We've all been there. Staring at a dashboard, squinting at charts from last week, trying to piece together a story about what happened. This is "dashboard fatigue"—the realization that while our business intelligence tools are great at showing us the past, they're often passive spectators to the present and future.
Dashboards are static reports. They require you to manually check in, interpret the data, and then decide on an action. But in today's fast-paced digital environment, this reactive approach is no longer enough. The lag between data event, insight, and action is where opportunities are lost and risks are overlooked.
What if we could change the paradigm? What if your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) weren't just numbers on a screen, but dynamic, active services that work for you? This is the promise of an API-first approach to metrics, a concept we call Metrics as Code.
For years, the standard BI workflow has been a cycle of manual effort and data wrangling. This traditional model of KPI tracking is fundamentally broken in several ways:
Imagine if you could define a critical business metric once, and then let an automated system handle the rest. This is the core idea behind Metrics as Code, a revolutionary approach to business intelligence.
Instead of relying on a visual drag-and-drop interface, you define your KPI's logic, data sources, and performance targets programmatically. At KPIs.do, we've built an agentic workflow platform that brings this concept to life. Our intelligent agents autonomously connect to your data sources, perform calculations, analyze trends, and trigger actions, transforming your metrics from static reports into active, automated services.
With an API-first approach, you can query the status of any KPI as easily as you'd call any other web service.
import { KPIs } from '@do/sdk';
// Get the current status of a KPI via the API
const kpi = await KPIs.get('monthly-active-users');
console.log({
name: kpi.name,
value: kpi.currentValue,
status: kpi.status, // e.g., 'on-track', 'at-risk'
trend: kpi.trend, // e.g., 'increasing', 'stable'
});
This simple API call fundamentally changes how you interact with your data. Your monthly-active-users metric is no longer just a number; it's a living service with a real-time status, a discernible trend, and an easily accessible value.
When you treat your metrics as code, you unlock a new level of automation and efficiency. Here’s what becomes possible with a platform like KPIs.do:
Our agents can connect to virtually any data source you use. Whether your data lives in a SQL database, a BigQuery or Snowflake data warehouse, a business application like Salesforce, or a custom internal API, you can define it as a source. The platform handles the integration, breaking down data silos for good.
Say goodbye to manual spreadsheet updates. Define the logic for your KPI once, and our agents will handle the continuous tracking and analysis. The system constantly monitors the metric's value, trend, and status against your defined goals.
Don't wait to spot a problem on a dashboard. You can configure precise thresholds to trigger automated alerts when a metric is at-risk or off-track. Receive instant notifications via webhooks, Slack, or email, empowering your team to take immediate, corrective action.
Code is clear, version-controlled, and unambiguous. By defining your KPIs programmatically, you create a single, reliable source of truth for how every key metric is calculated. No more debates over which dashboard has the "right" number.
The magic behind this automation is the agentic workflow. Unlike a simple script that just follows instructions, our AI-powered agents are given a goal—for example, "track monthly active users from the production database and alert the product team if it drops by 5% week-over-week."
The agent then autonomously orchestrates the necessary steps:
This intelligent, goal-driven automation is what truly sets an API-first metrics platform apart from traditional tools.
Dashboards have served their purpose, but their time as the primary interface for business intelligence is over. They are passive windows into the past. The future of data-driven decision-making is active, automated, and programmatic.
By embracing Metrics as Code, you can transform your static performance metrics into dynamic services that integrate seamlessly into your daily operations. You can finally stop watching your KPIs and start acting on them in real-time.
Ready to put your metrics to work? Visit kpis.do to learn how our agentic workflow platform can automate your KPI tracking and analysis.
Q: What exactly is KPIs.do?
A: KPIs.do is an agentic workflow platform designed to manage your business metrics as code. It provides a business intelligence API that allows you to programmatically define, monitor, analyze, and act on your Key Performance Indicators, automating the entire performance management lifecycle.
Q: How does the "Metrics as Code" concept work?
A: Instead of building manual dashboards, you use our API to define a KPI's logic, its data sources, and its success targets. Our platform's agents then take over, autonomously fetching data, performing calculations, analyzing trends, and triggering alerts or webhooks, effectively turning your static metrics into active, intelligent services.
Q: Can I set up automated alerts for my team?
A: Absolutely. You can define precise conditions for each KPI. The platform will automatically send notifications via webhooks, Slack, or email when a metric's status changes to at-risk or off-track, allowing your team to respond immediately.