Misbar Documentation
Everything you need to deploy the agent, understand your API costs, and optimize spending across your organization.
Quick Start
Deploy the eBPF agent on your infrastructure to start capturing API traffic. No code changes required.
Linux
Run the install script on any Linux host with kernel 4.15+. The agent installs as a systemd service and starts capturing immediately.
curl -fsSlL https://storage.googleapis.com/misbar/install.sh -o install.sh \
&& sudo bash install.sh \
&& rm install.shDocker
Run the agent as a privileged container alongside your application containers. Mount the host network namespace for full traffic visibility.
docker run -d --name misbar-agent \
--privileged --network host \
--pid host \
-e MISBAR_API_KEY=<your-api-key> \
misbar/agent:latestKubernetes
Deploy the agent as a DaemonSet using the official Helm chart. The agent runs on every node and captures cluster-wide API traffic.
helm repo add misbar https://charts.misbar.io
helm repo update
helm install misbar-agent misbar/agent \
--set apiKey=<your-api-key> \
--namespace misbar --create-namespaceWhat happens after deployment?
- The eBPF agent attaches to the kernel network stack and captures outbound HTTP/HTTPS requests.
- Within seconds, the agent reports to the Misbar API. You will see it appear on the Get Started page.
- API services are auto-discovered as traffic flows through your infrastructure. No manual configuration needed.
- Set up budgets and alerts to start controlling your API spending from day one.
Architecture
Misbar uses eBPF to observe API traffic at the kernel level -- zero instrumentation, zero code changes.
1. eBPF Agent
A lightweight agent attaches eBPF probes to the Linux kernel's network stack. It captures outbound HTTP and HTTPS requests in real-time with near-zero overhead. No application code changes or proxy configuration needed.
2. Misbar API
The agent streams captured request metadata (host, path, method, status, latency) to the Misbar API. The backend classifies traffic by provider, matches it against known pricing models, and calculates per-request costs.
3. Dashboard
The dashboard surfaces real-time and historical cost data. Explore costs by service, endpoint, or team. Set budgets, receive anomaly alerts, run forecasts, and use the Cost Explorer for ad-hoc analysis.
Data Flow
Traffic metadata only -- request/response bodies are never captured or transmitted.
Core Concepts
The building blocks of Misbar's API cost management platform.
Profiles
Profiles represent API gateways or infrastructure endpoints that your agent monitors. Each profile aggregates traffic data from a specific gateway, giving you a unified view of request volume, latency, error rates, and costs flowing through that entry point.
Services
Services are individual third-party APIs detected by the agent. When traffic flows to an external API (e.g., Stripe, Twilio, OpenAI), Misbar auto-discovers it and tracks per-service request counts, response times, and estimated costs based on the provider's pricing model.
Endpoints
Endpoints are specific routes within a service (e.g., POST /v1/charges, GET /v1/customers). Misbar breaks down costs at the endpoint level so you can identify exactly which API calls drive the most spend and optimize accordingly.
Budgets
Budgets let you set monthly or custom-period spending limits at the global, service, or team level. When spend approaches your threshold (e.g., 80% warning, 100% critical), Misbar triggers alerts so you can take action before overruns occur.
Cost Tags
Cost Tags enable team-level cost attribution. Tag services or endpoints by team, project, or environment to understand who is consuming what. Tags power the Team Costs view and drive accountability across your organization.
Alerts
Alerts notify you when budgets are exceeded, anomalies are detected, or SLA thresholds are breached. Configure notification channels (Slack, email, webhooks) and fine-tune alert rules to reduce noise and surface only actionable events.
API Reference
Programmatic access to your API cost data, budgets, and alerts.
Public REST API Coming Soon
We are building a public REST API that will let you manage budgets, configure alert rules, query cost data, and integrate Misbar into your existing workflows programmatically. The API will support authentication via API keys and provide comprehensive endpoints for all platform features.