---
title: "otelcol.processor.k8sattributes | Grafana Alloy documentation"
description: "Learn about otelcol.processor.k8sattributes"
---

# `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes`

`otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` accepts telemetry data from other `otelcol` components and adds Kubernetes metadata to the resource attributes of spans, logs, or metrics.

> Note
> 
> `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` is a wrapper over the upstream OpenTelemetry Collector [`k8sattributes`](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/v0.147.0/processor/k8sattributesprocessor) processor. If necessary, bug reports or feature requests will be redirected to the upstream repository.

You can specify multiple `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` components by giving them different labels.

## Usage

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

```alloy
otelcol.processor.k8sattributes "<LABEL>" {
  output {
    metrics = [...]
    logs    = [...]
    traces  = [...]
  }
}
```

## Arguments

You can use the following arguments with `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes`:

Expand table

| Name                        | Type       | Description                                                                    | Default            | Required |
|-----------------------------|------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------|----------|
| `auth_type`                 | `string`   | Authentication method when connecting to the Kubernetes API.                   | `"serviceAccount"` | no       |
| `passthrough`               | `bool`     | Pass through signals as-is, only adding a `k8s.pod.ip` resource attribute.     | `false`            | no       |
| `wait_for_metadata_timeout` | `duration` | How long to wait for Kubernetes metadata to arrive.                            | `"10s"`            | no       |
| `wait_for_metadata`         | `bool`     | Whether to wait for Kubernetes metadata to arrive before processing telemetry. | `false`            | no       |

The supported values for `auth_type` are:

- `none`: No authentication is required.
- `serviceAccount`: Use the built-in service account that Kubernetes automatically provisions for each Pod.
- `kubeConfig`: Use local credentials like those used by `kubectl`.
- `tls`: Use client TLS authentication.

Setting `passthrough` to `true` enables the “passthrough mode” of `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes`:

- Only a `k8s.pod.ip` resource attribute will be added.
- No other metadata will be added.
- The Kubernetes API won’t be accessed.
- To correctly detect the Pod IPs, Alloy must receive spans directly from services.
- The `passthrough` setting is useful when configuring Alloy as a Kubernetes Deployment.

A Alloy running as a Deployment can’t detect the IP addresses of pods generating telemetry data without any of the well-known IP attributes. If the Deployment Alloy receives telemetry from Alloys deployed as DaemonSet, then some of those attributes might be missing. As a workaround, you can configure the DaemonSet Alloys with `passthrough` set to `true`.

By default, `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` is ready as soon as it starts, even if no metadata has been fetched yet. If telemetry is sent to this processor before the metadata is synced, there will be no metadata to enrich the telemetry with.

To wait for the metadata to be synced before `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` is ready, set the `wait_for_metadata` option to `true`. Then, the processor won’t be ready until the metadata is fully synced. As a result, the start-up of Alloy will be blocked. If the metadata can’t be synced by the time the `wait_for_metadata_timeout` duration is reached, `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` will become unhealthy and fail to start.

If `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` is unhealthy, other Alloy components will still be able to start. However, they may be unable to send telemetry to `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes`.

## Blocks

You can use the following blocks with `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes`:

No valid configuration blocks found.

### `output`

Required

The `output` block configures a set of components to forward resulting telemetry data to.

The following arguments are supported:

Expand table

| Name      | Type                     | Description                           | Default | Required |
|-----------|--------------------------|---------------------------------------|---------|----------|
| `logs`    | `list(otelcol.Consumer)` | List of consumers to send logs to.    | `[]`    | no       |
| `metrics` | `list(otelcol.Consumer)` | List of consumers to send metrics to. | `[]`    | no       |
| `traces`  | `list(otelcol.Consumer)` | List of consumers to send traces to.  | `[]`    | no       |

You must specify the `output` block, but all its arguments are optional. By default, telemetry data is dropped. Configure the `metrics`, `logs`, and `traces` arguments accordingly to send telemetry data to other components.

