Skip to main content
Version: 0.4

Command Reference

Complete reference for every ROSQL statement and clause.

Data source statements​

FROM <source>​

Select a data source. The primary entry point for most queries.

FROM traces
FROM logs
FROM metrics
FROM topics
FROM recordings

Sources:

  • traces — otel_traces table
  • logs — otel_logs table
  • metrics / diagnostics — otel_metrics table
  • topics — topic_messages table
  • recordings — mcap_metadata table
  • tf — tf_states table
  • heartbeats — robot_heartbeats table
  • system_logs — system_logs table
  • events — ros2_events table
  • odom, joint_states, battery, cmd_vel, imu — topic aliases

SELECT <fields> FROM <source>​

Select specific fields.

SELECT trace_id, span_name, duration FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'
SELECT AVG(duration) AS avg_dur, COUNT(*) AS total FROM traces
SELECT PERCENTILE(duration, 95) FROM traces WHERE action_name = '/navigate_to_pose'

Aggregate functions: AVG, COUNT, MAX, MIN, SUM, STDDEV, PERCENTILE, TOPIC_RATE, ACTION_SUCCESS_RATE, MOVING_AVG, DERIVATIVE, APPROX_COUNT_DISTINCT, APPROX_PERCENTILE

See Aggregate function reference for syntax and examples.

Filtering​

WHERE <condition>​

Filter rows. Supports standard comparison operators, AND, OR, IN, field access.

FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'
FROM traces WHERE duration > 500 ms AND status = 'ERROR'
FROM logs WHERE severity IN ('ERROR', 'WARN')
FROM topics WHERE topic_name = '/battery_state' AND fields['percentage'] < 20

Duration units — ROSQL automatically converts to nanoseconds:

  • 500 ms → 500000000
  • 2 s → 2000000000
  • 1 min → 60000000000

JSON field access: fields['key'] on topic_messages.fields (JSONB)

Array-indexed field access: fields['array[N]'] accesses element N of a JSON array field. Example: fields['position[0]'] → "fields"->'position'->>0 (PostgreSQL/DuckDB).

WHERE position WITHIN <radius> OF <center> (v0.4.3+)​

Geospatial filter. Returns rows where the position field falls within radius of center.

-- GPS coordinates (Haversine great-circle distance)
FROM odom WHERE position WITHIN 500 m OF (37.7749, -122.4194) SINCE 1 hour ago

-- Local frame (Euclidean distance, metres)
FROM odom WHERE position WITHIN 2 m OF POSITION (1.5, 3.0) SINCE 1 hour ago
  • GPS form OF (lat, lon): uses inline Haversine SQL; extracts position.latitude and position.longitude from the fields JSONB column.
  • Local frame OF POSITION (x, y): uses Euclidean SQRT(POWER(x - cx, 2) + POWER(y - cy, 2)); extracts pose.pose.position.x and pose.pose.position.y from fields.

Requires the topic_messages table with position data in fields.

BETWEEN <time> AND <time>​

Filter by a time range (inclusive). Both absolute and relative time expressions are supported.

FROM traces BETWEEN '2026-03-01T00:00:00Z' AND '2026-04-01T00:00:00Z'
FROM logs BETWEEN 2 days ago AND 1 day ago

SINCE <time>​

Filter by timestamp (relative or absolute).

FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR' SINCE 1 hour ago
FROM traces SINCE 30 minutes ago
FROM traces SINCE yesterday
FROM traces SINCE last week
FROM traces SINCE '2025-03-25T00:00:00Z'

Relative tokens: X minutes ago, X hours ago, X days ago, yesterday, last week, last month

LIMIT <n>​

Limit result rows.

FROM traces LIMIT 10

Default limit: 100. Not applied for scalar aggregations, FACET queries, TRACE, MESSAGE FLOW, or PATH.

OFFSET <n>​

Skip result rows before returning. Use with LIMIT for pagination.

FROM logs LIMIT 20 OFFSET 40
FROM logs OFFSET 10
FROM logs | LIMIT 10 | OFFSET 20

ORDER BY <field> [DESC|ASC]​

Sort results.

