> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.zylon.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Metrics Destinations

Use destinations when you want to send Zylon metrics to your own monitoring backend.

This requires:

* `observability.monitoring: true`
* a destination under `k8s-monitoring.extraDestinations`

If you need to replace Zylon's default destinations instead of adding new ones, see [Override Zylon default destinations](#override-zylon-default-destinations).

## Supported backends

Zylon supports three backend families:

| Backend                               | YAML type    | Typical URL                                                             |
| ------------------------------------- | ------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Prometheus                            | `prometheus` | `https://prometheus.example.com/api/v1/write`                           |
| Grafana-compatible Prometheus backend | `prometheus` | `https://<stack>.grafana.net/api/prom/push`                             |
| OTLP collector                        | `otlp`       | `https://otel.example.com/v1/metrics` or `grpc://otel.example.com:4317` |

There is no separate `grafana` destination type. Grafana-compatible metrics services still use `type: prometheus`.

## Destination shape

```yaml theme={null}
k8s-monitoring:
  extraDestinations:
    <destination-name>:
      type: prometheus|otlp
      url: <endpoint-url>

      # Define authentication settings for the destination, 
      # if required by your backend
      auth:
        type: basic|bearer

      # Define the proxy to connect to the destination, 
      # if required by your network setup
      proxyURL: http://proxy:port

      # Define TLS settings for the destination, 
      # if your endpoint uses a private or self-signed CA
      tls:
        ca: |
          -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
          ...
          -----END CERTIFICATE-----
```

## Destination examples

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Prometheus">
    Use `type: prometheus` for a self-hosted Prometheus server with remote-write enabled:

    ```yaml theme={null}
    k8s-monitoring:
      extraDestinations:
        prometheus:
          type: prometheus
          url: https://prometheus.example.com/api/v1/write
          auth:
            type: basic
            username: "zylon-metrics"
            password: "${PROMETHEUS_API_KEY}"
    ```

    Prometheus must have the remote-write receiver enabled, for example by starting Prometheus with:

    ```bash theme={null}
    --web.enable-remote-write-receiver
    ```

    For self-signed Prometheus endpoints, pass the CA certificate so TLS verification stays enabled:

    ```yaml theme={null}
    k8s-monitoring:
      extraDestinations:
        prometheus-selfsigned:
          type: prometheus
          url: https://prometheus.internal:9090/api/v1/write
          auth:
            type: basic
            username: "admin"
            password: "${PROMETHEUS_PASS}"
          tls:
            ca: |
              -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
              MIID...
              -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    ```
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Grafana-Compatible">
    Grafana Cloud and similar backends use Prometheus remote write, so they still use `type: prometheus`:

    ```yaml theme={null}
    k8s-monitoring:
      extraDestinations:
        grafana-cloud:
          type: prometheus
          url: https://<stack>.grafana.net/api/prom/push
          auth:
            type: basic
            username: "your-access-policy-id"
            password: "${GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_KEY}"
    ```

    Use the exact write URL and credentials given by your provider.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="OTLP">
    Use `type: otlp` when you are sending metrics to an OpenTelemetry collector.

    OTLP over HTTPS:

    ```yaml theme={null}
    k8s-monitoring:
      extraDestinations:
        otlp-https:
          type: otlp
          url: https://otel-collector.company.com/v1/metrics
          auth:
            type: bearer
            token: "${OTLP_BEARER_TOKEN}"
    ```

    OTLP over gRPC:

    ```yaml theme={null}
    k8s-monitoring:
      extraDestinations:
        otlp-grpc:
          type: otlp
          url: grpc://otel-collector.company.com:4317
          auth:
            type: bearer
            token: "${OTLP_GRPC_TOKEN}"
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Multiple destinations

You can send metrics to more than one backend at the same time:

```yaml theme={null}
k8s-monitoring:
  extraDestinations:
    grafana-primary:
      type: prometheus
      url: https://prometheus-prod-XX.grafana.net/api/prom/push
      auth:
        type: basic
        username: "primary-access-id"
        password: "${GRAFANA_PRIMARY_KEY}"

    internal-prometheus:
      type: prometheus
      url: https://prometheus.internal:9090/api/v1/write
      auth:
        type: basic
        username: "backup"
        password: "${INTERNAL_PROMETHEUS_KEY}"
      tls:
        ca: |
          -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
          MIID...
          -----END CERTIFICATE-----

    compliance-otel:
      type: otlp
      url: https://compliance-otel.company.com/v1/metrics
      auth:
        type: bearer
        token: "${COMPLIANCE_OTEL_TOKEN}"
```