Create custom links
Required role
The Editor role or higher is required to create and manage custom links. To learn more, refer to Assign user roles and privileges.
Elastic's custom link feature allows you to easily create up to 500 dynamic links based on your specific APM data. Custom links can be filtered to only appear for relevant services, environments, transaction types, or transaction names.
Ready to dive in? Jump straight to the examples.
Create a link
Each custom link consists of a label, URL, and optional filter. The easiest way to create a custom link is from within the actions dropdown in the transaction detail page. This method will automatically apply filters, scoping the link to that specific service, environment, transaction type, and transaction name.
Alternatively, you can create a custom link by navigating to any page within Applications and selecting Settings → Custom Links → Create custom link.
Label
The name of your custom link. The actions context menu displays this text, so keep it as short as possible.
Tip
Custom links are displayed alphabetically in the actions menu.
URL
The URL your link points to.
URLs support dynamic field name variables, encapsulated in double curly brackets: {{field.name}}.
These variables will be replaced with transaction metadata when the link is clicked.
Because everyone's data is different, you'll need to examine your traces to see what metadata is available for use. To do this, select a trace and click Metadata in the Trace Sample table.
Filters
Filter each link to only appear for specific services or transactions. You can filter on the following fields:
service.nameservice.envtransaction.typetransaction.name
Multiple values are allowed when comma-separated.
Custom link examples
Not sure where to start with custom links? Take a look at the examples below and customize them to your liking!
Email the owner of a service.
Label | Email <SERVICE_NAME> engineer |
Link | mailto:<TEAM_OR_ENGINEER>@<COMPANY_NAME>.com |
Filters | service.name:<SERVICE_NAME> |
Example
This link opens an email addressed to the team or owner of python-backend.
It will only appear on services with the name python-backend.
Label | Email python-backend engineers |
Link | mailto:python_team@elastic.co |
Filters | service.name:python-backend |
GitHub issue
Open a GitHub issue with prepopulated metadata from the selected trace sample.
Label | Open an issue in <REPO_NAME> |
Link | https://github.com/<ORG>/<REPO>/issues/new?title=<TITLE>&body=<BODY> |
Filters | service.name:client |
Example
This link opens a new GitHub issue in the apm-agent-rum repository. It populates the issue body with relevant metadata from the currently active trace. Clicking this link results in the following issue being created:
Label | Open an issue in apm-rum-js |
Link | https://github.com/elastic/apm-agent-rum-js/issues/new?title=Investigate+APM+trace&body=Investigate+the+following+APM+trace%3A%0D%0A%0D%0Aservice.name%3A+{{service.name}}%0D%0Atransaction.id%3A+{{transaction.id}}%0D%0Acontainer.id%3A+{{container.id}}%0D%0Aurl.full%3A+{{url.full}} |
Filters | service.name:client |
See the GitHub automation documentation for a full list of supported query parameters.
Jira task
Create a Jira task with prepopulated metadata from the selected trace sample.
Label | Open an issue in Jira |
Link | https://<JIRA_BASE_URL>/secure/CreateIssueDetails!init.jspa?<ARGUMENTS> |
Example
This link creates a new task on the Engineering board in Jira. It populates the issue body with relevant metadata from the currently active trace. Clicking this link results in the following task being created in Jira:
Label | Open a task in Jira |
Link | https://test-site-33.atlassian.net/secure/CreateIssueDetails!init.jspa?pid=10000&issuetype=10001&summary=Created+via+APM&description=Investigate+the+following+APM+trace%3A%0D%0A%0D%0Aservice.name%3A+{{service.name}}%0D%0Atransaction.id%3A+{{transaction.id}}%0D%0Acontainer.id%3A+{{container.id}}%0D%0Aurl.full%3A+{{url.full}} |
See the Jira application administration knowledge base for a full list of supported query parameters.
Dashboards
Link to a custom dashboard.
Label | Open transaction in custom visualization |
Link | https://kibana-instance/app/kibana#/dashboard?_g=query:(language:kuery,query:'transaction.id:{{transaction.id}}'... |
Example
This link opens the current transaction.id in a custom dashboard.
There are no filters set.
Label | Open transaction in Python drilldown viz |
URL | https://kibana-instance/app/kibana#/dashboard?_g=(filters:!(),refreshInterval:(pause:!t,value:0),time:(from:now-24h,to:now))&_a=(description:'',filters:!(),fullScreenMode:!f,options:(hidePanelTitles:!f,useMargins:!t),panels:!((embeddableConfig:(),gridData:(h:15,i:cb79c1c0-1af8-472c-aaf7-d158a76946fb,w:24,x:0,y:0),id:c8c74b20-6a30-11ea-92ab-b5d3feff11df,panelIndex:cb79c1c0-1af8-472c-aaf7-d158a76946fb,type:visualization,version:'7.7')),query:(language:kuery,query:'transaction.id:{{transaction.id}}'),timeRestore:!f,title:'',viewMode:edit) |
Slack channel
Open a specified slack channel.
Label | Open SLACK_CHANNEL |
Link | https://COMPANY_SLACK.slack.com/archives/SLACK_CHANNEL |
Filters | service.name : SERVICE_NAME |
Example
This link opens a company slack channel, #apm-user-support.
It only appears when transaction.name is GET user/login.
Label | Open #apm-user-support |
Link | https://COMPANY_SLACK.slack.com/archives/efk52kt23k |
Filters | transaction.name:GET user/login |
Website
Open an internal or external website.
Label | Open <WEBSITE> |
Link | https://<COMPANY_SLACK>.slack.com/archives/<SLACK_CHANNEL> |
Filters | service.name:<SERVICE_NAME> |
Example
This link opens more data on a specific user.email.
It only appears on front-end transactions.
Label | View user internally |
Link | https://internal-site.company.com/user/{{user.email}} |
Filters | service.name:client |