Provides patterns to configure Spring Boot Actuator for production-grade monitoring, health probes, secured management endpoints, and Micrometer metrics across JVM services. Use when setting up monitoring, health checks, or metrics for Spring Boot applications.
apm install @giuseppe-trisciuoglio/spring-boot-actuator
[](https://apm-p1ls2dz87-atlamors-projects.vercel.app/packages/@giuseppe-trisciuoglio/spring-boot-actuator)---
name: spring-boot-actuator
description: Provides patterns to configure Spring Boot Actuator for production-grade monitoring, health probes, secured management endpoints, and Micrometer metrics across JVM services. Use when setting up monitoring, health checks, or metrics for Spring Boot applications.
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Bash
---
# Spring Boot Actuator Skill
## Overview
- Deliver production-ready observability for Spring Boot services using Actuator endpoints, probes, and Micrometer integration.
- Standardize health, metrics, and diagnostics configuration while delegating deep reference material to `references/`.
- Support platform requirements for secure operations, SLO reporting, and incident diagnostics.
## When to Use
- Trigger: "enable actuator endpoints" – Bootstrap Actuator for a new or existing Spring Boot service.
- Trigger: "secure management port" – Apply Spring Security policies to protect management traffic.
- Trigger: "configure health probes" – Define readiness and liveness groups for orchestrators.
- Trigger: "export metrics to prometheus" – Wire Micrometer registries and tune metric exposure.
- Trigger: "debug actuator startup" – Inspect condition evaluations and startup metrics when endpoints are missing or slow.
## Instructions
Follow these steps to configure Spring Boot Actuator for production-grade monitoring:
### 1. Add Actuator Dependency
Include spring-boot-starter-actuator in your build configuration (Maven or Gradle).
### 2. Expose Required Endpoints
Configure management.endpoints.web.exposure.include property with the specific endpoints you need. Avoid exposing sensitive endpoints like /env, /heapdump in production.
### 3. Secure Management Traffic
Apply Spring Security to management endpoints using @Configuration class with EndpointRequest matcher. Consider using a dedicated management port for additional isolation.
### 4. Configure Health Probes
Enable readiness and liveness probes with management.endpoint.health.probes.enabled=true. Create health groups to aggregate relevant indicators.
### 5. Set Up Metrics Export
Configure Micrometer registry for your monitoring system (Prometheus, OTLP, Wavefront). Add application tags for cross-service correlation.
### 6. Enable Diagnostic Endpoints
Turn on /actuator/startup, /actuator/conditions, and /actuator/httpexchanges for incident response troubleshooting.
### 7. Validate Configuration
Test each endpoint is accessible and returns expected data. Verify health checks integrate with your orchestrator (Kubernetes, Cloud Foundry).
## Quick Start
1. Add the starter dependency.
```xml
<!-- Maven -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
</dependency>
```
```gradle
// Gradle
dependencies {
implementation "org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-actuator"
}
```
2. Restart the service and verify `/actuator/health` and `/actuator/info` respond with `200 OK`.
## Implementation Workflow
### 1. Expose the required endpoints
- Set `management.endpoints.web.exposure.include` to the precise list or `"*"` for internal deployments.
- Adjust `management.endpoints.web.base-path` (e.g., `/management`) when the default `/actuator` conflicts with routing.
- Review detailed endpoint semantics in `references/endpoint-reference.md`.
### 2. Secure management traffic
- Apply an isolated `SecurityFilterChain` using `EndpointRequest.toAnyEndpoint()` with role-based rules.
- Combine `management.server.port` with firewall controls or service mesh policies for operator-only access.
- Keep `/actuator/health/**` publicly accessible only when required; otherwise enforce authentication.
### 3. Configure health probes
- Enable `management.endpoint.health.probes.enabled=true` for `/health/liveness` and `/health/readiness`.
- Group indicators via `management.endpoint.health.group.*` to match platform expectations.
- Implement custom indicators by extending `HealthIndicator` or `ReactiveHealthContributor`; sample implementations live in `references/examples.md#custom-health-indicator`.
### 4. Publish metrics and traces
- Activate Micrometer exporters (Prometheus, OTLP, Wavefront, StatsD) via `management.metrics.export.*`.
- Apply `MeterRegistryCustomizer` beans to add `application`, `environment`, and business tags for observability correlation.
- Surface HTTP request metrics with `server.observation.*` configuration when using Spring Boot 3.2+.
