PCP PMWEBAPI
★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentDeveloper ToolsMonitoring Observabilitybasic21 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Query real-time performance metrics, search for metric names, retrieve time series data, and browse metric hierarchies from PCP-instrumented hosts.
Use for: I need to fetch current CPU utilization from a PCP host, I want to query historical disk I/O metrics over the past hour, Search for all memory-related performance metrics, List the children of a metric namespace node
Not supported: Does not handle metric alerting, dashboard rendering, or log aggregation — use for raw metric collection, time series queries, and metric discovery only.
Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) PMWEBAPI provides REST API access to system performance metrics, time series data, full-text search, and live host monitoring via the pmproxy daemon. It exposes the PMAPI for querying real-time metric values, the Series API for historical time series queries, and the Search API for discovering metrics by name, description, or instance domain. The API runs on port 44322 and serves performance data from any PCP-instrumented host.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the PCP PMWEBAPI to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the PCP PMWEBAPI, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with PCP PMWEBAPI API.
Fetch real-time values for any PCP performance metric from instrumented hosts
Query historical time series data with filtering by label and time range
Search for metrics by name, description, or instance domain via full-text index
Browse the metric namespace hierarchy with children and descriptor lookups
Retrieve instance domain members for multi-instance metrics
Export all metric values in Prometheus-compatible exposition format
Use Cases
Patterns agents use PCP PMWEBAPI API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Real-Time Infrastructure Monitoring
Fetch live performance metrics from PCP-instrumented Linux hosts. The PMAPI endpoints return current values for any metric in the PCP namespace (CPU, memory, disk, network, process-level counters). Agents create a polling context via GET /pmapi/context, then fetch specific metrics via GET /pmapi/fetch with metric names. This enables real-time dashboards and alerting without installing additional agents.
Create a PMAPI context via GET /pmapi/context with hostspec=localhost, then fetch the current value of kernel.all.cpu.idle via GET /pmapi/fetch
Time Series Analysis
Query historical performance data stored in PCP archives for capacity planning and trend analysis. The Series API provides time-windowed queries with label-based filtering across all archived metrics. Agents use GET /series/query with a PCP query expression to retrieve timestamped values, enabling performance regression detection and resource forecasting.
Query the time series for disk.dev.read over the last 3600 seconds via GET /series/query with the appropriate series expression
Metric Discovery and Search
Find relevant performance metrics across a PCP deployment using full-text search. The Search API indexes metric names, help text, and instance domain descriptions. Agents query GET /search/text with keywords to discover available metrics without knowing exact namespace paths, enabling self-service monitoring setup.
Search for all network-related metrics via GET /search/text with query='network throughput' and return the matching metric names and descriptions
AI Agent Infrastructure Monitoring via Jentic
AI agents use the PCP PMWEBAPI through Jentic to monitor infrastructure health, query performance metrics, and detect anomalies on PCP-instrumented hosts. Jentic handles Basic authentication and host targeting so agents can query multiple PCP instances from a single intent search without managing connection state.
Search Jentic for 'fetch CPU metrics from PCP', load the schema for GET /pmapi/fetch, and execute with metric names=['kernel.all.cpu.user', 'kernel.all.cpu.idle']
Key Endpoints
21 endpoints — performance co-pilot (pcp) pmwebapi provides rest api access to system performance metrics, time series data, full-text search, and live host monitoring via the pmproxy daemon.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/pmapi/context
Create a PMAPI context for a host or archive
GET
/pmapi/fetch
Fetch current metric values
GET
/pmapi/metric
Look up metric descriptors
GET
/pmapi/children
Browse metric namespace hierarchy
GET
/series/query
Query historical time series data
GET
/search/text
Full-text search for metrics
GET
/metrics
Export metrics in Prometheus format
GET
/series/values
Retrieve time series values by series ID
GET
/pmapi/context
Create a PMAPI context for a host or archive
GET
/pmapi/fetch
Fetch current metric values
GET
/pmapi/metric
Look up metric descriptors
GET
/pmapi/children
Browse metric namespace hierarchy
GET
/series/query
Query historical time series data
GET
/search/text
Full-text search for metrics
GET
/metrics
Export metrics in Prometheus format
GET
/series/values
Retrieve time series values by series ID
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
PCP Basic auth credentials are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents connect to any configured pmproxy instance without handling plaintext passwords or managing per-host authentication.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search by intent (e.g., 'fetch CPU metrics from server') and Jentic returns matching PCP PMWEBAPI operations with typed schemas targeting the appropriate pmproxy endpoint.
Time to first call
Direct PCP PMWEBAPI integration: 1-2 days for context management, metric discovery, and time series query construction. Through Jentic: under 1 hour — search, load schema, execute.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using PCP PMWEBAPI API through Jentic.
What authentication does the PCP PMWEBAPI use?
The PCP PMWEBAPI uses HTTP Basic Authentication when configured in pmproxy. By default, pmproxy runs without authentication on port 44322. When auth is enabled, you provide username and password via the standard Authorization header. Through Jentic, credentials are injected automatically into each request.
Can I query historical metric data with the PCP PMWEBAPI?
Yes. The Series API endpoints (GET /series/query, GET /series/values) provide access to historical data stored in PCP archives. You submit a query expression specifying the metric name and time window, and the API returns timestamped values from the archive.
What are the rate limits for the PCP PMWEBAPI?
PCP PMWEBAPI is self-hosted via the pmproxy daemon, so there are no vendor-imposed rate limits. Performance depends on the host resources and the number of metrics being served. Each GET /pmapi/fetch call reads directly from the PMDA (Performance Metrics Domain Agent) for the requested metric.
How do I search for metrics through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'find PCP performance metrics', load the schema for GET /search/text, and execute with a query parameter like 'disk throughput'. Jentic handles authentication and returns matching metric names with descriptions and instance domains.
Can I export PCP metrics to Prometheus?
Yes. The GET /metrics endpoint exports all available PCP metric values in Prometheus exposition format. This enables Prometheus scrapers to collect data from PCP-instrumented hosts without installing additional exporters.
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