---
title: "Choose Alloy components | Grafana Labs"
description: "Learn about the components you are going to use to configure Grafana Alloy to collect system logs"
---

# Choose Alloy components

In Alloy, a component is a building block that does one specific job in collecting, processing, or sending telemetry data. It’s similar to a LEGO piece where each one has a specific purpose, and you connect them to build a working pipeline. Watch video ->

When choosing which components to use, plan out the pipeline you want to create first and visualize the flow of data. Once you have a rough guide, refer to the [Alloy Components](/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/) page for all the available components.

The following diagram shows the basic minimum components for sending system logs to Loki.

- `local.file_match` - This component searches for log files on your system based on a pattern (like `/var/log/*.log`).
- `loki.source_file` - This component reads log lines from the files found by `local.file_match`. It parses the logs to prepare them for Loki.
- `loki.write` - This component sends the processed logs to a Loki backend.

In the next milestone, you’re going to edit the Alloy configuration file to send logs to Loki.

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### More to explore (optional)

At this point in your journey, you can explore the following paths:

- [Components](/docs/alloy/latest/reference/components/)
- [Choose a Grafana Alloy component](/docs/alloy/latest/collect/choose-component/)