Techniques for providing improved typeahead features are described. According to various embodiments, it is determined that a user has specified, via a user interface, a first metric term. A list of one or more suggested operators associated with the first metric term is then generated and displayed, and it is determined that the user has selected one of the suggested operators. Thereafter, a list of one or more suggested metric terms associated with the selected operator is generated and displayed, and it is determined that the user has selected a second metric term from the suggested metric terms. Thereafter, a custom metric definition data entity that references information defining a custom metric is generated, the information specifying that metric values associated with the custom metric are generated by processing metric values associated with the first metric term and the second metric term based on the selected operator.