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Grafana Alloy is the new name for our distribution of the OTel collector. Grafana Agent has been deprecated and is in Long-Term Support (LTS) through October 31, 2025. Grafana Agent will reach an End-of-Life (EOL) on November 1, 2025. Read more about why we recommend migrating to Grafana Alloy.

Important: This documentation is about an older version. It's relevant only to the release noted, many of the features and functions have been updated or replaced. Please view the current version.

Open source

discovery.kubernetes

discovery.kubernetes allows you to find scrape targets from Kubernetes resources. It watches cluster state, and ensures targets are continually synced with what is currently running in your cluster.

If you supply no connection information, this component defaults to an in-cluster config. A kubeconfig file or manual connection settings can be used to override the defaults.

Usage

river
discovery.kubernetes "LABEL" {
  role = DISCOVERY_ROLE
}

Arguments

The following arguments are supported:

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
api_serverstringURL of Kubernetes API server.no
rolestringType of Kubernetes resource to query.yes
kubeconfig_filestringPath of kubeconfig file to use for connecting to Kubernetes.no
bearer_tokensecretBearer token to authenticate with.no
bearer_token_filestringFile containing a bearer token to authenticate with.no
proxy_urlstringHTTP proxy to proxy requests through.no
follow_redirectsboolWhether redirects returned by the server should be followed.trueno
enable_http2boolWhether HTTP2 is supported for requests.trueno

At most one of the following can be provided:

The role argument is required to specify what type of targets to discover. role must be one of node, pod, service, endpoints, endpointslice, or ingress.

node role

The node role discovers one target per cluster node with the address defaulting to the HTTP port of the Kubelet daemon. The target address defaults to the first existing address of the Kubernetes node object in the address type order of NodeInternalIP, NodeExternalIP, NodeLegacyHostIP, and NodeHostName.

The following labels are included for discovered nodes:

  • __meta_kubernetes_node_name: The name of the node object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_node_provider_id: The cloud provider’s name for the node object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_node_label_<labelname>: Each label from the node object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_node_labelpresent_<labelname>: Set to true for each label from the node object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_node_annotation_<annotationname>: Each annotation from the node object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_node_annotationpresent_<annotationname>: Set to true for each annotation from the node object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_node_address_<address_type>: The first address for each node address type, if it exists.

In addition, the instance label for the node will be set to the node name as retrieved from the API server.

service role

The service role discovers a target for each service port for each service. This is generally useful for externally monitoring a service. The address will be set to the Kubernetes DNS name of the service and respective service port.

The following labels are included for discovered services:

  • __meta_kubernetes_namespace: The namespace of the service object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_annotation_<annotationname>: Each annotation from the service object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_annotationpresent_<annotationname>: true for each annotation of the service object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_cluster_ip: The cluster IP address of the service. This does not apply to services of type ExternalName.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_external_name: The DNS name of the service. This only applies to services of type ExternalName.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_label_<labelname>: Each label from the service object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_labelpresent_<labelname>: true for each label of the service object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_name: The name of the service object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_port_name: Name of the service port for the target.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_port_number: Number of the service port for the target.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_port_protocol: Protocol of the service port for the target.
  • __meta_kubernetes_service_type: The type of the service.

pod role

The pod role discovers all pods and exposes their containers as targets. For each declared port of a container, a single target is generated.

If a container has no specified ports, a port-free target per container is created. These targets must have a port manually injected using a discovery.relabel component before metrics can be collected from them.

