Explore documentation
  1. Welcome to Telemetry 👋
  2. Quick start guide
  3. Wide events vs. metrics
  4. Ingesting data
    1. Better Stack collector
    2. OpenTelemetry
    3. Vector
    4. Ingesting via HTTP API
    5. Ingesting metrics
    6. Ingesting logs
    7. Migrating to Better Stack
  5. Using the product
    1. AI SRE ↗
    2. MCP server ↗
    3. Transforming ingested data
    4. Querying data
    5. Tracing
    6. Grafana
    7. Alerts
  6. Telemetry API
    1. Getting an API token
    2. Sources & collectors
      1. Sources API
        1. List all sources GET
        2. Get a single source GET
        3. Create a source POST
        4. Update a source PATCH
        5. Remove a source DELETE
        6. Connect to AWS PATCH
        7. Connect to GCP PATCH
        8. Log group subscriptions GET
      2. Collectors API
      3. Collector metrics targets API
      4. Metrics API
      5. Source groups API
    3. Dashboards
    4. Explorations
    5. Alerts API
    6. Connections API
    7. Query API ↗
    8. Usage API ↗
  7. Alternative to
    1. Lightstep

Get a single source

Get a single source by its ID.

GET https://telemetry.betterstack.com/api/v2/sources/{source_id}

URL parameters

id
required string

The ID of the source you want to get

Headers

Authorization
required string

Bearer $TOKEN

200

Returns the source.

Response body

{
  "data": {
    "id": "95",
    "type": "source",
    "attributes": {
      "source_group_id": 456,
      "team_id": 123,
      "team_name": "Test team",
      "name": "Nginx",
      "platform": "nginx",
      "table_name": "nginx",
      "token": "FczKcxEhjEDE58dBX7XaeX1q",
      "ingesting_paused": false,
      "ingesting_host": "s95.eu-nbg-2.betterstackdata.com",
      "created_at": "2026-05-27T12:30:41.695Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-06-11T14:00:50.756Z",
      "logs_retention": 7,
      "metrics_retention": 14,
      "live_tail_pattern": "{level} {host} {nginx.status} {nginx.method} {nginx.host} {nginx.path} {nginx.client} {nginx.agent} {message}",
      "data_region": "eu-nbg-2",
      "custom_bucket": {
        "name": "storage-bucket",
        "endpoint": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/storage-bucket",
        "access_key_id": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
        "keep_data_after_retention": false
      },
      "vrl_transformation_logs": ".message = upcase!(.message)\n.",
      "vrl_transformation_spans": "",
      "blocked_metrics": []
    }
  }
}
404

Your team doesn't have a source with this ID

Response body

{
  "errors": "Resource with provided ID was not found"
}

Response attributes

id
string

The ID of the source.

type
string

The resource type, always source.

attributes.source_group_id
integer or null

The ID of the source group the source belongs to, or null when the source isn't in a group.

attributes.team_id
integer

The ID of the team that owns the source.

attributes.team_name
string

The name of the team that owns the source.

attributes.name
string

The name of the source.

attributes.platform
string

The platform of the source, for example nginx.

attributes.table_name
string

The table name used to query the source's data.

attributes.token
string

The source token that authenticates data sent to the source.

attributes.ingesting_paused
boolean

Whether ingesting is paused for the source.

attributes.ingesting_host
string or null

The host to send the source's data to, or null for the prometheus_scrape and cloudflare_prometheus_exporter platforms, where Better Stack scrapes the data instead.

attributes.created_at
string

When the source was created, as an ISO 8601 date-time in UTC.

attributes.updated_at
string

When the source was last updated, as an ISO 8601 date-time in UTC.

attributes.aws_auto_sub_log_groups
boolean

Whether Better Stack automatically subscribes newly discovered Amazon CloudWatch log groups, present only for aws sources.

attributes.logs_retention
integer

Data retention for logs in days.

attributes.metrics_retention
integer

Data retention for metrics in days.

attributes.live_tail_pattern
string or null

The live tail message format with columns wrapped in {column} brackets, or null when the source uses the default format.

attributes.scrape_urls
array

The URLs Better Stack scrapes, present only for the prometheus_scrape and cloudflare_prometheus_exporter platforms.

attributes.scrape_frequency_secs
integer

How often the URLs are scraped in seconds, one of 15, 30, 60, 120 or 300, present only for the prometheus_scrape and cloudflare_prometheus_exporter platforms.

attributes.scrape_request_headers
array

Request headers sent with each scrape as objects with name and value fields, present only for the prometheus_scrape and cloudflare_prometheus_exporter platforms.

attributes.scrape_request_basic_auth_user
string or null

The basic auth username for scraping or null when none is set, present only for the prometheus_scrape and cloudflare_prometheus_exporter platforms.

attributes.scrape_request_basic_auth_password
string or null

The basic auth password for scraping or null when none is set, present only for the prometheus_scrape and cloudflare_prometheus_exporter platforms and left out for a source shared with your team by another team.

attributes.skip_ssl_verify
boolean

Whether SSL/TLS certificate verification is skipped when scraping, present only for the prometheus_scrape and cloudflare_prometheus_exporter platforms.

attributes.data_region
string

The storage region of the source's data, for example eu-nbg-2.

attributes.custom_bucket
object or null

The custom S3-compatible bucket that hosts the source's data, or null when the source uses Better Stack storage.

attributes.custom_bucket.name
string

The name of the bucket.

attributes.custom_bucket.endpoint
string

The full URL endpoint of the bucket.

attributes.custom_bucket.access_key_id
string

The access key ID used to access the bucket, whose secret access key is never returned.

attributes.custom_bucket.keep_data_after_retention
boolean

Whether data stays in the bucket after the retention period.

attributes.vrl_transformation_logs
string

The VRL code applied to logs during ingestion, including a platform default, or an empty string when there's none.

attributes.vrl_transformation_spans
string

The VRL code applied to traces during ingestion, or an empty string when there's none.

attributes.blocked_metrics
array

Metric names marked as spam, which are rejected during ingestion and aren't billed.

Example cURL

Example
curl --request GET \
  --url https://telemetry.betterstack.com/api/v2/sources/123 \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"


Previous article

List all sources

Next article

Create a source