Summary

Build a Prometheus exporter for RustChain node metrics and provide enough monitoring surface for maintainers to observe node health, epoch state, miner activity, and selected chain statistics.

Why This Matters

RustChain needs better operational visibility. A clean exporter lowers the cost of monitoring nodes and creates a stronger base for Grafana dashboards, alerts, and uptime investigation.

Scope

• build a Prometheus-compatible exporter that scrapes the RustChain node API
• expose metrics covering node health, epoch progress, miner activity, and selected chain statistics
• support configurable node URL and configurable listen port
• include an operable deployment path such as a systemd unit
• optionally include Grafana dashboard JSON and local monitoring stack helpers
• document metric names, scrape assumptions, and setup clearly

Deliverable

A working exporter service plus setup instructions that let maintainers scrape RustChain metrics and review the resulting data without another spec pass.

Acceptance Criteria

• exporter runs and exposes Prometheus metrics on a configurable endpoint
• node-health and epoch metrics are included
• miner-activity metrics are included
• selected balance, hall-of-fame, fee-pool, or similar chain stats are exposed where supported by the API
• node URL and scrape behavior are configurable
• a systemd unit or equivalent operational deployment method is included
• README or setup notes document metric sources and install steps clearly
• source code is shared publicly through a PR, repo, or equivalent reference

Verification Proof

Post proof in this issue including:

• PR or source link
• example /metrics output
• install or service startup instructions used
• list of node endpoints scraped
• screenshots or notes for Grafana integration if bonus work is included

Bonus

Extra credit for:

• Grafana dashboard JSON
• Docker Compose with Prometheus plus Grafana plus exporter
• alert rules for offline miners, unhealthy nodes, or related operational signals

Payout

40 RTC

Non-Goals

• generic observability work unrelated to RustChain metrics
• a dashboard mockup with no working exporter
• hard-coding a single founder node with no documented configuration path
• unsupported metrics invented without backing node data

Claim Routing

Use this issue for exporter implementation proof and payout discussion. If code lands in Scottcjn/Rustchain, link the PR back here and keep verification details on this issue.

Resources

Suggested API sources include the current node health, epoch, miner, hall-of-fame, fee-pool, and stats endpoints where available.