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3 steps · SLOs & reliability

Review a reliability budget

Calculate the allowance, inspect burn rate and connect the result to your release policy.

BringAn agreed SLO, eligible event or time totals, bad outcomes and a policy owner.

Finish withAn error-budget report, a two-window burn-rate check and a reviewed policy checkpoint.

  1. Step 1

    Calculate the allowance

    Choose request-based or time-based availability, then enter the SLO and matching eligible and bad totals. The result turns the target into an allowance for that population: how much failure was permitted, how much occurred and what remains.

    Before moving on: The numerator and denominator need the same service scope and measurement window. Note excluded traffic and missing telemetry so the report explains what its allowance covers.

    Open calculatorView worked example

    Use Save file draft to keep editable JSON for the later policy step; the exported report cannot be reopened as a draft. Keep the report for review, too. A time-based allowance and a request-based allowance are different definitions.

  2. Step 2

    Inspect the rate of consumption

    For an event-based SLI, compare a longer window of sustained consumption with a shorter window of recent errors. A brief spike and a continuing failure can look similar in one view; the paired windows help show whether the high rate is still present. Enter separate counts using the same indicator and a common end time.

    Before moving on: The report compares each rate with the chosen threshold. The short window is part of the long window, so adding their consumption would count some events twice.

    Open calculatorView worked example

    Enter the window counts separately. The calculator does not import the previous budget report or convert minutes into requests.

  3. Step 3

    Record the release-policy decision

    Return to the budget calculator and use Open draft to reopen the JSON saved earlier. Local saving is off by default; reopening the calculator alone starts with blank totals. Enter your team’s consumption checkpoint, the action it triggers and the decision owner. The report keeps that policy beside the allowance it applies to.

    Before moving on: The decision owner needs the measurement scope, remaining allowance and any applicable exception to determine whether the next change can proceed.

    Reopen budget calculatorView worked example

    Export the report for review. A passing calculation does not authorize a release.