Connect your first app

Loggerhead receives telemetry in two ways. An app or a collector pushes it to the root receiver. Or Loggerhead pulls it from a place you choose. Both start from the Collectors page.

Pick a source in the app

1. Open Collectors in the sidebar.
2. Click Add source.
3. Pick the kind of source:
   • This Mac: an app on this Mac that sends OpenTelemetry. Loggerhead shows the address to use.
   • Docker: read the logs of your containers through the Docker socket.
   • Kubernetes: run a branch collector in the cluster. See Kubernetes branch.
   • Scrape a URL: read metrics from a /metrics page on a schedule.
4. Click Test to run one check without saving.
5. Click Save. The source starts at once.

Loggerhead picks a free port for the root receiver. You do not choose a port. The Collectors page shows the port in use under Local OTLP receiver → Connection.

Point an app at the root receiver

Many frameworks send OpenTelemetry with one setting. Give the app the address from the Collectors page. The default is:

Protocol	Address
gRPC	http://127.0.0.1:14317
HTTP	http://127.0.0.1:14318

If another program holds the default port, Loggerhead moves to the next free port on a fixed ladder. Read Ports and the effective port before you copy an address into a config file.

See the first records

Open Logs. New records appear at the top while the page is live. Click a log line that carries a trace ID to open its trace.