Datadog

SIEM Platform

Synopsis

The Datadog target forwards events to the Datadog Cloud SIEM logs intake API over HTTPS. It handles batching and delivery — the event payload is expected to already be a complete JSON document in Datadog's log schema when it reaches the target.

Schema

- name: <string>
  description: <string>
  type: datadog
  pipelines: <pipeline[]>
  status: <boolean>
  properties:
    api_key: <string>
    site: <string>
    url: <string>
    batch_size: <integer>
    timeout: <integer>
    field_format: <string>
    debug:
      status: <boolean>
      dont_send_logs: <boolean>

Configuration

The following fields are used to define the target:

Field	Required	Default	Description
name	Y		Target name
description	N	-	Optional description
type	Y		Must be datadog
pipelines	N	-	Optional post-processor pipelines
status	N	true	Enable/disable the target

Connection

Field	Required	Default	Description
api_key	Y*	-	Datadog API key, sent as the DD-API-KEY header
site	N	datadoghq.com	Datadog site: datadoghq.com (US1), us3.datadoghq.com, us5.datadoghq.com, datadoghq.eu, ap1.datadoghq.com, ddog-gov.com
url	N*	built from site	Explicit logs intake URL. Overrides site. Default: `https://http-intake.logs.{site}/api/v2/logs`
max_bytes	N	5242880 (5 MB)	Maximum size of a single request body or batch, in bytes

note

max_bytes caps the size of a single request body or batch. It behaves differently from max_size on the file-writing targets, and the difference is easy to get wrong:

• An explicit max_bytes: 0 IS honoured and removes the ceiling. The value is read with Int64, which returns what you wrote — unlike max_size, which is read with MustInt64 and silently substitutes its default for a zero.
• A negative value is rejected at configuration time with max_bytes must not be negative.

The ceiling is validated when the target is built and enforced again on every batch, so a value the receiving service will refuse fails early rather than per request.

* = Conditionally required/optional. Either api_key (endpoint built from site) or an explicit url is required; supplying url makes api_key unnecessary.

Batch Configuration

Field	Required	Default	Description
batch_size	N	1000	Maximum events per POST, serialized as a JSON array
timeout	N	30	HTTP client timeout, in seconds

Processing

Field	Required	Default	Description
field_format	N	-	Optional target-side normalization format applied before delivery. Typically left empty, since the payload already arrives in Datadog's JSON schema from upstream processing. See applicable Normalization section

Scheduling

See Scheduling and Pool Behavior for interval and cron fields shared by all targets.

Debug Options

Field	Required	Default	Description
debug.status	N	false	Enable debug logging
debug.dont_send_logs	N	false	Process logs but don't send to target (testing)

Details

This target is transport-only: it does not render Datadog's log schema itself. It expects each event to already be a complete JSON document when it reaches the target, buffers events in memory, and delivers them as one HTTP POST — a JSON array ([{...},{...}]) — once batch_size is reached or during finalization.

Endpoint and Authentication

An explicit url always wins. Otherwise the endpoint is built from site as `https://http-intake.logs.{site}/api/v2/logs`. When api_key is set, it is sent as the DD-API-KEY request header; configuration validation rejects a target that has neither api_key nor url.

Batching and Retry

Events buffer until batch_size is reached, then POST as a single request. A failed POST does not retry the batch internally: the buffer is cleared unconditionally after Finalize, and delivery failure is surfaced to the sender pool, which handles redelivery through the JetStream layer. Retaining the batch locally in addition to that redelivery would duplicate events at the destination. Error responses include up to the first 1 MB of the response body for troubleshooting.

note

The target does not render Datadog's JSON schema — it only batches and delivers the payload it receives. Format the event as Datadog-compatible JSON before it reaches this target.

Examples

Basic Configuration

Sending JSON events to Datadog Cloud SIEM logs intake on the default US1 site...

targets: - name: datadog type: datadog properties: api_key: "${DATADOG_API_KEY}"

EU Site

Routing to the Datadog EU site instead of the US1 default...

targets: - name: datadog-eu type: datadog properties: api_key: "${DATADOG_API_KEY}" site: datadoghq.eu

Explicit Endpoint Override

Overriding the intake URL directly instead of deriving it from site...

targets: - name: datadog-custom type: datadog properties: url: "https://http-intake.logs.datadoghq.com/api/v2/logs" api_key: "${DATADOG_API_KEY}" batch_size: 500