.id)

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Timing Operations

Measure code execution time automatically: 
BrainzLab::Flux.measure("pdf.generate", tags: { pages: 10 }) do
  generate_pdf(document)
end
This creates a distribution metric with the execution time in milliseconds.

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Dashboards

Create custom dashboards with widgets:
  • Number - Single metric value
  • Graph - Time series charts
  • Bar - Categorical comparisons
  • Pie - Distribution breakdown
  • Table - Tabular data
  • Heatmap - Time-based patterns

Dashboard Guide

Learn how to build dashboards

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Anomaly Detection

Flux automatically detects unusual patterns:
  • Spikes - Values more than 3x baseline
  • Drops - Values below 30% of baseline
  • Trends - Sustained directional changes
Severity levels:
  • Info - 0-50% deviation
  • Warning - 50-100% deviation
  • Critical - Over 100% deviation

Anomaly Detection

Configure anomaly detection

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Configuration

BrainzLab.configure do |config|
  # Enable/disable Flux
  config.flux_enabled = true

  # Batch settings (for performance)
  config.flux_batch_size = 100
  config.flux_flush_interval = 10 # seconds

  # Tags added to all events/metrics
  config.flux_default_tags = {
    environment: Rails.env,
    version: MyApp::VERSION
  }
end

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What’s Next?

Events

Event tracking in depth

Metrics

All metric types

Dashboards

Build custom dashboards

Anomalies

Anomaly detection