The following labels are included for discovered pods:

  • __meta_kubernetes_namespace: The namespace of the pod object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_name: The name of the pod object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_ip: The pod IP of the pod object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_label_<labelname>: Each label from the pod object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_labelpresent_<labelname>: true for each label from the pod object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_annotation_<annotationname>: Each annotation from the pod object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_annotationpresent_<annotationname>: true for each annotation from the pod object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_init: true if the container is an InitContainer.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_name: Name of the container the target address points to.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_id: ID of the container the target address points to. The ID is in the form <type>://<container_id>.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_image: The image the container is using.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_port_name: Name of the container port.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_port_number: Number of the container port.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_container_port_protocol: Protocol of the container port.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_ready: Set to true or false for the pod’s ready state.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_phase: Set to Pending, Running, Succeeded, Failed or Unknown in the lifecycle.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_node_name: The name of the node the pod is scheduled onto.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_host_ip: The current host IP of the pod object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_uid: The UID of the pod object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_controller_kind: Object kind of the pod controller.
  • __meta_kubernetes_pod_controller_name: Name of the pod controller.

endpoints role

The endpoints role discovers targets from listed endpoints of a service. For each endpoint address one target is discovered per port. If the endpoint is backed by a pod, all container ports of a pod are discovered as targets even if they are not bound to an endpoint port.

The following labels are included for discovered endpoints:

  • __meta_kubernetes_namespace: The namespace of the endpoints object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_endpoints_name: The names of the endpoints object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_endpoints_label_<labelname>: Each label from the endpoints object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_endpoints_labelpresent_<labelname>: true for each label from the endpoints object.
  • The following labels are attached for all targets discovered directly from the endpoints list:
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpoint_hostname: Hostname of the endpoint.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpoint_node_name: Name of the node hosting the endpoint.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpoint_ready: Set to true or false for the endpoint’s ready state.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpoint_port_name: Name of the endpoint port.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpoint_port_protocol: Protocol of the endpoint port.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpoint_address_target_kind: Kind of the endpoint address target.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpoint_address_target_name: Name of the endpoint address target.
  • If the endpoints belong to a service, all labels of the service role discovery are attached.
  • For all targets backed by a pod, all labels of the pod role discovery are attached.

endpointslice role

The endpointslice role discovers targets from existing Kubernetes endpoint slices. For each endpoint address referenced in the EndpointSlice object, one target is discovered. If the endpoint is backed by a pod, all container ports of a pod are discovered as targets even if they are not bound to an endpoint port.

The following labels are included for discovered endpoint slices:

  • __meta_kubernetes_namespace: The namespace of the endpoints object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_endpointslice_name: The name of endpoint slice object.
  • The following labels are attached for all targets discovered directly from the endpoint slice list:
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpointslice_address_target_kind: Kind of the referenced object.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpointslice_address_target_name: Name of referenced object.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpointslice_address_type: The IP protocol family of the address of the target.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpointslice_endpoint_conditions_ready: Set to true or false for the referenced endpoint’s ready state.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpointslice_endpoint_topology_kubernetes_io_hostname: Name of the node hosting the referenced endpoint.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpointslice_endpoint_topology_present_kubernetes_io_hostname: true if the referenced object has a kubernetes.io/hostname annotation.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpointslice_port: Port of the referenced endpoint.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpointslice_port_name: Named port of the referenced endpoint.
    • __meta_kubernetes_endpointslice_port_protocol: Protocol of the referenced endpoint.
  • If the endpoints belong to a service, all labels of the service role discovery are attached.
  • For all targets backed by a pod, all labels of the pod role discovery are attached.

ingress role

The ingress role discovers a target for each path of each ingress. This is generally useful for externally monitoring an ingress. The address will be set to the host specified in the Kubernetes Ingress’s spec block.

The following labels are included for discovered ingress objects:

  • __meta_kubernetes_namespace: The namespace of the ingress object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_ingress_name: The name of the ingress object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_ingress_label_<labelname>: Each label from the ingress object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_ingress_labelpresent_<labelname>: true for each label from the ingress object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_ingress_annotation_<annotationname>: Each annotation from the ingress object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_ingress_annotationpresent_<annotationname>: true for each annotation from the ingress object.
  • __meta_kubernetes_ingress_class_name: Class name from ingress spec, if present.
  • __meta_kubernetes_ingress_scheme: Protocol scheme of ingress, https if TLS config is set. Defaults to http.
  • __meta_kubernetes_ingress_path: Path from ingress spec. Defaults to /.

