Serialization

The prometheus lexicon serializes two files:

• The rule file, from every RuleGroup in the build: groups:, each with its name, optional interval, query_offset, limit and labels, and its rules. This is the file rule_files: points at and promtool check rules reads.
• alertmanager.yml, from the AlertmanagerSettings, Route, InhibitRule, Receiver and TimeInterval entities, in that section order: global, templates, route, inhibit_rules, receivers, time_intervals, tracing.

The rule file is the primary output when the build declares any rule groups, and alertmanager.yml is written beside it (-o dist/rules.yml also writes dist/alertmanager.yml). A build with only Alertmanager entities emits alertmanager.yml as its primary output.

• Rules inside a group and child routes keep the order they are written in, which is the order Prometheus evaluates and Alertmanager matches them. Groups, receivers and time intervals, whose order carries no meaning, are sorted by name, so the files are the same however they were built. Keys inside a rule come out in the order Prometheus documents them (record or alert, expr, for, keep_firing_for, labels, annotations).
• A route references its receiver and time intervals by name in the output, whether the declaration used the entity or a string.
• The root route is the one Route no other route lists as a child.
• Neither file has a metadata channel, so no ownership marker is stamped.