A stream application receives a stream of tuples to be processed by a plurality of processing elements. The plurality of processing elements operate on one or more compute nodes. Each processing element has one or more stream operators. Segments of software code are embedded in a tuple of the stream of tuples. The tuple retrieves one or more compute node metrics. The compute node metrics describe one or more resources of a first compute node. The tuple obtains tuple information of one or more tuples of the stream of tuples to be processed by a first stream operator that operates on the one or more resources. The tuple determines a prospective resource disparity related to the first stream operator based on the obtained tuple information and the compute node metrics. The tuple transmits a resource request to the stream application based on the determined prospective resource disparity.