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A complete walkthrough of instrumenting a Go service using the official client_golang library. See the overview for the general approach.

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1. Add the dependency

go get github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus
go get github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promauto
go get github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp

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2. Register custom metrics and expose /metrics

The default registry automatically exports Go runtime metrics (go_* — goroutines, GC pauses, heap, etc.) and process metrics (process_* — CPU, memory, open FDs). 
package main

import (
    "net/http"

    "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
    "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promauto"
    "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp"
)

var emailsSent = promauto.NewCounterVec(
    prometheus.CounterOpts{
        Name: "emails_sent_total",
        Help: "Total number of emails sent",
    },
    []string{"status"},
)

func main() {
    emailsSent.WithLabelValues("success").Inc()

    http.Handle("/metrics", promhttp.Handler())
    http.ListenAndServe(":9090", nil)
}
If your service already serves HTTP on another port, you can mount promhttp.Handler() on your existing mux at /metrics instead of starting a separate listener. Just point ops.json’s port at your main app port.

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3. Declare the metrics endpoint in ops.json

{
    "metrics": {
        "endpoint": "/metrics",
        "interval": 15,
        "port": 9090
    }
}

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4. Visualize with a community dashboard

DashboardIDNotes
Go Runtime Metrics14061Built by Grafana Labs specifically for the Prometheus Go Client Library — recommended starting point.
Go Processes6671Long-running community dashboard. Memory used, file descriptors, GC details, per-process status.
Go Metrics10826Kubernetes-oriented Go runtime dashboard, useful if you deploy via Helm.
To import: in Grafana, go to Dashboards → New → Import, enter the dashboard ID, and select your LocalOps Prometheus data source. You’ll instantly see goroutine counts, GC pause times, heap allocations, and CPU usage. Your custom application metrics (emails_sent_total, etc.) can be charted alongside.