---
title: "prometheus.exporter.github | Grafana Cloud documentation"
description: "Learn about prometheus.exporter.github"
---

# `prometheus.exporter.github`

The `prometheus.exporter.github` component embeds the [`github_exporter`](https://github.com/githubexporter/github-exporter) for collecting statistics from GitHub.

## Usage

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

```alloy
prometheus.exporter.github "<LABEL>" {
}
```

## Arguments

You can use the following arguments with `prometheus.exporter.github`:

Expand table

| Name                         | Type           | Description                                                       | Default                    | Required |
|------------------------------|----------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------|----------|
| `api_token_file`             | `string`       | File containing API token to use to authenticate against GitHub.  |                            | no       |
| `api_token`                  | `secret`       | API token to use to authenticate against GitHub.                  |                            | no       |
| `api_url`                    | `string`       | The full URI of the GitHub API.                                   | `"https://api.github.com"` | no       |
| `github_app_id`              | `number`       | The GitHub App ID for authentication.                             |                            | no       |
| `github_app_installation_id` | `number`       | The GitHub App installation ID for authentication.                |                            | no       |
| `github_app_key_path`        | `string`       | Path to the GitHub App private key file.                          |                            | no       |
| `github_rate_limit`          | `number`       | Threshold for GitHub App rate limit to trigger re-authentication. | `15000`                    | no       |
| `organizations`              | `list(string)` | GitHub organizations for which to collect metrics.                |                            | no       |
| `repositories`               | `list(string)` | GitHub repositories for which to collect metrics.                 |                            | no       |
| `users`                      | `list(string)` | A list of GitHub users for which to collect metrics.              |                            | no       |

### Authentication

GitHub uses an aggressive rate limit for unauthenticated requests based on IP address. To allow more API requests, we recommend that you configure either token or GitHub App authentication.

- **Token authentication**: Set `api_token` or `api_token_file` with a personal access token or classic token.
- **GitHub App authentication**: Set `github_app_id`, `github_app_installation_id`, and `github_app_key_path` to authenticate as a GitHub App.

When provided, `api_token_file` takes precedence over `api_token`.

You can’t use both token authentication and GitHub App authentication simultaneously.

## Blocks

The `prometheus.exporter.github` component doesn’t support any blocks. You can configure this component with arguments.

## Exported fields

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

Expand table

| Name      | Type                | Description                                               |
|-----------|---------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------|
| `targets` | `list(map(string))` | The targets that can be used to collect exporter metrics. |

For example, the `targets` can either be passed to a `discovery.relabel` component to rewrite the targets’ label sets or to a `prometheus.scrape` component that collects the exposed metrics.

The exported targets use the configured [in-memory traffic](../../../../get-started/component_controller/#in-memory-traffic) address specified by the [run command](../../../cli/run/).

## Component health

`prometheus.exporter.github` is only reported as unhealthy if given an invalid configuration. In those cases, exported fields retain their last healthy values.

## Debug information

`prometheus.exporter.github` doesn’t expose any component-specific debug information.

## Debug metrics

`prometheus.exporter.github` doesn’t expose any component-specific debug metrics.

## Examples

The following examples demonstrate token authentication and GitHub App authentication.

### Token authentication

The following example uses a [`prometheus.scrape`](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/reference/components/prometheus/prometheus.scrape) component to collect metrics from `prometheus.exporter.github`:

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

```alloy
prometheus.exporter.github "example" {
  api_token_file = "/etc/github-api-token"
  repositories   = ["grafana/alloy"]
}

// Configure a prometheus.scrape component to collect github metrics.
prometheus.scrape "demo" {
  targets    = prometheus.exporter.github.example.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.

### GitHub App authentication

The following example uses GitHub App authentication to collect metrics:

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

```alloy
prometheus.exporter.github "example" {
  repositories                 = ["grafana/alloy"]
  github_app_id                = 123456
  github_app_installation_id   = 789012
  github_app_key_path          = "/etc/github-app-key.pem"
}

// Configure a prometheus.scrape component to collect github metrics.
prometheus.scrape "demo" {
  targets    = prometheus.exporter.github.example.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.

## Compatible components

`prometheus.exporter.github` has exports that can be consumed by the following components:

- Components that consume [Targets](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/reference/compatibility/#targets-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.