Skip to main content

Node Capabilities

Node capabilities describe what an agent on a given machine can actually do.

Why They Matter​

Capabilities help Blackbox avoid treating every node as identical. They power:

  • Source setup defaults.
  • Node-specific source availability in the admin UI.
  • Better operator expectations about what a node should emit.

Current Capability Areas​

The current built-in model is centered on:

  • docker
  • systemd
  • filewatcher

How They Are Reported​

Agents report capabilities to the server, and the server stores them with node metadata. Some legacy fallback behavior exists for nodes that do not yet have a stored capability set.

Operational Use​

When debugging a missing source or empty event stream, node capabilities are one of the first things to inspect.