Configuration. Important, because without it the AppSignal Ruby gem won't know which application it's instrumenting or in which environment.

In this topic we'll explain how to configure AppSignal, what can be configured in the Ruby gem, what's the minimal configuration needed and how the configuration is loaded.

Table of Contents

• Minimal required configuration
• Configuration methods
  • YAML configuration file
  • System environment variables
• Configuration options
  • Ignore actions
  • Ignore errors
  • Parameter filtering
  • Session data filtering
• Configuration load order
• Example configuration file

Minimal required configuration

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# config/appsignal.yml
production:
  active: true
  push_api_key: "1234-1234-1234"
  name: "My app"

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# Environment variables
export APPSIGNAL_PUSH_API_KEY="1234-1234-1234"
export APPSIGNAL_APP_NAME="My app"
export APPSIGNAL_APP_ENV="production"

The above configuration options are the only required options. All other configuration is optional.

If you use Rails you can even skip the app name, we will use the name of your Rails application.

If you use a framework that is aware of environments and is supported by the AppSignal gem, the environment is detected automatically.

Configuration methods

YAML configuration file

The AppSignal Ruby gem can be configured with an configuration file. During installation the Ruby gem will create a config/appsignal.yml file, if selected. In this file some default configuration is supplied and can be modified to fit your application's needs. This config/appsignal.yml file supports ERB tags so that system environment variables can also be loaded in this file.

The config/appsignal.yml configuration examples shown for configuration options will use the default YAML anchor. The AppSignal installer will create an config/appsignal.yml file with this anchor by default. If not present, make sure you add the config option to the correct environment.

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# config/appsignal.yml
# Define the "defaults" anchor
default: &defaults
  name: "My app"
  # Supports ERB
  push_api_key: "<%= ENV['APPSIGNAL_PUSH_API_KEY'] %>"

production:
  # Loads the defaults in the production environment by referencing the anchor
  <<: *defaults
  # production environment specific configuration
  active: true

System environment variable

An alternative way of configuring AppSignal is by using system environment variables on the host the application AppSignal is monitoring is running on. This is common on platforms such as Heroku.

Make sure these environment variables are configured in the way that's compatible with your Operating System and that the values get loaded before your app with AppSignal is started.

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export APPSIGNAL_APP_NAME="My app"

Example configuration file

Here's an example of an appsignal.yml configuration file. It's recommended you only add the configuration you need to your configuration file.

For the full list of options, please see the configuration options page.

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# config/appsignal.yml
default: &defaults
  # Your push api key, it is possible to set this dynamically using ERB:
  # push_api_key: "<%= ENV['APPSIGNAL_PUSH_API_KEY'] %>"
  push_api_key: "65c91e2f-c0f2-4005-8064-ffffec5f7b20"

  # Your app's name
  name: "My App"

  # Your server's hostname
  hostname: "frontend1.myapp.com"

  # Add default instrumentation of net/http
  instrument_net_http: true

  # Skip session data, it contains private information.
  skip_session_data: true

  # Ignore these errors.
  ignore_errors:
    - SystemExit

  # Ignore these actions, used by our Loadbalancer.
  ignore_actions:
    - IsUpController#index

  # Enable allocation tracking for memory metrics:
  enable_allocation_tracking: true

  # Enable Garbage Collection instrumentation
  enable_gc_instrumentation: true

# Configuration per environment, leave out an environment or set active
# to false to not push metrics for that environment.
development:
  <<: *defaults
  active: true
  debug: true

staging:
  <<: *defaults
  active: <%= ENV['APPSIGNAL_ACTIVE'] == 'true' %>

production:
  <<: *defaults
  active: <%= ENV['APPSIGNAL_ACTIVE'] == 'true' %>

  # Set different path for the log file
  log_path: '/home/my_app/app/shared/log'

  # Set AppSignal working dir
  working_dir_path: '/tmp/appsignal'

  # When it's not possible to connect to the outside world without a proxy
  http_proxy: 'proxy.mydomain.com:8080'