influxdata/telegraf

feat: Support YAML as format for the config file

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#16910 opened on Apr 30, 2025

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area/configurationfeature requesthelp wantedsize/l

Description

Use Case

Hi,

we are doing a lot of our configuration using YAML (since we're using Kubernetes), and we would like it to be possible to also use YAML as a file format for the Telegraf config file.

I know there is a large amount of dependencies on TOML, so this might be difficult/a lot of work.

Possible way to implement this, might be to use Viper for the configuration loading and Cobra for the commands https://github.com/spf13/viper https://github.com/spf13/cobra

Expected behavior

Possible to use YAML for the config file.

Actual behavior

Only TOML is supported/

Additional info

No response

Contributor guide

Tech stack
go
Domain
backend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Go programmingConfiguration file formats (TOML, YAML)Viper library (spf13/viper)
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
25
Research direction
The feature request suggests using Viper (github.com/spf13/viper) and Cobra (github.com/spf13/cobra) to support YAML config files. The current config loading is TOML only, likely in the internal/config package. Investigate the current config parsing flow (e.g., config.NewConfig or similar). Look for any prior discussions or PRs about YAML support. Assess the impact on existing TOML based configurations. Contact maintainers via the issue to clarify if a full transition to Viper is acceptable or if a lighter approach is preferred. This is a large scope feature requiring significant refactoring.