---
title: "Expressions | Grafana Agent documentation"
description: "Learn about expressions"
---

# Expressions

Expressions represent or compute values you can assign to attributes within a configuration.

Basic expressions are literal values, like `"Hello, world!"` or `true`. Expressions may also do things like [refer to values](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/concepts/config-language/expressions/referencing_exports/) exported by components, perform arithmetic, or [call functions](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/concepts/config-language/expressions/function_calls/).

You use expressions when you configure any component. All component arguments have an underlying [type](/docs/agent/v0.43/flow/concepts/config-language/expressions/types_and_values/). River checks the expression type before assigning the result to an attribute.