### 5. Enable diagnostics tooling
- Turn on `/actuator/startup` (Spring Boot 3.5+) and `/actuator/conditions` during incident response to inspect auto-configuration decisions.
- Register an `HttpExchangeRepository` (e.g., `InMemoryHttpExchangeRepository`) before enabling `/actuator/httpexchanges` for request auditing.
- Consult `references/official-actuator-docs.md` for endpoint behaviors and limits.
## Examples
### Basic – Expose health and info safely
```yaml
management:
endpoints:
web:
exposure:
include: "health,info"
endpoint:
health:
show-details: never
```
### Intermediate – Readiness group with custom indicator
```java
@Component
public class PaymentsGatewayHealth implements HealthIndicator {
private final PaymentsClient client;
public PaymentsGatewayHealth(PaymentsClient client) {
this.client = client;
}
@Override
public Health health() {
boolean reachable = client.ping();
return reachable ? Health.up().withDetail("latencyMs", client.latency()).build()
: Health.down().withDetail("error", "Gateway timeout").build();
}
}
```
```yaml
management:
endpoint:
health:
probes:
enabled: true
group:
readiness:
include: "readinessState,db,paymentsGateway"
show-details: always
```
### Advanced – Dedicated management port with Prometheus export
```yaml
management:
server:
port: 9091
ssl:
enabled: true
endpoints:
web:
exposure:
include: "health,info,metrics,prometheus"
base-path: "/management"
metrics:
export:
prometheus:
descriptions: true
step: 30s
endpoint:
health:
show-details: when-authorized
roles: "ENDPOINT_ADMIN"
```
```java
@Configuration
public class ActuatorSecurityConfig {
@Bean
SecurityFilterChain actuatorChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
http.securityMatcher(EndpointRequest.toAnyEndpoint())
.authorizeHttpRequests(c -> c
.requestMatchers(EndpointRequest.to("health")).permitAll()
.anyRequest().hasRole("ENDPOINT_ADMIN"))
.httpBasic(Customizer.withDefaults());
return http.build();
}
}
```
More end-to-end samples are available in `references/examples.md`.
## Best Practices
- Keep SKILL.md concise and rely on `references/` for verbose documentation to conserve context.
- Apply the principle of least privilege: expose only required endpoints and restrict sensitive ones.
- Use immutable configuration via profile-specific YAML to align environments.
- Monitor actuator traffic separately to detect scraping abuse or brute-force attempts.
- Automate regression checks by scripting `curl` probes in CI/CD pipelines.
## Constraints and Warnings
- Avoid exposing `/actuator/env`, `/actuator/configprops`, `/actuator/logfile`, and `/actuator/heapdump` on public networks.
- Do not ship custom health indicators that block event loop threads or exceed 250 ms unless absolutely necessary.
- Ensure Actuator metrics exporters run on supported Micrometer registries; unsupported exporters require custom registry beans.
- Maintain compatibility with Spring Boot 3.5.x conventions; older versions may lack probes and observation features.
- Never expose actuator endpoints without authentication in production environments.
- Health indicators should not perform expensive operations that could impact application performance.
- Be cautious with `/actuator/beans` and `/actuator/mappings` as they reveal internal application structure.
## Reference Materials
- [Endpoint quick reference](references/endpoint-reference.md)
- [Implementation examples](references/examples.md)
- [Official documentation extract](references/official-actuator-docs.md)
- [Auditing with Actuator](references/auditing.md)
- [Cloud Foundry integration](references/cloud-foundry.md)
- [Enabling Actuator features](references/enabling.md)
- [HTTP exchange recording](references/http-exchanges.md)
- [JMX exposure](references/jmx.md)
- [Monitoring and metrics](references/monitoring.md)
- [Logging configuration](references/loggers.md)
- [Metrics exporters](references/metrics.md)
- [Observability with Micrometer](references/observability.md)
- [Process and Monitoring](references/process-monitoring.md)
- [Tracing](references/tracing.md)
- Scripts directory (`scripts/`) reserved for future automation; no runtime dependencies today.
## Validation Checklist
- Confirm `mvn spring-boot:run` or `./gradlew bootRun` exposes expected endpoints under `/actuator` (or custom base path).
- Verify `/actuator/health/readiness` returns `UP` with all mandatory components before promoting to production.
- Scrape `/actuator/metrics` or `/actuator/prometheus` to ensure required meters (`http.server.requests`, `jvm.memory.used`) are present.
- Run security scans to validate only intended ports and endpoints are reachable from outside the trusted network.