SELECT span_name, duration FROM traces ORDER BY duration DESC LIMIT 20

Scoping​

FOR clauses are composable — any combination can be prepended to any query type (standard, pipeline, compound). Multiple FOR clauses are ANDed together.

FOR ROBOT <robot_id>​

Scope a query to a specific robot.

FOR ROBOT 'robot_sim_001' FROM logs WHERE severity = 'ERROR'
FOR ROBOT 'robot_42' FROM logs SINCE 30 minutes ago

Filters by the robot_id resource attribute.

FOR FLEET​

Scope a query to the entire fleet (no robot filter). Useful when composing with other FOR clauses.

FOR FLEET FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR' SINCE 1 hour ago

FOR VERSION <semver>​

Scope a query to a specific service version, filtering by the service.version resource attribute.

FOR VERSION 'v1.2.3' FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'
FOR ROBOT 'robot_42' FOR VERSION 'v1.0.0' FROM logs SINCE 1 hour ago

FOR ENVIRONMENT <env>​

Scope a query to a deployment environment, filtering by the deployment.environment resource attribute.

FOR ENVIRONMENT 'production' FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'
FOR FLEET FOR ENVIRONMENT 'staging' FROM metrics SINCE 30 minutes ago

FOR SESSION <session_id>​

Scope a query to a specific ROS session, filtering by the ros.session.id resource attribute.

FOR SESSION 'sess_abc123' FROM logs WHERE severity = 'ERROR'

Composing FOR clauses​

All FOR clauses can be combined in any order. Each clause adds an additional filter:

FOR ROBOT 'r1' FOR VERSION 'v1.0' FOR ENVIRONMENT 'prod' FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'
FOR FLEET FOR VERSION 'v2.0' FOR ENVIRONMENT 'production' FROM traces | FACET robot_id

Works on all query types: standard, pipeline, and compound.

Time-series and enrichment​

TIMESERIES <interval> (v0.4.2+)​

Bucket results into time windows of the given interval. Composes with SELECT, FACET, and SINCE.

SELECT AVG(duration) FROM traces TIMESERIES 5 min SINCE 1 hour ago
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM logs WHERE severity = 'ERROR' TIMESERIES 1 h SINCE 24 hours ago FACET robot_id
  • Interval units: ns, us, ms, s, min, h, days (SI abbreviations) or long form minutes, hours, etc.
  • Compiles to time_bucket() (DuckDB), date_bin() (PostgreSQL), or FROM_UNIXTIME(...DIV...) (MySQL)
  • Automatically adds time_bucket to SELECT, GROUP BY, and ORDER BY
  • Exempt from the default LIMIT 100
  • When combined with FACET, produces a stacked line chart format hint

ENRICH WITH <source> [LIMIT N] [SAMPLE FULL] (v0.4.2+)​

Attach rows from a secondary data source to each row of the primary result. Multiple ENRICH WITH clauses can be chained.

FROM traces WHERE trace_id = 'abc123'
ENRICH WITH logs LIMIT 20

FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR' SINCE 1 hour ago
ENRICH WITH logs LIMIT 10
ENRICH WITH metrics LIMIT 5
  • Default per-row enrichment cap: 50 rows
  • LIMIT N overrides the cap for that enrichment
  • SAMPLE FULL disables the cap entirely (use with care on large datasets)
  • Result rows carry _enriched[source] JSON metadata

FORMAT <format>​

Override the output format hint. By default ROSQL infers the best format from the query shape.

FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR' FORMAT table
SELECT AVG(duration) FACET robot_id FORMAT bar_chart

Valid values: table, timeseries, scalar, trace_tree, graph, path

Cross-signal correlation​

DURING(<subquery>)​

Correlate one data source with a time window defined by another. The outer query is filtered to rows whose timestamp falls within the time windows where the subquery returned results.

FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR'
DURING(
  FROM topics WHERE topic_name = '/battery_state'
  AND fields['percentage'] < 15
)
SINCE 6 hours ago

The subquery can use any data source. This is ROSQL's most powerful feature — it replaces complex multi-table JOINs with a declarative, readable correlation.

Message causality​

TRACE <trace_id>​

Return all spans belonging to a specific trace, walking the parent_span_id → span_id tree recursively via a CTE.

