---
title: "logs_config | Grafana Agent documentation"
description: "Learn about logs_config"
---

# logs\_config

The `logs_config` block configures how the Agent collects logs and sends them to a Loki push API endpoint. `logs_config` is identical to how Promtail is configured, except deprecated fields have been removed and the server\_config is not supported.

Refer to the [Promtail documentation](/docs/loki/latest/send-data/promtail/configuration/) for the supported values for these fields.

YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```yaml
# Directory to store Loki Promtail positions files in. Positions files are
# required to read logs, and are used to store the last read offset of log
# sources. The positions files will be stored in
# <positions_directory>/<logs_instance_config.name>.yml.
#
# Optional only if every config has a positions.filename manually provided.
#
# This directory will be automatically created if it doesn't exist.
[positions_directory: <string>]

# Configure values for all Loki Promtail instances.
[global: <global_config>]

# Loki Promtail instances to run for log collection.
configs:
  - [<logs_instance_config>]
```

## global\_config

The `global_config` block configures global values for all launched Loki Promtail instances.

YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```yaml
clients:
  - [<promtail.client_config>]
# Configure how frequently log files from disk get polled for changes.
[file_watch_config: <file_watch_config>]
```

> **Note:** More information on the following types can be found on the documentation for Promtail:
> 
> - [`promtail.client_config`](/docs/loki/latest/send-data/promtail/configuration/#clients)

## file\_watch\_config

The `file_watch_config` block configures how often to poll log files from disk for changes:

YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```yaml
# Minimum frequency to poll for files. Any time file changes are detected, the
# poll frequency gets reset to this duration.
  [min_poll_frequency: <duration> | default = "250ms"]
  # Maximum frequency to poll for files. Any time no file changes are detected,
  # the poll frequency doubles in value up to the maximum duration specified by
  # this value.
  #
  # The default is set to the same as min_poll_frequency.
  [max_poll_frequency: <duration> | default = "250ms"]
```

## logs\_instance\_config

The `logs_instance_config` block is an individual instance of Promtail with its own set of scrape rules and where to forward logs. It is identical to how Promtail is configured, except deprecated fields have been removed and the `server_config` block is not supported.

YAML ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```yaml
# Name of this config. Required, and must be unique across all Loki configs.
# The name of the config will be the value of a logs_config label for all
# Loki Promtail metrics.
name: <string>

clients:
  - [<promtail.client_config>]

# Optional configuration for where to store the positions files. If
# positions.filename is left empty, the file will be stored in
# <logs_config.positions_directory>/<logs_instance_config.name>.yml.
#
# The directory of the positions file will automatically be created on start up
# if it doesn't already exist..
[positions: <promtail.position_config>]

scrape_configs:
  - [<promtail.scrape_config>]

[target_config: <promtail.target_config>]

[limits_config: <promtail.limits_config>]
```

> **Note:** More information on the following types can be found on the documentation for Promtail:
> 
> - [`promtail.client_config`](/docs/loki/latest/send-data/promtail/configuration/#clients)
> - [`promtail.scrape_config`](/docs/loki/latest/send-data/promtail/configuration/#scrape_configs)
> - [`promtail.target_config`](/docs/loki/latest/send-data/promtail/configuration/#target_config)
> - [`promtail.limits_config`](/docs/loki/latest/send-data/promtail/configuration/#limits_config)

> **Note:** Backticks in values are not supported.

> **Note:** Because of how YAML treats backslashes in double-quoted strings, all backslashes in a regex expression must be escaped when using double quotes. But because of double processing, in Grafana Agent config file you must use quadruple backslash (`\\\\`) construction to add backslashes into regular expressions, here is example for `name=(\w+)\s` regex:

![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```none
  selector: '{app="my-app"} |~ "name=(\\\\w+)\\\\s"'
```

Using single or double backslash construction produces the error:

![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```none
failed to make file target manager: invalid match stage config: invalid selector syntax for match stage: parse error at line 1, col 40: literal not terminated
```

Using backticks produces the error:

![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```none
invalid match stage config: invalid selector syntax for match stage: parse error at line 1, col 51: syntax error: unexpected IDENTIFIER, expecting STRING"
```