Configure Fluent Bit
Fluent Bit supports two configuration formats:
YAML: Standard configuration format as of v3.2.
Classic mode: To be deprecated at the end of 2026.
Command line interface
Fluent Bit exposes most of it features through the command line interface. Running the -h option you can get a list of the options available:
# Podman container tooling.
podman run -rm -ti fluent/fluent-bit --help
# Docker container tooling.
docker run --rm -it fluent/fluent-bit --helpWhich returns the following help text:
Usage: /fluent-bit/bin/fluent-bit [OPTION]
Available Options
-b --storage_path=PATH specify a storage buffering path
-c --config=FILE specify an optional configuration file
-d, --daemon run Fluent Bit in background mode
--supervisor run under a supervising parent process, uses "fork()" to execute child processes
-D, --dry-run dry run
-f, --flush=SECONDS flush timeout in seconds (default: 1)
-C, --custom=CUSTOM enable a custom plugin
-i, --input=INPUT set an input
-F --filter=FILTER set a filter
-m, --match=MATCH set plugin match, same as '-p match=abc'
-o, --output=OUTPUT set an output
-p, --prop="A=B" set plugin configuration property
-R, --parser=FILE specify a parser configuration file
-e, --plugin=FILE load an external plugin (shared lib)
-l, --log_file=FILE write log info to a file
-t, --tag=TAG set plugin tag, same as '-p tag=abc'
-T, --sp-task=SQL define a stream processor task
-v, --verbose increase logging verbosity (default: info)
-Z, --enable-chunk-traceenable chunk tracing, it can be activated either through the http api or the command line
--trace-input input to start tracing on startup.
--trace-output output to use for tracing on startup.
--trace-output-property set a property for output tracing on startup.
--trace setup a trace pipeline on startup. Uses a single line, ie: "input=dummy.0 output=stdout output.format='json'"
-w, --workdir set the working directory
-H, --http enable monitoring HTTP server
-P, --port set HTTP server TCP port (default: 2020)
-s, --coro_stack_size set coroutines stack size in bytes (default: 24576)
-q, --quiet quiet mode
-S, --sosreport support report for Enterprise customers
-Y, --enable-hot-reload enable for hot reloading
-W, --disable-thread-safety-on-hot-reloadingdisable thread safety on hot reloading
-V, --version show version number
-h, --help print this help
Inputs
blob Blob (binary) files
cpu CPU Usage
mem Memory Usage
thermal Thermal
kmsg Kernel Log Buffer
proc Check Process health
disk Diskstats
systemd Systemd (Journal) reader
netif Network Interface Usage
docker Docker containers metrics
docker_events Docker events
podman_metrics Podman metrics
process_exporter_metricsProcess Exporter Metrics (Prometheus Compatible)
gpu_metrics GPU Metrics
node_exporter_metrics Node Exporter Metrics (Prometheus Compatible)
kubernetes_events Kubernetes Events
kafka Kafka consumer input plugin
fluentbit_metrics Fluent Bit internal metrics
prometheus_scrape Scrape metrics from Prometheus Endpoint
prometheus_textfile Read Prometheus metrics from text files
tail Tail files
dummy Generate dummy data
head Head Input
health Check TCP server health
http HTTP
collectd collectd input plugin
statsd StatsD input plugin
opentelemetry OpenTelemetry
elasticsearch HTTP Endpoints for Elasticsearch (Bulk API)
splunk Input plugin for Splunk HEC payloads
prometheus_remote_write Prometheus Remote Write input
event_type Event tests for input plugins
nginx_metrics Nginx status metrics
serial Serial input
stdin Standard Input
syslog Syslog
udp UDP
exec_wasi Exec WASI Input
tcp TCP
mqtt MQTT, listen for Publish messages
forward Fluentd in-forward
random Random
Processors
content_modifier Modify the content of Logs, Metrics and Traces
labels Modifies metrics labels
metrics_selector select metrics by specified name
opentelemetry_envelope Package log records inside an OpenTelemetry Logs schema
sampling Sampling
sql SQL processor
Filters
alter_size Alter incoming chunk size
aws Add AWS Metadata
checklist Check records and flag them
ecs Add AWS ECS Metadata
record_modifier modify record
sysinfo Filter for system info
throttle Throttle messages using sliding window algorithm
type_converter Data type converter
kubernetes Filter to append Kubernetes metadata
modify modify records by applying rules
multiline Concatenate multiline messages
nest nest events by specified field values
parser Parse events
expect Validate expected keys and values
grep grep events by specified field values
rewrite_tag Rewrite records tags
log_to_metrics generate log derived metrics
lua Lua Scripting Filter
stdout Filter events to STDOUT
geoip2 add geoip information to records
nightfall scans records for sensitive content
wasm WASM program filter
Outputs
azure Send events to Azure HTTP Event Collector
azure_blob Azure Blob Storage
azure_logs_ingestion Send logs to Log Analytics with Log Ingestion API
azure_kusto Send events to Kusto (Azure Data Explorer)
bigquery Send events to BigQuery via streaming insert
counter Records counter
datadog Send events to DataDog HTTP Event Collector
es Elasticsearch
exit Exit after a number of flushes (test purposes)
file Generate log file
forward Forward (Fluentd protocol)
http HTTP Output
influxdb InfluxDB Time Series
logdna LogDNA
loki Loki
kafka Kafka
kafka-rest Kafka REST Proxy
nats NATS Server
nrlogs New Relic
null Throws away events
opensearch OpenSearch
oracle_log_analytics Oracle log analytics
plot Generate data file for GNU Plot
pgsql PostgreSQL
skywalking Send logs into log collector on SkyWalking OAP
slack Send events to a Slack channel
splunk Send events to Splunk HTTP Event Collector
stackdriver Send events to Google Stackdriver Logging
stdout Prints events to STDOUT
syslog Syslog
tcp TCP Output
udp UDP Output
td Treasure Data
flowcounter FlowCounter
gelf GELF Output
websocket Websocket
cloudwatch_logs Send logs to Amazon CloudWatch
kinesis_firehose Send logs to Amazon Kinesis Firehose
kinesis_streams Send logs to Amazon Kinesis Streams
opentelemetry OpenTelemetry
prometheus_exporter Prometheus Exporter
prometheus_remote_write Prometheus remote write
s3 Send to S3
vivo_exporter Vivo Exporter
chronicle Send logs to Google Chronicle as unstructured logLast updated
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