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# Beats - The Lightweight Shippers of the Elastic Stack
The [Beats](https://www.elastic.co/beats) are lightweight data
shippers, written in Go, that you install on your servers to capture all sorts
of operational data (think of logs, metrics, or network packet data). The Beats
send the operational data to Elasticsearch, either directly or via Logstash, so
it can be visualized with Kibana.
By "lightweight", we mean that Beats have a small installation footprint, use
limited system resources, and have no runtime dependencies.
This repository contains
[libbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/main/libbeat), our Go
framework for creating Beats, and all the officially supported Beats:
Beat | Description
--- | ---
[Auditbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/main/auditbeat) | Collect your Linux audit framework data and monitor the integrity of your files.
[Filebeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/main/filebeat) | Tails and ships log files
[Heartbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/main/heartbeat) | Ping remote services for availability
[Metricbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/main/metricbeat) | Fetches sets of metrics from the operating system and services
[Packetbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/main/packetbeat) | Monitors the network and applications by sniffing packets
[Winlogbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/main/winlogbeat) | Fetches and ships Windows Event logs
[Osquerybeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/main/x-pack/osquerybeat) | Runs Osquery and manages interaction with it.
In addition to the above Beats, which are officially supported by
[Elastic](https://elastic.co), the community has created a set of other Beats
that make use of libbeat but live outside of this GitHub repository. We maintain
a list of community Beats
[here](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/libbeat/master/community-beats.html).
## Documentation and Getting Started
You can find the documentation and getting started guides for each of the Beats
on the [elastic.co site](https://www.elastic.co/guide/):
* [Beats platform](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/libbeat/current/index.html)
* [Auditbeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/auditbeat/current/index.html)
* [Filebeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/index.html)
* [Heartbeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/heartbeat/current/index.html)
* [Metricbeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/metricbeat/current/index.html)
* [Packetbeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/packetbeat/current/index.html)
* [Winlogbeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/winlogbeat/current/index.html)
## Documentation and Getting Started information for the Elastic Agent
You can find the documentation and getting started guides for the Elastic Agent
on the [elastic.co site](https://www.elastic.co/downloads/elastic-agent)
## Getting Help
If you need help or hit an issue, please start by opening a topic on our
[discuss forums](https://discuss.elastic.co/c/beats). Please note that we
reserve GitHub tickets for confirmed bugs and enhancement requests.
## Downloads
You can download pre-compiled Beats binaries, as well as packages for the
supported platforms, from [this page](https://www.elastic.co/downloads/beats).
## Contributing
We'd love working with you! You can help make the Beats better in many ways:
report issues, help us reproduce issues, fix bugs, add functionality, or even
create your own Beat.
Please start by reading our [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md) file.
## AI Coding Agents
Repository instructions for AI coding agents are in [AGENTS.md](AGENTS.md).
To use it, copy it to the agent-specific filename: CLAUDE.md, GEMINI.md,
and similar files, which are ignored by Git.
## Building Beats from the Source
See our [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md) file for information about setting up
your dev environment to build Beats from the source.
## Snapshots
For testing purposes, we generate snapshot builds that you can find [here](https://artifacts-api.elastic.co/v1/search/8.0-SNAPSHOT/). Please be aware that these are built on top of main and are not meant for production.
## CI
### PR Comments
It is possible to trigger some jobs by putting a comment on a GitHub PR.
(This service is only available for users affiliated with Elastic and not for open-source contributors.)
* [beats CI pipeline](https://buildkite.com/elastic/beats)
* `/test` will kick off a default build.
* [docs CI pipeline](https://buildkite.com/elastic/docs-build-pr)
* `run docs-build` will kick off a docs build.
### PR Labels
It's possible to configure the build on a GitHub PR by labeling the PR with certain labels. Elastic users can find more details at https://docs.elastic.dev/ingest-dev-docs/beats/beats-ci.