Blocks

The following blocks are supported inside the definition of discovery.kubernetes:

HierarchyBlockDescriptionRequired
namespacesnamespacesInformation about which Kubernetes namespaces to search.no
selectorsselectorsInformation about which Kubernetes namespaces to search.no
attach_metadataattach_metadataOptional metadata to attach to discovered targets.no
basic_authbasic_authConfigure basic_auth for authenticating to the endpoint.no
authorizationauthorizationConfigure generic authorization to the endpoint.no
oauth2oauth2Configure OAuth2 for authenticating to the endpoint.no
oauth2 > tls_configtls_configConfigure TLS settings for connecting to the endpoint.no

The > symbol indicates deeper levels of nesting. For example, oauth2 > tls_config refers to a tls_config block defined inside an oauth2 block.

namespaces block

The namespaces block limits the namespaces to discover resources in. If omitted, all namespaces are searched.

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
own_namespaceboolInclude the namespace the agent is running in.no
nameslist(string)List of namespaces to search.no

selectors block

The selectors block contains optional label and field selectors to limit the discovery process to a subset of resources.

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
rolestringRole of the selector.yes
labelstringLabel selector string.no
fieldstringField selector string.no

See Kubernetes’ documentation for Field selectors and Labels and selectors to learn more about the possible filters that can be used.

The endpoints role supports pod, service, and endpoints selectors. The pod role supports node selectors when configured with attach_metadata: {node: true}. Other roles only support selectors matching the role itself (e.g. node role can only contain node selectors).

Note: Using multiple discovery.kubernetes components with different selectors may result in a bigger load against the Kubernetes API.

Selectors are recommended for retrieving a small set of resources in a very large cluster. Smaller clusters are recommended to avoid selectors in favor of filtering with a discovery.relabel component instead.

attach_metadata block

The attach_metadata block allows to attach node metadata to discovered targets. Valid for roles: pod, endpoints, endpointslice.

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
nodeboolAttach node metadata.no

basic_auth block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
password_filestringFile containing the basic auth password.no
passwordsecretBasic auth password.no
usernamestringBasic auth username.no

password and password_file are mutually exclusive, and only one can be provided inside a basic_auth block.

authorization block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
credentials_filestringFile containing the secret value.no
credentialssecretSecret value.no
typestringAuthorization type, for example, “Bearer”.no

credential and credentials_file are mutually exclusive, and only one can be provided inside an authorization block.

oauth2 block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
client_idstringOAuth2 client ID.no
client_secret_filestringFile containing the OAuth2 client secret.no
client_secretsecretOAuth2 client secret.no
endpoint_paramsmap(string)Optional parameters to append to the token URL.no
proxy_urlstringOptional proxy URL for OAuth2 requests.no
scopeslist(string)List of scopes to authenticate with.no
token_urlstringURL to fetch the token from.no

client_secret and client_secret_file are mutually exclusive, and only one can be provided inside an oauth2 block.

The oauth2 block may also contain a separate tls_config sub-block.

tls_config block

NameTypeDescriptionDefaultRequired
ca_pemstringCA PEM-encoded text to validate the server with.no
ca_filestringCA certificate to validate the server with.no
cert_pemstringCertificate PEM-encoded text for client authentication.no
cert_filestringCertificate file for client authentication.no
insecure_skip_verifyboolDisables validation of the server certificate.no
key_filestringKey file for client authentication.no
key_pemsecretKey PEM-encoded text for client authentication.no
min_versionstringMinimum acceptable TLS version.no
server_namestringServerName extension to indicate the name of the server.no

The following pairs of arguments are mutually exclusive and can’t both be set simultaneously:

  • ca_pem and ca_file
  • cert_pem and cert_file
  • key_pem and key_file

When configuring client authentication, both the client certificate (using cert_pem or cert_file) and the client key (using key_pem or key_file) must be provided.

