# Metrics Reference (/docs/developer/metrics-reference)
This page defines every metric available in Sift's analytics dashboards - what it measures, how it is calculated, and where it appears.
## At a glance [#at-a-glance]
| | |
| --- | --- |
| Volume: Total Items, Actionable Items, New/Closed Actions, Backlog | ✅ |
| Response: Response Rate, FRT (avg + median), SLA Breaches | ✅ |
| Sentiment on a 1–5 scale, with distribution and trend | ✅ |
| CSAT: Score, Response Count, by Queue | ✅ |
| Source and Channel volume breakdowns | ✅ |
| User and Team: actions per agent, handle time, response rate | ✅ |
| Every metric respects the date range and filter DSL | ✅ |
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These metrics appear across Sift's analytics dashboards.
## Volume Metrics [#volume-metrics]
* **Total Items**: The total number of posts, messages, or comments ingested from all connected sources in the selected time window. This is the raw count before any filtering or triage.
* **Actionable Items**: The subset of total items that Sift's AI flagged as requiring a response or follow-up. Calculated as the count of items with at least one actionable tag applied.
* **New Actions**: Actions created (either automatically by AI triage or manually by a team member) in the selected period.
* **Closed Actions**: Actions moved to a `closed` status in the period. An action is closed when a team member marks it resolved or when an automation closes it.
* **Backlog**: Open actions that have not been updated within the last 24 hours. High backlog indicates the queue is falling behind.
## Response Metrics [#response-metrics]
* **Response Rate**: The percentage of actionable items that received at least one reply from your team. Calculated as `(replied actions / total actionable actions) × 100`.
* **Responded vs. Not Responded**: A breakdown of actionable items split by whether a reply was sent. Useful for identifying noise vs. genuine customer signal.
* **Avg First Response Time (FRT)**: The average time between an action being created and the first outbound reply from your team, measured in minutes or hours depending on magnitude.
* **Median First Response Time**: The median FRT across all replied actions in the period. Median is less sensitive to outliers than average and is the preferred metric for SLA tracking.
* **SLA Breaches**: The count of actions where FRT exceeded your configured SLA target.
## Sentiment Metrics [#sentiment-metrics]
* **Avg Sentiment**: The average sentiment score of all items in the selected period, reported on a 1–5 scale (1 = Very Negative, 5 = Very Positive). Calculated as the mean of per-item sentiment scores.
* **Sentiment Distribution**: A breakdown of items by sentiment band: Very Negative (1), Negative (2), Neutral (3), Positive (4), Very Positive (5). Shows the full distribution rather than just the average.
* **Sentiment Over Time**: Avg sentiment trended by day, week, or month. Useful for spotting when a product release or incident caused a shift in customer tone.
## CSAT Metrics [#csat-metrics]
* **CSAT Score**: Customer Satisfaction score. Calculated as the average (or median, depending on the view) of the raw rating each respondent gave - not a percentage of "positive" responses. Only available when CSAT surveys are enabled.
* **CSAT Completion Rate**: The percentage of actions that received any CSAT rating at all, regardless of score - a survey-response-rate metric, distinct from the CSAT Score itself.
* **CSAT Response Count**: The total number of CSAT survey responses received in the period.
* **CSAT by Queue**: CSAT scores broken out per queue, allowing you to compare satisfaction across teams or topic areas.
## Source and Channel Metrics [#source-and-channel-metrics]
* **Items by Source**: Volume breakdown by platform (Discord, Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and more).
* **Items by Channel**: Volume broken down by individual channel or handle within a source.
* **Top Queues by Volume**: The queues that received the most actions in the period.
## User and Team Metrics [#user-and-team-metrics]
* **Actions Handled per Agent**: The number of actions each team member replied to or closed. Useful for workload balancing.
* **Avg Handle Time**: The average time between an action being assigned to a team member and that member closing it.
* **Team Response Rate**: Response rate calculated per individual agent, rather than across the whole org.
All metrics respect the date range and filter DSL applied in the analytics UI. Changing the time window or adding a source filter updates every metric on the page simultaneously.
## Related [#related]
Query these metrics programmatically via the `/v1/analytics` endpoint.Scope metrics with the same filter DSL the analytics UI uses.