TRACE 'a3f1c9d2e8b04f7a'
TRACE 'trace-002'

Returns all columns from otel_traces for every span in the causal chain, in traversal order.

Removed in v0.4.1

MESSAGE JOURNEY FOR TRACE 'id' has been removed. Use TRACE 'id' instead.

MESSAGE FLOW FROM TOPIC <topic> [TO NODE|TOPIC <dest>]​

Find message flow paths (publish → subscribe edges) from a topic, with optional destination filtering.

-- All paths from a topic
MESSAGE FLOW FROM TOPIC '/cmd_vel'

-- Filter to a specific destination node
MESSAGE FLOW FROM TOPIC '/cmd_vel' TO NODE '/motor_driver'

-- Filter to a specific destination topic
MESSAGE FLOW FROM TOPIC '/sensor_data' TO TOPIC '/processed_data'

Returns publisher/subscriber node pairs for the specified path.

Removed in v0.4.1

MESSAGE PATHS FOR TOPIC '/topic' has been removed. Use MESSAGE FLOW FROM TOPIC '/topic' instead.

MESSAGE PATH FROM TOPIC '/src' TO NODE '/dst' has been removed. Use MESSAGE FLOW FROM TOPIC '/src' TO NODE '/dst' instead.

Health and anomaly​

HEALTH() [FOR ROBOT <robot_id>] [SINCE <time>]​

Not implemented in v0.4

HEALTH() is reserved syntax and is not yet compiled. Use the Composable Health Dashboard recipes as a working alternative.

Fan out across traces, logs, and metrics to produce a composite health assessment.

HEALTH() FOR ROBOT 'robot_sim_001'
HEALTH() FOR ROBOT 'robot_42' SINCE 30 minutes ago

Returns a structured health report including error rates, log severity counts, and metric status.

ANOMALY(<field>) COMPARED TO <baseline> (v0.4.3+)​

Detect statistical anomalies in a field using a two-phase z-score CTE. COMPARED TO is required. FACET is strongly recommended to get per-robot breakdown.

-- Compare current duration anomalies to last week, by robot
ANOMALY(duration) COMPARED TO last week FACET robot_id SINCE 7 days ago

-- Compare to fleet-wide baseline
ANOMALY(duration) COMPARED TO fleet SINCE 1 hour ago FACET robot_id

-- Scope to a specific data source
ANOMALY(duration) FROM traces COMPARED TO last 24 hours FACET robot_id SINCE 12 hours ago

Baselines: last week, last 24 hours, fleet

Returns robot_id, avg_current, avg_baseline, z_score, is_anomalous (|z| > 2), direction (higher/lower/normal).

Requires the robot_joint_map and otel_traces tables.

PATH DEVIATION (v0.4.3+)​

Compare actual robot trajectory (from /odom topic messages) against the planned path (from /plan topic messages). Computes lateral deviation in metres at each waypoint.

-- Deviation for a specific trace
PATH DEVIATION FOR TRACE 'trace-002'

-- Deviation for a robot over a time window
PATH DEVIATION FOR ROBOT 'robot_sim_001' SINCE 1 hour ago

-- Select a specific plan (0 = first, -1 = latest, default = -1)
PATH DEVIATION PLAN 0 FOR ROBOT 'robot_sim_001' SINCE 6 hours ago
PATH DEVIATION PLAN -1 FOR TRACE 'trace-002'

Returns waypoint_index, planned_x, planned_y, actual_x, actual_y, lateral_deviation_m, and summary stats (max_deviation_m, avg_deviation_m, planned_path_length_m, actual_path_length_m).

Requires the topic_messages table with /odom and /plan data.

JOINT DEVIATION (v0.4.3+)​

Compare planned joint trajectory (from /joint_trajectory topic messages) against actual joint states (from /joint_states topic messages). Computes per-joint position error in radians.

-- Joint deviation for a specific trace
JOINT DEVIATION FOR TRACE 'trace-002'

-- Joint deviation for a robot over a time window
JOINT DEVIATION FOR ROBOT 'robot_sim_001' SINCE 1 hour ago

Returns joint_name, joint_index, planned_position, actual_position, position_error_rad, and summary stats (max_error_rad, avg_error_rad, sample_count).

Requires the topic_messages table with /joint_trajectory and /joint_states data.

