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

# Sending Logs with Vector

> Point Vector's HTTP sink at obsidianlog-ingest to ship real logs.

ObsidianLog's ingest endpoint is Vector-compatible: Vector reads your logs,
then its HTTP sink `POST`s them (as a JSON array) to the ObsidianLog ingest
server.
ObsidianLog uses write-then-ack. It returns `200` only after a durable,
encrypted, hash-chained write, and `5xx` on failure, so Vector owns
buffering, backpressure, and retry. A `5xx` is simply retried.

## Example configuration

```toml theme={null}
# --- Source: tail your application's log files (swap for your real source) ---
[sources.app_logs]
type = "file"
include = ["/var/log/myapp/*.log"]

# --- Optional: parse each line into structured fields ObsidianLog indexes on ---
# ObsidianLog reads `timestamp`, `service`, `level`, `host`, `trace_id` when
# present, and tolerates anything missing.
[transforms.structure]
type = "remap"
inputs = ["app_logs"]
source = '''
  . = object!(parse_json(.message) ?? { "message": .message })
  .service = .service || "myapp"
'''

# --- Sink: POST batches to the ObsidianLog ingest endpoint ---
[sinks.obsidianlog]
type = "http"
inputs = ["structure"]
uri = "http://localhost:7080/ingest"
method = "post"
encoding.codec = "json"        # sends each batch as a JSON array of events

# Retry on ObsidianLog's 5xx (durable-write failures); Vector buffers meanwhile.
request.retry_attempts = 10
batch.max_bytes = 10485760     # 10 MiB
batch.timeout_secs = 5
```

The full example lives at
[`crates/obsidianlog-ingest/examples/vector.toml`](https://github.com/emmaglorypraise/ObsidianLog/blob/main/crates/obsidianlog-ingest/examples/vector.toml)
(a [Docker-adapted version](https://github.com/emmaglorypraise/ObsidianLog/blob/main/docker/vector.toml)
exists too).

## Running it

```sh theme={null}
# Run this after `obsidianlog init`. Use ./obsidianlog if you are running
# directly from an extracted release archive rather than installing it on PATH.
obsidianlog serve
vector --config vector.toml
```

See [obsidianlog serve](/cli/serve) for the endpoints Vector's sink talks to.
The standalone `obsidianlog-ingest` binary is intended for advanced deployments
that supply `OBSIDIANLOG_ENCRYPTION_KEY` or `OBSIDIANLOG_ENCRYPTION_KEY_FILE`
explicitly. See [Building From Source](/get-started/building-from-source).