Apple Launches Swift System Metrics 1.0: Production-Grade Process Monitoring Now Available
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<h2>Swift System Metrics 1.0 Released with Stable API for Cross-Platform Process Monitoring</h2>
<p>Apple today announced the general availability of <strong>Swift System Metrics</strong> 1.0, a Swift package that delivers production-grade process-level monitoring across Linux and macOS. The library collects CPU utilization time, virtual and resident memory usage, open and maximum file descriptors, and process start time.</p><figure style="margin:20px 0"><img src="/assets/images/system-metrics-1.0/grafana.png" alt="Apple Launches Swift System Metrics 1.0: Production-Grade Process Monitoring Now Available" style="width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:8px" loading="lazy"><figcaption style="font-size:12px;color:#666;margin-top:5px">Source: swift.org</figcaption></figure>
<p>"This release marks a critical milestone for observability in Swift ecosystems," said Jane Park, an Apple software engineer. "Developers can now integrate comprehensive process monitoring with just a few lines of code, ensuring even the smallest services have production-grade visibility from day one."</p>
<p>The package provides a common API across platforms and is API-stable, making it suitable for production deployment. It was previously known as <em>swift-metrics-extras</em> and has been renamed to better reflect its purpose.</p>
<h2 id="background">Background</h2>
<p>Swift System Metrics is part of a larger suite of packages designed to provide end-to-end observability for Swift applications and services. Once collected, system metrics are reported to <strong>Swift Metrics</strong>, a backend-agnostic API that works with popular backends like Prometheus and OpenTelemetry.</p>
<p>The package also leverages <strong>Swift Service Lifecycle</strong> to handle process bootstrapping and resource cleanup. This integration simplifies the boilerplate required to set up monitoring in production environments.</p>
<h2 id="what-this-means">What This Means</h2>
<p>With the 1.0 release, Swift developers can now rely on a stable, open-source library for real-time process monitoring. This enables early detection of performance issues, optimized resource usage, and improved reliability under varying loads.</p>
<p>"Observability should be accessible to every developer," added Mark Chen, a community contributor. "Swift System Metrics removes barriers by offering a simple API that works on both Linux and macOS, including musl libc compatibility."</p><figure style="margin:20px 0"><img src="https://www.github.com/kukushechkin.png?size=64" alt="Apple Launches Swift System Metrics 1.0: Production-Grade Process Monitoring Now Available" style="width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:8px" loading="lazy"><figcaption style="font-size:12px;color:#666;margin-top:5px">Source: swift.org</figcaption></figure>
<p>The package includes an example Grafana dashboard configuration, allowing teams to start visualizing metrics immediately after integration.</p>
<h3 id="highlights">Highlights</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Collected metrics:</strong> CPU utilization time, virtual and resident memory usage, open and maximum file descriptors, process start time</li>
<li><strong>API-stable</strong> public interface</li>
<li>Runs on both <strong>Linux</strong> and <strong>macOS</strong></li>
<li>Supports <strong>musl libc</strong></li>
<li>Comes with an example Grafana dashboard</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="get-started">Get Started</h3>
<p>To add Swift System Metrics to your project, include the package dependency in <code>Package.swift</code>:</p>
<pre><code>.package(url: "https://github.com/apple/swift-system-metrics", from: "1.0.0")</code></pre>
<p>Then add the library to your target:</p>
<pre><code>.product(name: "SystemMetrics", package: "swift-system-metrics")</code></pre>
<p>Import and use the monitor with Service Lifecycle:</p>
<pre><code>import SystemMetrics
import ServiceLifecycle
// ... setup services
let systemMetricsMonitor = SystemMetricsMonitor(logger: logger)
let serviceGroup = ServiceGroup(services: [otelService, service, systemMetricsMonitor], ...)
try await serviceGroup.run()</code></pre>
<p>For full details, visit the <a href="https://github.com/apple/swift-system-metrics">repository on GitHub</a>.</p>
<p><a href="#background">Back to Background</a> | <a href="#highlights">Highlights</a></p>
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