---
title: Prometheus Remote Write output data format
description: Use the prometheusremotewrite output data format (serializer) to convert Telegraf metrics into Prometheus protobuf format for remote write endpoints.
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/telegraf/v1/data_formats/output/prometheusremotewrite/
estimated_tokens: 1013
product: Telegraf
version: v1
---

# Prometheus Remote Write output data format

Use the `prometheusremotewrite` output data format (serializer) to convert Telegraf metrics into the Prometheus protobuf exposition format for [remote write](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#remote_write) endpoints.

When generating histogram and summary types, output may not be correct if the metric spans multiple batches. Use outputs that support batch format to mitigate this issue. For histogram and summary types, the `prometheus_client` output is recommended.

## Configuration

```toml
[[outputs.http]]
  ## URL of the remote write endpoint.
  url = "https://cortex/api/prom/push"

  ## Optional TLS configuration.
  # tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/ca.pem"
  # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
  # tls_key = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"

  ## Data format to output.
  data_format = "prometheusremotewrite"

  ## Required headers for Prometheus remote write.
  [outputs.http.headers]
    Content-Type = "application/x-protobuf"
    Content-Encoding = "snappy"
    X-Prometheus-Remote-Write-Version = "0.1.0"
```

## Metrics

A Prometheus metric is created for each integer, float, boolean, or unsigned field:

-   Boolean values convert to `1.0` (true) or `0.0` (false)
-   String fields are ignored (set `log_level = "trace"` to see serialization issues)

### Metric naming

Prometheus metric names are created by joining the measurement name with the field key.

**Special case:** When the measurement name is `prometheus`, it is not included in the final metric name.

### Labels

Prometheus labels are created from Telegraf tags.

## Example

**Input metric:**

```
cpu,host=server01 usage_idle=98.5,usage_user=1.2 1640000000000000000
```

**Resulting Prometheus metrics (logical representation - actual output is binary protobuf format):**

```
cpu_usage_idle{host="server01"} 98.5
cpu_usage_user{host="server01"} 1.2
```