### `debug_metrics`

The `debug_metrics` block configures the metrics that this component generates to monitor its state.

The following arguments are supported:

Expand table

| Name                               | Type      | Description                                          | Default | Required |
|------------------------------------|-----------|------------------------------------------------------|---------|----------|
| `disable_high_cardinality_metrics` | `boolean` | Whether to disable certain high cardinality metrics. | `true`  | no       |

`disable_high_cardinality_metrics` is the Alloy equivalent to the `telemetry.disableHighCardinalityMetrics` feature gate in the OpenTelemetry Collector. It removes attributes that could cause high cardinality metrics. For example, attributes with IP addresses and port numbers in metrics about HTTP and gRPC connections are removed.

> Note
> 
> If configured, `disable_high_cardinality_metrics` only applies to `otelcol.exporter.*` and `otelcol.receiver.*` components.

### `exclude`

The `exclude` block configures which pods to exclude from the processor.

> Note
> 
> Pods with the name `jaeger-agent` or `jaeger-collector` are excluded by default.

### `pod`

The `pod` block configures a Pod to be excluded from the processor.

The following attributes are supported:

Expand table

| Name   | Type     | Description         | Default | Required |
|--------|----------|---------------------|---------|----------|
| `name` | `string` | The name of the Pod |         | yes      |

### `extract`

The `extract` block configures which metadata, annotations, and labels to extract from the Pod.

The following attributes are supported:

Expand table

| Name                              | Type           | Description                                                                                                                     | Default     | Required |
|-----------------------------------|----------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------|----------|
| `deployment_name_from_replicaset` | `bool`         | Whether to set the deployment name by trimming the hash from the end of the replica set.                                        | `false`     | no       |
| `metadata`                        | `list(string)` | Pre-configured metadata keys to add.                                                                                            | *See below* | no       |
| `otel_annotations`                | `bool`         | Whether to set the [recommended resource attributes](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/semconv/non-normative/k8s-attributes). | `false`     | no       |

The supported `metadata` keys are:

- `container.id`
- `container.image.name`
- `container.image.tag`
- `k8s.container.name`
- `k8s.cronjob.name`
- `k8s.cronjob.uid`
- `k8s.daemonset.name`
- `k8s.daemonset.uid`
- `k8s.deployment.name`
- `k8s.deployment.uid`
- `k8s.job.name`
- `k8s.job.uid`
- `k8s.namespace.name`
- `k8s.node.name`
- `k8s.pod.name`
- `k8s.pod.start_time`
- `k8s.pod.uid`
- `k8s.replicaset.name`
- `k8s.replicaset.uid`
- `k8s.statefulset.name`
- `k8s.statefulset.uid`
- `service.instance.id`
- `service.name`
- `service.namespace`
- `service.version`

The `service.*` metadata are calculated following the OpenTelemetry [semantic conventions](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/semconv/non-normative/k8s-attributes).

By default, if `metadata` isn’t specified, the following fields are extracted and added to spans, metrics, and logs as resource attributes:

- `container.image.name` (requires one of the following additional attributes to be set: `container.id` or `k8s.container.name`)
- `container.image.tag` (requires one of the following additional attributes to be set: `container.id` or `k8s.container.name`)
- `k8s.container.name` (requires an additional attribute to be set: `container.id`)
- `k8s.deployment.name` (if the Pod is controlled by a deployment)
- `k8s.namespace.name`
- `k8s.node.name`
- `k8s.pod.name`
- `k8s.pod.start_time`
- `k8s.pod.uid`

When `otel_annotations` is set to `true`, annotations such as `resource.opentelemetry.io/exampleResource` will be translated to the `exampleResource` resource attribute, etc.

When `deployment_name_from_replicaset` is set to `true`, the processor will extract deployment name from replicaset name by trimming pod template hash. This will disable watching for replicaset resources, which can be useful in environments with limited RBAC permissions as the processor will not need `get`, `watch`, and `list` permissions for replicasets.

