Authoring Frames

A route models a thing you observe (a service, an endpoint, a namespace), and you author it as two files sitting side by side:

• a frame, *.frame.json — the view: what the data means, which tables it reads, and the named columns and metrics built on top of them;
• a page, *.page.json — how to show it: a tree of blocks, fed by expressions, rendered over that view.

The view holds the meaning, defined once; the page holds the presentation. Because blocks query the view by name, the two stay in step — and the current time range, active filters, and the frame’s parameters flow into every query without manual wiring. A frame with no page beside it renders nothing: it exists to be imported or borrowed.

services/index.frame.json builds its view on an installed base view rather than a raw table:

{
  "view": { "imports": { "@opentelemetry/views/combined": {} }, "tables": {} }
}

services/index.page.json renders one block that asks that view for a value:

{
  "title": "Services",
  "page": {
    "@block/stat": {
      "title": "Active services",
      "value": { "@expr/query": "SELECT uniqExact(ServiceName) FROM traces" }
    }
  }
}

From here, each piece gets its own depth:

In this section

• Views — the semantic layer: tables, scoping, scalars and metrics, and parameters that scope a frame to one entity.
• Blocks — the @block/* components a page is built from, organized by what you reach for them to do.
• Expressions — the @expr/* values that feed blocks: queries, shared state, and transforms.
• Pages & templates — composing blocks into a page, and packaging reusable pieces you instantiate by name.

For the exact file format — every field of the view, page, and parameters — see the frame schema reference.