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

# Observer Agent

> Runs in your network. Probes metric sources, computes status, pushes results to Observer Cloud.

The Observer Agent is a small process that runs in your network. It
collects a value from a source, computes status against thresholds,
and pushes the value and its verdict to Observer Cloud over an
authenticated channel.

It runs 15 source types:

* **Queries**: Prometheus (PromQL), Loki (LogQL), Elasticsearch, AWS
  CloudWatch, and databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB).
* **Probes**: HTTP (including mTLS), TCP, DNS, ping (ICMP), TLS
  certificate expiry, gRPC health, and WebSocket.
* **Push and local**: OTLP (your services push to the agent), host
  vitals (CPU, memory, disk, network, load), and custom probes you register.

See [Probe types](https://docs.use.observer/agent/reference/probe-types.md) for each type's value
and unit. Connection strings, certificates and tokens stay on the
agent host: the cloud only stores the names of the environment
variables that hold them.

The agent is open source. Source at
[github.com/useobserver/agent](https://github.com/useobserver/agent),
licensed Apache-2.0. The runtime is Bun on a distroless container
image; the source is TypeScript.

## Quickstart

> [card] [Install from a release binary](https://docs.use.observer/agent/quickstart/install-binary.md)
>
> Single-file executable from GitHub Releases. No runtime install on the host.

> [card] [Install on Docker](https://docs.use.observer/agent/quickstart/install-docker.md)
>
> Run the published image with three environment variables.

> [card] [Install on Kubernetes](https://docs.use.observer/agent/quickstart/install-kubernetes.md)
>
> Deployment manifest with Secret-bound agent key.

Installing in an enterprise network with a proxy, TLS inspection,
a private CA or restricted egress? See
[Run behind a proxy or in a restricted network](https://docs.use.observer/agent/guides/restricted-networks.md).

## Adjacent sections

* **Guides** cover per-probe configuration, dashboard reading, key
  rotation, and diagnosis paths.
* **Reference** lists every environment variable, every probe type,
  every dashboard panel, and the heartbeat payload shape.
* **Concepts** covers the agent / cloud boundary, the local queue,
  and the design choices behind the runtime.

> [!NOTE]
>
> **Where the cloud-side concerns live**
>
> Documentation for status pages, SLOs, organisation setup, and the
> REST API is in the [Documentation](https://docs.use.observer/docs/overview.md) and [API](https://docs.use.observer/api/overview.md) tabs.
> This tab covers the agent only.


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