### `annotation`

The `annotation` block configures how to extract Kubernetes annotations.

The following attributes are supported:

Expand table

| Name        | Type     | Description                                                                            | Default | Required |
|-------------|----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------|----------|
| `from`      | `string` | The source of the labels or annotations.                                               | `pod`   | no       |
| `key_regex` | `string` | A regular expression used to extract a key that matches the regular expression.        | `""`    | no       |
| `key`       | `string` | The annotation or label name. This key must exactly match an annotation or label name. | `""`    | no       |
| `tag_name`  | `string` | The name of the resource attribute added to logs, metrics, or spans.                   | `""`    | no       |

The `from` attribute must be one of `pod`, `namespace`, `deployment`, `statefulset`, `daemonset`, `job`, or `node`.

When you don’t specify the `tag_name`, a default tag name is used with the format:

- `k8s.pod.annotations.<annotation key>`
- `k8s.pod.labels.<label key>`

For example, if `tag_name` isn’t specified and the key is `git_sha`, the attribute name will be `k8s.pod.annotations.git_sha`.

You can set either the `key` attribute or the `key_regex` attribute, but not both. When `key_regex` is present, `tag_name` supports back reference to both named capturing and positioned capturing.

For example, assume your Pod spec contains the following labels:

- `app.kubernetes.io/component: mysql`
- `app.kubernetes.io/version: 5.7.21`

If you’d like to add tags for all labels with the prefix `app.kubernetes.io/` and trim the prefix, then you can specify the following extraction rules:

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

```alloy
extract {
  label {
    from = "pod"
    key_regex = "kubernetes.io/(.*)"
    tag_name  = "$1"
  }
}
```

These rules add the `component` and `version` tags to the spans or metrics.

You can set the `from` attribute to `"pod"`, `"namespace"`, `"node"`, or `"deployment"`.

> Caution
> 
> The `regex` argument has been removed. Use the [ExtractPatterns](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/blob/v0.147.0/pkg/ottl/ottlfuncs/README.md#extractpatterns) function from `otelcol.processor.transform` instead.

### `label` extract

The `label` block configures how to extract Kubernetes labels.

The following attributes are supported:

Expand table

| Name        | Type     | Description                                                                            | Default | Required |
|-------------|----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------|----------|
| `from`      | `string` | The source of the labels or annotations.                                               | `pod`   | no       |
| `key_regex` | `string` | A regular expression used to extract a key that matches the regular expression.        | `""`    | no       |
| `key`       | `string` | The annotation or label name. This key must exactly match an annotation or label name. | `""`    | no       |
| `tag_name`  | `string` | The name of the resource attribute added to logs, metrics, or spans.                   | `""`    | no       |

The `from` attribute must be one of `pod`, `namespace`, `deployment`, `statefulset`, `daemonset`, `job`, or `node`.

When you don’t specify the `tag_name`, a default tag name is used with the format:

- `k8s.pod.annotations.<annotation key>`
- `k8s.pod.labels.<label key>`

For example, if `tag_name` isn’t specified and the key is `git_sha`, the attribute name will be `k8s.pod.annotations.git_sha`.

You can set either the `key` attribute or the `key_regex` attribute, but not both. When `key_regex` is present, `tag_name` supports back reference to both named capturing and positioned capturing.

For example, assume your Pod spec contains the following labels:

- `app.kubernetes.io/component: mysql`
- `app.kubernetes.io/version: 5.7.21`

If you’d like to add tags for all labels with the prefix `app.kubernetes.io/` and trim the prefix, then you can specify the following extraction rules:

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

```alloy
extract {
  label {
    from = "pod"
    key_regex = "kubernetes.io/(.*)"
    tag_name  = "$1"
  }
}
```

These rules add the `component` and `version` tags to the spans or metrics.

You can set the `from` attribute to `"pod"`, `"namespace"`, `"node"`, or `"deployment"`.

