[opensourcedex]

datadog-agent is a free, open source monitoring & observability project written in Go and released under Apache-2.0. It has 3,731 GitHub stars, 1,492 forks and 721 open issues, and was last pushed 8 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #77 of 97 tracked projects in Monitoring & Observability, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 4 stars over the last 3 tracked days.

What is datadog-agent?

What it is

The Datadog Agent repository is the main source repository for the Datadog Agent, which belongs to the Datadog observability ecosystem and is associated with monitoring, metrics, logging, distributed tracing, and profiling. The repository contains source code for Datadog Agent version 7 and version 6, and it points to Agent user documentation for differences among version 5, version 6, and version 7. It also links to prepackaged binaries and developer documentation.

The repository solves access to Agent source and related guidance. It gives users one place to find the versioned source tree, installation resources, version comparison guidance, contribution guidance, and licensing boundaries. Infrastructure and operations teams can use it to understand how the Datadog Agent is packaged, documented, and developed. Developers can use it to separate user-facing documentation from internal development documentation.

Key capabilities

  • The repository contains source code for Datadog Agent version 7 and version 6, so users can inspect both major Agent lines.
  • The README links to prepackaged binaries for installation, which gives users a path to install the Agent without building it from source.
  • The repository is tagged for APM instrumentation and distributed tracing, identifying these as Agent-related capabilities in the project metadata.
  • The repository is tagged for metrics, logging, monitoring, and observability, identifying core operational data concerns represented by the project.
  • The repository is tagged for OpenTelemetry, otel, and profiling, identifying OpenTelemetry-related work and profiling as Agent-related capabilities.
  • The license section distinguishes user-space components under Apache-2.0 from BPF code under GPL-2.0.

Who uses it and how

  • Infrastructure and operations teams use the repository as the source location for the Datadog Agent when they evaluate its monitoring and observability role.
  • Users installing the Agent can follow the README link to prepackaged binaries instead of building the source code locally.
  • Developers and contributors can use the developer docs site, the docs directory, and the docs/dev directory for setup and contribution guidance.

Getting started

Install the Datadog Agent from the prepackaged binaries linked in the README, or use the Agent user documentation to choose between version 5, version 6, and version 7. For source development, start with the developer docs site and the docs directory in the repository.

When to use it — and when not to

Use this repository when you need the source code, installation links, version guidance, contribution guidance, or licensing details for Datadog Agent version 6 and version 7. Do not use it as a complete self-contained observability backend, because the available information describes the Agent repository and documentation links rather than a full platform deployment with databases, storage, or mail services. The missing contributor count and 721 open issues suggest that project health should be checked before a major operational decision.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Datadog Agent

GitHub Release GoDoc

This repository contains the source code of the Datadog Agent version 7 and version 6. Please refer to the Agent user documentation for information about differences between Agent v5, Agent v6 and Agent v7. Additionally, we provide a list of prepackaged binaries for an easy install process here.

Documentation

The developer docs site contains information about how to develop the Datadog Agent itself.

The source of the content is located under the docs directory and may contain pages that are not yet published.

Contributing code

You'll find information and help on how to contribute code to this project under the docs/dev directory of the present repo.

License

The Datadog Agent user space components are licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. The BPF code is licensed under the General Public License, Version 2.0.

Frequently asked questions

Is datadog-agent free to use?

datadog-agent is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does datadog-agent do?

Main repository for Datadog Agent

What is datadog-agent written in?

datadog-agent is primarily written in Go. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/DataDog/datadog-agent, and it has 3,731 GitHub stars.