Collector configuration options

The collector can be configured at start-up using environment variables or a configuration file.

The following list includes all configuration options with the name of the environment variable and the name of the key in the configuration file.

For more information on how to configure the AppSignal Collector with a configuration file or using environment variables, see our configuration section.

Available options

• Required options
  • push_api_key
• Options
  • cpu_count
  • enable_host_metrics
  • files_world_accessible
  • hostname
  • http_port
  • log_level
  • push_api_endpoint
  • running_in_container
  • working_directory_path

push_api_key

Field	Value
Config file key	push_api_key
System environment key	APPSIGNAL_PUSH_API_KEY
Required	yes
Type	String
Default value	nil (This is unset by default)
Available since version	0.1.0

Description

The organization-level authentication key to authenticate with our Push API.

Read more about the AppSignal Push API key.

cpu_count

Field	Value
Config file key	cpu_count
System environment key	APPSIGNAL_CPU_COUNT
Required	no
Type	Float
Default value	undefined
Available since version	0.3.0

Description

The available CPU capacity of the host, in number of CPUs. This is used to calculate the CPU usage percentage in the host metrics. If not set, the agent will attempt to automatically detect this from cgroups.

The number of CPUs can be a fraction, e.g. 0.5.

enable_host_metrics

Field	Value
Config file key	enable_host_metrics
System environment key	APPSIGNAL_ENABLE_HOST_METRICS
Required	no
Type	Boolean (true / false)
Default value	false
Available since version	0.3.0
	0.8.0: Disabled by default. 0.3.0: Disabled by default in the appsignal/collector Docker image.

Description

Set this option to false to disable host metrics collection.

On Heroku and Dokku host metrics are disabled by default. This is done because these systems will report inaccurate metrics from within the containers. Host metrics collection on these systems cannot be enabled. For Heroku, use the Heroku log drain instead.

files_world_accessible

Field	Value
Config file key	files_world_accessible
System environment key	APPSIGNAL_FILES_WORLD_ACCESSIBLE
Required	no
Type	Boolean (true / false)
Default value	true
Available since version	0.1.0

Description

If this is set to true the AppSignal working directory that is created is accessible for all users (Unix permissions 0666). This is often necessary because processes for the same app run under a different user. Set to false to disable this behaviour (Unix permissions 0644).

hostname

Field	Value
Config file key	hostname
System environment key	APPSIGNAL_HOSTNAME
Required	no
Type	String
Default value	detected from system
Available since version	0.3.0

Description

This overrides the server’s hostname. Useful for when you’re unable to set a custom hostname or when a nondescript id is generated for you on hosting services.

http_port

Field	Value
Config file key	http_port
System environment key	APPSIGNAL_HTTP_PORT
Required	no
Type	Integer
Default value	8099
Available since version	0.3.0

Description

The port used by the collector’s HTTP server to receive OpenTelemetry export requests on.

log_level

Field	Value
Config file key	log_level
System environment key	APPSIGNAL_LOG_LEVEL
Required	no
Type	String
Default value	info
Available since version	0.1.0

Description

This option sets the severity level of AppSignal’s internal logger and does not affect the logging feature.

Set the severity level of AppSignal’s internal logger. If it is configured to “info” it will log all error, warning and info messages, but not log the debug messages.

Setting it to the levels “debug” or “trace” is usually only needed on request from support. Setting the level to “debug”/“trace” could have a slight impact on the disk usage and IO, especially on high-traffic sites. CPU overhead is minimal with the debug option enabled.

Accepted values:

• error
• warning
• info
• debug
• trace

push_api_endpoint

Field	Value
Config file key	push_api_endpoint
System environment key	APPSIGNAL_PUSH_API_ENDPOINT
Required	no
Type	String
Default value	https://push.appsignal.com
Available since version	0.1.0

Description

Configure the endpoint to send data to AppSignal. This setting will not have to be changed.

running_in_container

Field	Value
Config file key	running_in_container
System environment key	APPSIGNAL_RUNNING_IN_CONTAINER
Required	no
Type	Boolean (true / false)
Default value	detected by collector
Available since version	0.3.0

Description

AppSignal expects to be running on the same machine between different deploys. Set this key to true if the application is running in a container, such as with Docker.

Newer versions of the AppSignal integration automatically detect its container environment, so no manual configuration is necessary. If you’re having trouble with the automatic detection, please contact support.

This option is set to true automatically on Heroku.

working_directory_path

Field	Value
Config file key	working_directory_path
System environment key	APPSIGNAL_WORKING_DIRECTORY_PATH
Required	no
Type	String
Default value	detected by collector
Available since version	0.1.0
	This config option was called working_dir_path in versions 0.1.0 through 0.3.x.

Description

Override the location where the AppSignal Collector can store temporary files. Use this option if the default location is not suitable. See our how AppSignal operates page for more information about the purpose of this working directory.

If you are running multiple applications using AppSignal on the same server, use this configuration option to select different working directories for every AppSignal instance, otherwise the two instances could conflict with one another. For more information on this scenario see our running multiple applications on one host documentation.

Note: The specified path cannot contain Operating Specific file system abstractions, such as the homedir symbol ~ for *NIX systems. This will be seen as a malformed path.