> Caution
> 
> The `regex` argument has been removed. Use the [ExtractPatterns](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/blob/v0.147.0/pkg/ottl/ottlfuncs/README.md#extractpatterns) function from `otelcol.processor.transform` instead.

### `filter`

The `filter` block configures which nodes to get data from and which fields and labels to fetch.

The following attributes are supported:

Expand table

| Name        | Type     | Description                                                             | Default | Required |
|-------------|----------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------|----------|
| `node`      | `string` | Configures a Kubernetes node name or host name.                         | `""`    | no       |
| `namespace` | `string` | Filters all pods by the provided namespace. All other pods are ignored. | `""`    | no       |

If `node` is specified, then any pods not running on the specified node will be ignored by `otelcol.processor.k8sattributes`.

### `field`

The `field` block allows you to filter pods by generic Kubernetes fields.

The following attributes are supported:

Expand table

| Name    | Type     | Description                                                   | Default  | Required |
|---------|----------|---------------------------------------------------------------|----------|----------|
| `key`   | `string` | The key or name of the field or labels that a filter can use. |          | yes      |
| `value` | `string` | The value associated with the key that a filter can use.      |          | yes      |
| `op`    | `string` | The filter operation to apply on the given key: value pair.   | `equals` | no       |

You can use the following values for `op`:

- `equals`: The field value must equal the provided value.
- `not-equals`: The field value must not be equal to the provided value.
- `exists`: The field value must exist. Only applicable to `annotation` fields.
- `does-not-exist`: The field value must not exist. Only applicable to `annotation` fields.

### `label` filter

The `label` block allows you to filter pods by generic Kubernetes labels.

The following attributes are supported:

Expand table

| Name    | Type     | Description                                                   | Default  | Required |
|---------|----------|---------------------------------------------------------------|----------|----------|
| `key`   | `string` | The key or name of the field or labels that a filter can use. |          | yes      |
| `value` | `string` | The value associated with the key that a filter can use.      |          | yes      |
| `op`    | `string` | The filter operation to apply on the given key: value pair.   | `equals` | no       |

You can use the following values for `op`:

- `equals`: The field value must equal the provided value.
- `not-equals`: The field value must not be equal to the provided value.
- `exists`: The field value must exist. Only applicable to `annotation` fields.
- `does-not-exist`: The field value must not exist. Only applicable to `annotation` fields.

### `pod_association`

The `pod_association` block configures rules on how to associate logs/traces/metrics to pods.

The `pod_association` block doesn’t support any arguments and is configured fully through child blocks.

The `pod_association` block can be repeated multiple times, to configure additional rules.

#### Example

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

```alloy
pod_association {
    source {
        from = "resource_attribute"
        name = "k8s.pod.ip"
    }
}

pod_association {
    source {
        from = "resource_attribute"
        name = "k8s.pod.uid"
    }
    source {
        from = "connection"
    }
}
```

### `source`

The `source` block configures a Pod association rule. This is used by the `k8sattributes` processor to determine the Pod associated with a telemetry signal.

When multiple `source` blocks are specified inside a `pod_association` block, both `source` blocks has to match for the Pod to be associated with the telemetry signal.

The following attributes are supported:

Expand table

| Name   | Type     | Description                                                                      | Default | Required |
|--------|----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------|----------|
| `from` | `string` | The association method. Currently supports `resource_attribute` and `connection` |         | yes      |
| `name` | `string` | Name represents extracted key name. For example, `ip`, `pod_uid`, `k8s.pod.ip`   |         | no       |

## Exported fields

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

Expand table

| Name    | Type               | Description                                                      |
|---------|--------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `input` | `otelcol.Consumer` | A value that other components can use to send telemetry data to. |

`input` accepts `otelcol.Consumer` data for any telemetry signal (metrics, logs, or traces).

## Component health

`otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` is only reported as unhealthy if given an invalid configuration.

## Debug information

`otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` doesn’t expose any component-specific debug information.

