New Relic API Guide – Step-by-Step Tutorial with Example

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to work with the New Relic API, including how to create an alert condition using the API.

🚀 New Relic API Guide – Step-by-Step Tutorial with Example (Create Alert)

🧰 Prerequisites

📘 Step 1: Get Your API Key & Account ID

• Go to: https://one.newrelic.com/launcher/api-keys-ui.api-keys-launcher/
• Click + Create a key
• Choose Personal or User API key
• Save the Key and Account ID (needed for all requests)

📘 Step 2: Understand the API Base URL

Use the GraphQL endpoint for most operations:

https://api.newrelic.com/graphql
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Some older REST endpoints (like for alerts) are still at:

https://api.newrelic.com/v2/...
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

📘 Step 3: Create an Alert Policy (REST API)

API Endpoint:

POST https://api.newrelic.com/v2/alerts_policies.json
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Headers:

Api-Key: <YOUR_API_KEY>
Content-Type: application/json
Code language: HTTP (http)

Request Body:

{
  "policy": {
    "name": "High CPU Usage Policy",
    "incident_preference": "PER_POLICY"
  }
}
Code language: JSON / JSON with Comments (json)

Example cURL:

curl -X POST 'https://api.newrelic.com/v2/alerts_policies.json' \
  -H 'Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
        "policy": {
          "name": "High CPU Usage Policy",
          "incident_preference": "PER_POLICY"
        }
      }'
Code language: PHP (php)

✅ Response will include id — save this policy_id.

📘 Step 4: Create an Alert Condition (e.g., High CPU)

API Endpoint:

POST https://api.newrelic.com/v2/alerts_conditions/policies/<policy_id>.json
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Example:

curl -X POST 'https://api.newrelic.com/v2/alerts_conditions/policies/6269799.json' \
  -H 'Api-Key: NRAK-3T8WTXSP4KJSLMG74WHR5I3SSY9' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
        "condition": {
          "type": "apm_app_metric",
          "name": "Error Rate Alert for devopsschool",
          "enabled": true,
          "condition_scope": "application",
          "entities": [1508171253],
          "metric": "error_percentage",
          "terms": [
            {
              "duration": "5",
              "operator": "above",
              "priority": "critical",
              "threshold": "5",
              "time_function": "all"
            }
          ]
        }
      }'

Code language: PHP (php)

🔍 Explanation:

• "type": "apm_app_metric" — type of monitoring (can also be "infra_metric", "nrql" etc.)
• "entities" — Application or host ID (can be fetched from other APIs)
• "metric": "cpu_percent" — Metric name
• "terms" — Defines the condition (thresholds, duration, etc.)

📘 Step 5: Verify the Alert in New Relic UI

• Go to Alerts & AI → Alert Policies
• Check if “High CPU Usage Policy” and “CPU Alert” are visible and enabled.

🧠 Bonus: List Alert Policies (Get API)

curl -X GET 'https://api.newrelic.com/v2/alerts_policies.json' \
  -H 'Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY'
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

🛠️ Advanced: Create Alerts using NRQL Condition (for Logs or Custom Queries)

Endpoint:

POST https://api.newrelic.com/v2/alerts_nrql_conditions/policies/<policy_id>.json
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Example:

curl -X POST "https://api.newrelic.com/v2/alerts_nrql_conditions/policies/123456.json" \
  -H "Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "nrql_condition": {
      "name": "Too many 404s",
      "enabled": true,
      "type": "static",
      "nrql": {
        "query": "SELECT count(*) FROM Log WHERE message LIKE '%404%'"
      },
      "terms": [
        {
          "duration": "5",
          "operator": "above",
          "priority": "critical",
          "threshold": "10",
          "time_function": "all"
        }
      ]
    }
  }'
Code language: PHP (php)

🧾 Summary

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

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