Recordings​

FROM recordings​

Queries the mcap_metadata index table — one row per MCAP file. Returns file-level metadata: which robot, which time window, which topics, and where the file lives (s3_key). It does not slice into the MCAP content; use s3_key along with the returned start_time/end_time to fetch and seek into the file client-side.

-- Browse all recordings
FROM recordings LIMIT 10

-- Filter by robot
FROM recordings WHERE robot_id = 'amr-01' LIMIT 10

-- Find recordings covering a time window (use start_time / end_time explicitly)
FROM recordings
WHERE end_time >= NOW() - INTERVAL '2 hours'
  AND start_time <= NOW()

-- Find recordings that contain a specific topic
FROM recordings WHERE '/camera/image_raw' = ANY(topics)

-- Combine filters
FROM recordings
WHERE robot_id = 'amr-01'
  AND end_time >= NOW() - INTERVAL '6 hours'
  AND '/joint_states' = ANY(topics)
LIMIT 5

Returns robot_id, session_id, start_time, end_time, s3_key, topics, message_types from mcap_metadata.

SHOW RECORDING

SHOW RECORDING is reserved but deprecated syntax — the compiler rejects it. Use FROM recordings instead.

SHOW commands​

SHOW DEPLOYMENTS​

Return distinct deployment history (version × environment combinations) from otel_traces resource attributes. Supports optional FOR and SINCE scoping.

SHOW DEPLOYMENTS
SHOW DEPLOYMENTS FOR ROBOT 'robot_42'
SHOW DEPLOYMENTS FOR ROBOT 'robot_42' SINCE 7 days ago
SHOW DEPLOYMENTS FOR ENVIRONMENT 'production' SINCE last week

Returns distinct service.version × deployment.environment pairs with first/last seen timestamps.

SHOW SPAN SUMMARY​

Return top spans ranked by average duration. Useful for identifying performance hotspots. Supports optional FOR and SINCE scoping.

SHOW SPAN SUMMARY
SHOW SPAN SUMMARY FOR ROBOT 'robot_42'
SHOW SPAN SUMMARY FOR ROBOT 'robot_42' SINCE 1 hour ago
SHOW SPAN SUMMARY FOR VERSION 'v1.2.3' SINCE 30 minutes ago

Returns span name, call count, average duration, and max duration, ordered by average duration descending.

SHOW PLANS​

Return plan-related spans (spans with planning metadata in their attributes). Supports optional FOR TRACE, FOR ROBOT, and SINCE scoping.

SHOW PLANS
SHOW PLANS FOR TRACE 'a3f1c9d2e8b04f7a'
SHOW PLANS FOR ROBOT 'robot_42'
SHOW PLANS FOR ROBOT 'robot_42' SINCE 1 hour ago

Returns plan spans with timing, robot, and trace context.

SHOW TOPICS (v0.4.2+)​

Return a summary of active ROS2 topics — publish rates, message types, and publisher/subscriber counts. Supports optional WHERE, FOR, and SINCE scoping.

SHOW TOPICS
SHOW TOPICS FOR ROBOT 'robot_sim_001' SINCE 1 hour ago
SHOW TOPICS WHERE topic_name LIKE '/camera%' SINCE 30 minutes ago

Returns topic_name, message_type, avg_rate_hz, publishers, subscribers, last_message_age_ms.

SHOW NODES (v0.4.2+)​

Return a summary of active ROS2 nodes — published and subscribed topic counts and error counts. Supports optional FOR and SINCE scoping.

SHOW NODES
SHOW NODES FOR ROBOT 'robot_sim_001' SINCE 30 minutes ago

Returns node_name, topics_published, topics_subscribed, error_count, last_seen.

SHOW NODE GRAPH (v0.4.2+)​

Return the topic-to-node edge list, suitable for building a directed network graph visualization. Supports optional FOR and SINCE scoping.

SHOW NODE GRAPH
SHOW NODE GRAPH FOR ROBOT 'robot_sim_001' SINCE 30 minutes ago

Returns source_node, topic, target_node edges. Format hint: NodeGraph.

SHOW JOINTS (v0.4.3+)​

Return the joint map for a robot from the robot_joint_map table. Queries the URDF-derived joint metadata registered for that robot model.

