---
title: "Put detail on the right signal | Grafana Labs"
description: "Keep metrics low-cardinality and put high-cardinality detail on correlated logs"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

## Put detail on the right signal

Sometimes you genuinely need a high-cardinality value, like a request ID, when you’re debugging. The answer isn’t to delete it, and it isn’t to put it on a metric label. It’s to put the value on the signal designed to hold it, and correlate across signals when you investigate.

## The pattern

When a high-cardinality value is attached to a metric label, every unique value multiplies your active series. The same value attached to a log costs a fraction of that, because Loki doesn’t index log content. Here’s how to use structured metadata to keep your metrics low-cardinality and by leveraging logs:

- **Keep the metric low-cardinality.** The metric answers “how many” and “how fast” per bounded dimension, such as `service` and `status`.
- **Put the high-cardinality detail on the correlated log.** Attach it as structured metadata, or leave it in the log line. The log answers “which exact request”.
- **Correlate at query time.** Shared bounded labels, such as `service` and `env`, connect the metric that alerted you to the logs that explain it.