---
title: Explore metrics data with Discover in Kibana
description: Make the most of Discover to explore metrics data.
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/solutions/observability/infra-and-hosts/discover-metrics
products:
  - Elastic Observability
  - Elastic Security
---

# Explore metrics data with Discover in Kibana
<important>
  This functionality is experimental and not supported. It may change or be removed at anytime.
</important>

**Discover** offers a dedicated experience for exploring metrics data. When **Discover** recognizes metrics data, it enables specific features and default behaviors to optimize your data exploration. Metrics-specific exploration in Discover automatically generates a grid of charts showing available metrics from your data. Use this view to quickly search and filter metrics, break metrics down by dimension, review the ESQL query that generates the charts, and add metrics to dashboards with a single click.
If you're just getting started with **Discover** and want to learn its main principles, you should get familiar with the [default experience](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/explore-analyze/discover).
![Screenshot of adding a dimension.](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/solutions/images/explore-metrics-ui.png)


## Requirements


### Data recognition

By default, all data stored in a `metrics-*` index is recognized as metrics data and triggers the **Discover** experience described on this page.

### Required Kibana privileges

Viewing metrics data in **Discover** requires at least `read` privileges for **Discover**.
For more on assigning Kibana privileges, refer to the [Kibana privileges documentation](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/deploy-manage/users-roles/cluster-or-deployment-auth/kibana-privileges).

## Load metrics data

<note>
  To visualize your metrics data as charts, its data stream needs its **Index mode** set to **Time series**. Open **Index Management** using the [global search field](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/explore-analyze/find-and-organize/find-apps-and-objects), then select the **Data Streams** tab to find your data stream's index mode.
</note>

The dedicated metrics view is only available in ESQL mode. From the **Discover** main page, select **Try ESQL** to open ESQL mode.
Use the `TS` command to select the data source. For example, the following query returns all of your metrics data:
```esql
TS metrics-*
```

You can also query a specific index:
```esql
TS metrics-index-1
```


## Metrics-specific Discover options

With your data loaded, use the metrics charts to:
**Search for specific metrics**
Use the search function to find and visualize specific metric data:
![Screenshot of searching for a specific metric.](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/solutions/images/explore-metrics-search.png)

**Break down metrics by dimension**
Break down your metrics by dimension to find metrics that contain those dimensions and identify which values in those dimensions contribute the most to each metric.
![Screenshot of adding a dimension.](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/solutions/images/explore-metrics-host-ip.png)

**Filter dimensions by a specific value**
Select specific values to focus on within the dimension. You can select up to 10 values to filter your dimension by.
![Screenshot of adding a filtering a dimension by a value.](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/solutions/images/explore-metrics-host-ip-values.png)

**View metric charts in full screen**
Select full screen (`full_screen`) to view the metric charts in full-screen mode.

### Actions

For each metric chart, you can perform the following actions:
- **Explore in Discover** (`app_discover`): Open Discover filtered to focus on that specific metric.
- **Inspect** (`inspect`): Show details about the query request and response.
- **View details** (`eye`): Get additional information about the metric like metric type, dimensions, and ESQL query.
- **Copy to dashboard** (`app_dashboard`): Save the metric chart to an existing or new [dashboard](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/explore-analyze/dashboards).
- **Add to case** (`app_cases`): Add the metric chart to a [case](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/solutions/observability/incident-management/cases).