SHOW JOINTS FOR ROBOT 'robot_sim_001'
SHOW JOINTS FOR ROBOT 'arm_01'

Returns joint_name, joint_index, joint_type, lower_limit, upper_limit for every joint in the robot's URDF model.

Requires the optional robot_joint_map table.

Pipeline syntax​

Use | to chain query stages, making complex queries more readable.

FROM traces
| WHERE duration > 500 ms
| WHERE status = 'ERROR'
| FACET robot_id
| COMPARE TO last week

Each stage receives the output of the previous stage. Equivalent to nesting clauses.

Grouping and comparison​

FACET <field>​

Group results by a field.

SELECT AVG(duration) FROM traces FACET robot_id
FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR' | FACET robot_id

COMPARE TO <time>​

Compare current results to a historical baseline.

FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR' SINCE 1 hour ago | COMPARE TO last week

Returns current and baseline counts side by side.

COMPARE TO VERSION <semver>​

Compare current results to a specific version baseline.

FROM traces COMPARE TO VERSION 'v1.2.3'
FROM traces WHERE status = 'ERROR' SINCE 1 hour ago | COMPARE TO VERSION 'v1.0.0'

Scopes the baseline query to spans from the given service.version resource attribute.

COMPARE VERSION <v1> TO VERSION <v2>​

Compare two versions head-to-head without a time-based baseline.

FROM traces COMPARE VERSION 'v1.0' TO VERSION 'v2.0'
FROM traces WHERE action_name = '/navigate_to_pose' COMPARE VERSION 'v1.0' TO VERSION 'v2.0'

Returns results for each version side by side.

Aggregate function reference​

STDDEV(field)​

Standard deviation of a numeric field.

SELECT STDDEV(duration) FROM traces
SELECT AVG(duration) AS avg_dur, STDDEV(duration) AS stddev_dur FROM traces FACET robot_id

TOPIC_RATE([topic_name])​

Average publish rate for a topic (or all topics) from the otel_metrics table.

SELECT TOPIC_RATE() FROM metrics
SELECT TOPIC_RATE('/cmd_vel') FROM metrics

ACTION_SUCCESS_RATE([action_name])​

Ratio of succeeded action spans to total action spans. Returns a value between 0 and 1.

SELECT ACTION_SUCCESS_RATE() FROM traces
SELECT ACTION_SUCCESS_RATE('/navigate_to_pose') FROM traces

MOVING_AVG(field, window)​

Rolling average over a sliding window of window rows.

SELECT MOVING_AVG(duration, 5) FROM traces

Compiles to AVG(...) OVER (ROWS BETWEEN N PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW).

DERIVATIVE(field)​

Rate of change between consecutive rows (LAG-based).

SELECT DERIVATIVE(metric_value) FROM metrics

APPROX_COUNT_DISTINCT(field)​

Approximate distinct count. Uses approx_count_distinct() on DuckDB; falls back to COUNT(DISTINCT ...) on PostgreSQL.

SELECT APPROX_COUNT_DISTINCT(span_name) FROM traces

APPROX_PERCENTILE(field, percentile)​

Approximate percentile. Uses approx_quantile() on DuckDB; falls back to PERCENTILE_CONT on PostgreSQL.

SELECT APPROX_PERCENTILE(duration, 95) FROM traces

Notes​

  • All timestamps in results are UTC ISO 8601
  • duration is stored as nanoseconds (BIGINT); ROSQL expressions like 500 ms are automatically converted
  • Default LIMIT is 100 if not specified. Exempt query types: scalar aggregations, FACET, TRACE, MESSAGE FLOW, PATH DEVIATION, JOINT DEVIATION, ANOMALY, SHOW JOINTS
  • SINCE is always relative to query execution time
  • FOR clauses filter on resource attributes: FOR ROBOT → robot.id, FOR VERSION → service.version, FOR ENVIRONMENT → deployment.environment, FOR SESSION → ros.session.id
  • Removed in v0.4.1: MESSAGE JOURNEY FOR TRACE, MESSAGE PATHS FOR TOPIC, MESSAGE PATH FROM TOPIC ... TO NODE — see Message causality for replacements