loki/docs/sources/getting-started/get-logs-into-loki.md

---
title: Get logs into Loki
---
# Get logs into Loki

After you [install and run Loki](../../installation/local/), you probably want to get logs from other applications into it.

To get application logs into Loki, you need to edit the [Promtail]({{< relref "../clients/promtail" >}}) configuration file.

Detailed information about configuring Promtail is available in [Promtail configuration](../../clients/promtail/configuration/).

The following instructions should help you get started.

1. If you haven't already, download a Promtail configuration file. Keep track of where it is, because you will need to cite it when you run the binary.

    ```
    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/grafana/loki/main/clients/cmd/promtail/promtail-local-config.yaml
    ```

1. Open the configuration file in the text editor of your choice. It should look similar to this:

    ```
    server:
      http_listen_port: 9080
      grpc_listen_port: 0
    
    positions:
      filename: /tmp/positions.yaml
    
    clients:
      - url: http://loki:3100/loki/api/v1/push
    
    scrape_configs:
    - job_name: system
      static_configs:
      - targets:
          - localhost
        labels:
          job: varlogs
          __path__: /var/log/*log
    ```

    The seven lines under `scrape_configs` are what send the logs that Loki generates to Loki, which then outputs them in the command line and http://localhost:3100/metrics.

    Copy the seven lines under `scrape_configs`, and then paste them under the original job. You can instead edit the original seven lines.

    Below is an example that sends logs from a default Grafana installation to Loki. We updated the following fields:
    - job_name - This differentiates the logs collected from other log groups.
    - targets - Optional for `static_configs`. However, is often defined because in older versions of Promtail it was not optional. This was an artifact from directly using the Prometheus service discovery code, which required this entry.
    - labels - Static label to apply to every log line scraped by this definition. Good examples include the environment name, job name, or app name.
    - __path__ - The path to where the logs that Loki is to consume are stored.

    ```
    - job_name: grafana
      static_configs:
      - targets:
          - grafana
        labels:
          job: grafana
          __path__: "C:/Program Files/GrafanaLabs/grafana/data/log/grafana.log"
    ```

1. Enter the following command to run Promtail. Examples below assume you have placed the configuration file in the same directory as the binary.

    **Windows**

    ```
    .\promtail-windows-amd64.exe --config.file=promtail-local-config.yaml
    ```

    **Linux**

    ```
    ./promtail-linux-amd64 -config.file=promtail-local-config.yaml
    ```

You should now see your application logs. If you are using Grafana, you might need to refresh your instance in order to see the logs.