---
title: "Collect Prometheus native histograms | Grafana Alloy documentation"
description: "Learn how to scrape and forward Prometheus native histograms with Grafana Alloy"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Collect Prometheus native histograms

[Prometheus native histograms](https://prometheus.io/docs/specs/native_histograms/) need configuration on **both** the scrape side and the write side. If only one side is enabled, samples are silently dropped or never requested from the target.

This topic shows a minimal end-to-end pipeline that:

- Scrapes native histograms with [`prometheus.scrape`](../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.scrape/)
- Forwards them with [`prometheus.remote_write`](../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.remote_write/)

## Components used in this topic

- [`prometheus.remote_write`](../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.remote_write/)
- [`prometheus.scrape`](../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.scrape/)

## Before you begin

- A scrape target that exposes native histograms over the Prometheus Protobuf format.
- A remote endpoint that accepts native histograms, for example Grafana Mimir or Grafana Cloud Metrics with native histograms enabled.

## Configure delivery

Native histogram samples only leave Alloy when `send_native_histograms` is `true` on the remote write endpoint:

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

```alloy
prometheus.remote_write "mimir" {
  endpoint {
    url = "https://mimir.example.com/api/v1/push"

    send_native_histograms = true
  }
}
```

Without `send_native_histograms = true`, classic metrics still flow, but native histogram samples are not sent.

## Configure scraping

Native histograms are negotiated through the Prometheus Protobuf exposition format. Set `scrape_native_histograms = true` and put `PrometheusProto` first in `scrape_protocols`:

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

```alloy
prometheus.scrape "app" {
  targets = [
    {"__address__" = "app.default.svc.cluster.local:8080"},
  ]

  scrape_native_histograms = true
  scrape_protocols = [
    "PrometheusProto",
    "OpenMetricsText1.0.0",
    "OpenMetricsText0.0.1",
    "PrometheusText1.0.0",
    "PrometheusText0.0.4",
  ]

  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.mimir.receiver]
}
```

When `scrape_native_histograms` is `true`, Alloy already defaults `scrape_protocols` to start with `PrometheusProto`. Setting the list explicitly makes the requirement obvious in the config.

## Full example

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

```alloy
prometheus.remote_write "mimir" {
  endpoint {
    url = "https://mimir.example.com/api/v1/push"

    send_native_histograms = true
  }
}

prometheus.scrape "app" {
  targets = [
    {"__address__" = "app.default.svc.cluster.local:8080"},
  ]

  scrape_native_histograms = true
  scrape_protocols = [
    "PrometheusProto",
    "OpenMetricsText1.0.0",
    "OpenMetricsText0.0.1",
    "PrometheusText1.0.0",
    "PrometheusText0.0.4",
  ]

  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.mimir.receiver]
}
```

## Checklist

Expand table

| Component                          | Setting                                          | Why                                                  |
|------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|
| `prometheus.scrape`                | `scrape_native_histograms = true`                | Request native histograms from the target            |
| `prometheus.scrape`                | `scrape_protocols` starts with `PrometheusProto` | Native histograms use the Protobuf exposition format |
| `prometheus.remote_write` endpoint | `send_native_histograms = true`                  | Forward native histogram samples to the backend      |

Other pipeline components such as `prometheus.relabel` do not need extra flags for native histograms.

## Related

- [`prometheus.scrape` native histogram arguments](../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.scrape/)
- [`prometheus.remote_write` `send_native_histograms`](../../reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.remote_write/)
- [Collect Prometheus metrics](../prometheus-metrics/)