{beatname_uc} supports autodiscover based on hints from the provider. The `hints` system looks for
hints in Kubernetes Pod annotations or Docker labels which have the prefix `co.elastic.metrics`. As soon as
the container starts, {beatname_uc} will check if it contains any hints and launch the proper config for
it. Hints tell {beatname_uc} how to get metrics for the given container. This is the full list of supported hints:

[float]
===== `co.elastic.metrics/module`

{beatname_uc} module to use to fetch metrics. See <<metricbeat-modules>> for the list of supported modules.

[float]
===== `co.elastic.metrics/hosts`

Hosts setting to use with the given module. Hosts can include `${data.host}` and `${data.port}`
values from the autodiscover event, ie: `${data.host}:80`.

[float]
===== `co.elastic.metrics/metricsets`

List of metricsets to use, comma separated. If no metricsets are provided, default metricsets for the module
are used.

[float]
===== `co.elastic.metrics/period`

The time interval for metrics retrieval, ie: 10s

[float]
===== `co.elastic.metrics/timeout`

Metrics retrieval timeout, default: 3s

[float]
===== `co.elastic.metrics/ssl.*`

SSL parameters, as seen in <<configuration-ssl>>.

[float]
===== `co.elastic.logs/raw`
When an entire module configuration needs to be completely set the `raw` hint can be used. You can provide a
stringified JSON of the input configuration. `raw` overrides every other hint and can be used to create bot a single or
a list of configurations.

["source","yaml",subs="attributes"]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
co.elastic.metrics/raw: "[{\"enabled\":true,\"metricsets\":[\"default\"],\"module\":\"mockmoduledefaults\",\"period\":\"1m\",\"timeout\":\"3s\"}]"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[float]
===== `co.elastic.metrics/processors`

Define a processor to be added to the {beatname_uc} module configuration. See <<filtering-and-enhancing-data>> for the list
of supported processors.

In order to provide ordering of the processor definition, numbers can be provided. If not, the hints builder will do
arbitrary ordering:

["source","yaml",subs="attributes"]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
co.elastic.logs/processors.1.add_locale.abbrevation: "MST"
co.elastic.logs/processors.add_locale.abbrevation: "PST"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the above sample the processor definition tagged with `1` would be executed first.

[float]
=== Kubernetes

Kubernetes autodiscover provider supports hints in Pod annotations. To enable it just set `hints.enabled`:

["source","yaml",subs="attributes"]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
metricbeat.autodiscover:
  providers:
    - type: kubernetes
      hints.enabled: true
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This configuration enables the `hints` autodiscover for Kubernetes. The `hints` system looks for
hints in Kubernetes annotations or Docker labels which have the prefix `co.elastic.metrics`.

You can annotate Kubernetes Pods with useful info to spin up {beatname_uc} modules:

["source","yaml",subs="attributes"]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
annotations:
  co.elastic.metrics/module: prometheus
  co.elastic.metrics/metricsets: collector
  co.elastic.metrics/hosts: '${data.host}:9090'
  co.elastic.metrics/period: 1m
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above annotations are used to spin up a Prometheus collector metricset and it polls the
parent container on port `9090` at a 1 minute interval.

[float]
===== Multiple containers

When a Pod has multiple containers, these settings are shared. To set hints specific to a container in
the pod you can put the container name in the hint.

When a pod has multiple containers, the settings are shared unless you put the container name in the
hint. For example, these hints configure a common behavior for all containers in the Pod, and sets a specific
`hosts` hint for the container called `sidecar`.

["source","yaml",subs="attributes"]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
annotations:
  co.elastic.metrics/module: apache
  co.elastic.metrics/hosts: '${data.host}:80'
  co.elastic.metrics.sidecar/hosts: '${data.host}:8080'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[float]
=== Docker

Docker autodiscover provider supports hints in labels. To enable it just set `hints.enabled`:

["source","yaml",subs="attributes"]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
metricbeat.autodiscover:
  providers:
    - type: docker
      hints.enabled: true
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can label Docker containers with useful info to spin up {beatname_uc} modules, for example:

["source","yaml",subs="attributes"]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  co.elastic.metrics/module: nginx
  co.elastic.metrics/metricsets: stubstatus
  co.elastic.metrics/hosts: '${data.host}:80'
  co.elastic.metrics/period: 10s
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above labels would allow {beatname_uc} to configure a Prometheus collector to poll port `9090`
of the Docker container every 1 minute.