VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics · error

missing metric name

Error message

missing metric name

What it means

Field 1 is entirely absent from the Metric message: OTEL requires every metric to carry a name, so the decoder rejects the message outright instead of guessing.

Source

Thrown at lib/protoparser/opentelemetry/pb/pb.go:671

	//   string unit = 3;
	//   oneof data {
	//     Gauge gauge = 5;
	//     Sum sum = 7;
	//     Histogram histogram = 9;
	//     ExponentialHistogram exponential_histogram = 10;
	//     Summary summary = 11;
	//   }
	//   repeated opentelemetry.proto.common.v1.KeyValue metadata = 12;
	// }

	dctx.mm.reset()

	metricName, ok, err := easyproto.GetString(src, 1)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("cannot read metric name: %w", err)
	}
	if !ok {
		return fmt.Errorf("missing metric name")
	}
	dctx.mm.Name = metricName

	unit, ok, err := easyproto.GetString(src, 3)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("cannot read metric unit: %w", err)
	}
	if ok {
		dctx.mm.Unit = unit
	}

	dctx.mm.Type = prompb.MetricTypeUnknown

	lsMetadata := promutil.GetLabels()
	defer promutil.PutLabels(lsMetadata)

	var fc easyproto.FieldContext
	for len(src) > 0 {

View on GitHub (pinned to 5079fb58f1)

Solutions

1. Set a non-empty instrument name on every metric in the exporter/SDK
2. Check instrumentation code for metrics created without a name
3. Reject or fix unnamed metrics before export

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at lib/protoparser/opentelemetry/pb/pb.go:671 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics@5079fb58f1 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6e4ecc046c684164. Report an issue: GitHub.