When min_version is not provided, the minimum acceptable TLS version is inherited from Go’s default minimum version, TLS 1.2. If min_version is provided, it must be set to one of the following strings:

  • "TLS10" (TLS 1.0)
  • "TLS11" (TLS 1.1)
  • "TLS12" (TLS 1.2)
  • "TLS13" (TLS 1.3)

Exported fields

The following fields are exported and can be referenced by other components:

NameTypeDescription
targetslist(map(string))The set of targets discovered from the Kubernetes API.

Component health

discovery.kubernetes is reported as unhealthy when given an invalid configuration. In those cases, exported fields retain their last healthy values.

Debug information

discovery.kubernetes does not expose any component-specific debug information.

Debug metrics

discovery.kubernetes does not expose any component-specific debug metrics.

Examples

In-cluster discovery

This example uses in-cluster authentication to discover all pods:

river
discovery.kubernetes "k8s_pods" {
  role = "pod"
}

prometheus.scrape "demo" {
  targets    = discovery.kubernetes.k8s_pods.targets
  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.demo.receiver]
}

prometheus.remote_write "demo" {
  endpoint {
    url = PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_WRITE_URL

    basic_auth {
      username = USERNAME
      password = PASSWORD
    }
  }
}

Replace the following:

  • PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_WRITE_URL: The URL of the Prometheus remote_write-compatible server to send metrics to.
  • USERNAME: The username to use for authentication to the remote_write API.
  • PASSWORD: The password to use for authentication to the remote_write API.

Kubeconfig authentication

This example uses a kubeconfig file to authenticate to the Kubernetes API:

river
discovery.kubernetes "k8s_pods" {
  role = "pod"
  kubeconfig_file = "/etc/k8s/kubeconfig.yaml"
}

prometheus.scrape "demo" {
  targets    = discovery.kubernetes.k8s_pods.targets
  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.demo.receiver]
}

prometheus.remote_write "demo" {
  endpoint {
    url = PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_WRITE_URL

    basic_auth {
      username = USERNAME
      password = PASSWORD
    }
  }
}

Replace the following:

  • PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_WRITE_URL: The URL of the Prometheus remote_write-compatible server to send metrics to.
  • USERNAME: The username to use for authentication to the remote_write API.
  • PASSWORD: The password to use for authentication to the remote_write API.

Limit searched namespaces and filter by labels value

This example limits the searched namespaces and only selects pods with a specific label value attached to them:

river
discovery.kubernetes "k8s_pods" {
  role = "pod"

  selectors {
    role = "pod"
    label = "app.kubernetes.io/name=prometheus-node-exporter"
  }

  namespaces {
    names = ["myapp"]
  }
}

prometheus.scrape "demo" {
  targets    = discovery.kubernetes.k8s_pods.targets
  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.demo.receiver]
}

prometheus.remote_write "demo" {
  endpoint {
    url = PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_WRITE_URL

    basic_auth {
      username = USERNAME
      password = PASSWORD
    }
  }
}

Replace the following:

  • PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_WRITE_URL: The URL of the Prometheus remote_write-compatible server to send metrics to.
  • USERNAME: The username to use for authentication to the remote_write API.
  • PASSWORD: The password to use for authentication to the remote_write API.

Limit to only pods on the same node

This example limits the search to pods on the same node as this Grafana Agent. This configuration could be useful if you are running the Agent as a DaemonSet:

river
discovery.kubernetes "k8s_pods" {
  role = "pod"
  selectors {
    role = "pod"
    field = "spec.nodeName=" + constants.hostname
  }
}

prometheus.scrape "demo" {
  targets    = discovery.kubernetes.k8s_pods.targets
  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.demo.receiver]
}

prometheus.remote_write "demo" {
  endpoint {
    url = PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_WRITE_URL

    basic_auth {
      username = USERNAME
      password = PASSWORD
    }
  }
}

Replace the following:

  • PROMETHEUS_REMOTE_WRITE_URL: The URL of the Prometheus remote_write-compatible server to send metrics to.
  • USERNAME: The username to use for authentication to the remote_write API.
  • PASSWORD: The password to use for authentication to the remote_write API.