## Examples

### Basic usage

In most cases, this is enough to get started. It’ll add these resource attributes to all logs, metrics, and traces:

- `k8s.deployment.name`
- `k8s.namespace.name`
- `k8s.node.name`
- `k8s.pod.name`
- `k8s.pod.start_time`
- `k8s.pod.uid`

Example:

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

```alloy
otelcol.receiver.otlp "default" {
  http {}
  grpc {}

  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.processor.k8sattributes.default.input]
    logs    = [otelcol.processor.k8sattributes.default.input]
    traces  = [otelcol.processor.k8sattributes.default.input]
  }
}

otelcol.processor.k8sattributes "default" {
  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.default.input]
    logs    = [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.default.input]
    traces  = [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.default.input]
  }
}

otelcol.exporter.otlphttp "default" {
  client {
    endpoint = sys.env("<OTLP_ENDPOINT>")
  }
}
```

### Add additional metadata and labels

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

```alloy
otelcol.receiver.otlp "default" {
  http {}
  grpc {}

  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.processor.k8sattributes.default.input]
    logs    = [otelcol.processor.k8sattributes.default.input]
    traces  = [otelcol.processor.k8sattributes.default.input]
  }
}

otelcol.processor.k8sattributes "default" {
  extract {
    label {
      from      = "pod"
      key_regex = "(.*)/(.*)"
      tag_name  = "$1.$2"
    }

    metadata = [
      "k8s.namespace.name",
      "k8s.deployment.name",
      "k8s.statefulset.name",
      "k8s.daemonset.name",
      "k8s.cronjob.name",
      "k8s.job.name",
      "k8s.node.name",
      "k8s.pod.name",
      "k8s.pod.uid",
      "k8s.pod.start_time",
    ]

    otel_annotations = true
  }

  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.default.input]
    logs    = [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.default.input]
    traces  = [otelcol.exporter.otlphttp.default.input]
  }
}

otelcol.exporter.otlphttp "default" {
  client {
    endpoint = sys.env("<OTLP_ENDPOINT>")
  }
}
```

### Add Kubernetes metadata to Prometheus metrics

`otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` adds metadata to metrics signals in the form of resource attributes. To display the metadata as labels of Prometheus metrics, the OTLP attributes must be converted from resource attributes to datapoint attributes. One way to do this is by using an `otelcol.processor.transform` component.

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

```alloy
otelcol.receiver.otlp "default" {
  http {}
  grpc {}

  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.processor.k8sattributes.default.input]
  }
}

otelcol.processor.k8sattributes "default" {
  extract {
    label {
      from = "pod"
    }

    metadata = [
      "k8s.namespace.name",
      "k8s.pod.name",
    ]
  }

  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.processor.transform.add_kube_attrs.input]
  }
}

otelcol.processor.transform "add_kube_attrs" {
  error_mode = "ignore"

  metric_statements {
    context = "datapoint"
    statements = [
      "set(attributes[\"k8s.pod.name\"], resource.attributes[\"k8s.pod.name\"])",
      "set(attributes[\"k8s.namespace.name\"], resource.attributes[\"k8s.namespace.name\"])",
    ]
  }

  output {
    metrics = [otelcol.exporter.prometheus.default.input]
  }
}

otelcol.exporter.prometheus "default" {
  forward_to = [prometheus.remote_write.mimir.receiver]
}

prometheus.remote_write "mimir" {
  endpoint {
    url = "http://mimir:9009/api/v1/push"
  }
}
```

## Compatible components

`otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` can accept arguments from the following components:

- Components that export [OpenTelemetry `otelcol.Consumer`](../../../compatibility/#opentelemetry-otelcolconsumer-exporters)

`otelcol.processor.k8sattributes` has exports that can be consumed by the following components:

- Components that consume [OpenTelemetry `otelcol.Consumer`](../../../compatibility/#opentelemetry-otelcolconsumer-consumers)

> Note
> 
> Connecting some components may not be sensible or components may require further configuration to make the connection work correctly. Refer to the linked documentation for more details.