Minimal Configuration

Get started with the absolute minimum configuration.

Zero-Config Approach

Telegen is designed to work out of the box. Deploy with just an OTLP endpoint and Telegen handles everything else:

otlp:
  endpoint: "otel-collector:4317"

That’s it. Telegen will:

  • ✅ Auto-detect cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.)
  • ✅ Auto-detect Kubernetes metadata
  • ✅ Auto-discover running processes and runtimes
  • ✅ Enable distributed tracing
  • ✅ Enable host metrics collection
  • ✅ Enable log collection
  • ✅ Correlate all signals automatically

Environment Variable Only

You can run Telegen with zero config files using environment variables:

# Docker
docker run -d --name telegen \
  --privileged --pid=host --network=host \
  -v /sys:/sys:ro \
  -v /proc:/host/proc:ro \
  -v /sys/kernel/debug:/sys/kernel/debug \
  -v /sys/fs/bpf:/sys/fs/bpf \
  -e TELEGEN_OTLP_ENDPOINT=otel-collector:4317 \
  ghcr.io/mirastacklabs-ai/telegen:latest

# Linux
TELEGEN_OTLP_ENDPOINT=otel-collector:4317 telegen

Minimal Config File Examples

Basic Agent Mode

# /etc/telegen/config.yaml
otlp:
  endpoint: "otel-collector:4317"

With Authentication

otlp:
  endpoint: "otel-collector:4317"
  headers:
    Authorization: "Bearer ${OTEL_TOKEN}"

With TLS

otlp:
  endpoint: "otel-collector:4317"
  tls:
    enabled: true
    ca_file: "/etc/ssl/certs/ca.crt"

Collector Mode (Remote Monitoring)

telegen:
  mode: collector

otlp:
  endpoint: "otel-collector:4317"

collector:
  snmp:
    enabled: true
    targets:
      - address: "10.0.1.1:161"
        community: "public"

What Gets Enabled by Default

Feature Default Notes
Distributed Tracing ✅ Enabled HTTP, gRPC, database protocols
Host Metrics ✅ Enabled CPU, memory, disk, network
Process Discovery ✅ Enabled Runtime detection
Cloud Detection ✅ Enabled AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.
Kubernetes Enrichment ✅ Enabled When running in K8s
Continuous Profiling ❌ Disabled Enable with agent.profiling.enabled: true
Security Monitoring ❌ Disabled Enable with agent.security.enabled: true
SNMP Collection ❌ Disabled Collector mode only

Targeted Instrumentation

By default, Telegen instruments all processes. To target specific services, use port-based discovery:

Instrument Specific Ports

otlp:
  endpoint: "otel-collector:4317"

discovery:
  instrument:
    - open_ports: "8080-8089"
    - open_ports: "3000,5000"

Kubernetes-Aware Targeting

otlp:
  endpoint: "otel-collector:4317"

discovery:
  instrument:
    - k8s_namespace: "production"
      open_ports: "8080"

Enabling Additional Features

Enable Profiling

otlp:
  endpoint: "otel-collector:4317"

agent:
  profiling:
    enabled: true

Enable Security Monitoring

otlp:
  endpoint: "otel-collector:4317"

agent:
  security:
    enabled: true

Enable All Features

otlp:
  endpoint: "otel-collector:4317"

agent:
  profiling:
    enabled: true
    cpu: true
    memory: true
    off_cpu: true
  
  security:
    enabled: true
    syscall_audit: true
    file_integrity: true
  
  network:
    enabled: true
    dns: true
    tcp_metrics: true

Next Steps

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