How I Built a One-Command Observability Stack for Dokploy

Source: Dev.to

The Problem

Setting up proper observability is painful:

• Grafana, Tempo, Loki, and collectors each need separate configuration.
• Getting them to talk to each other requires networking magic.
• OpenTelemetry setup has a steep learning curve.
• Most tutorials assume you have infinite time to debug YAML.
• Dokploy’s Docker network adds another layer of complexity.

The Solution: Dokploy Grafana Compose

A pre‑configured monitoring stack that deploys alongside your Dokploy apps. Four services, one docker compose up, done.

# All four services on dokploy-network, pre‑wired
services:
  alloy:   # Collects traces, logs, metrics
  tempo:   # Stores traces
  loki:    # Stores logs
  grafana: # Visualizes everything

Your apps send telemetry to Alloy, and everything flows to the right place automatically.

How It Works

• Alloy receives data – OTLP receiver on ports 4317/4318 accepts traces, logs, and metrics from your apps.
• Data routes automatically – Traces go to Tempo, logs go to Loki, metrics go to Prometheus.
• Grafana correlates everything – See a slow request? Jump from trace to related logs instantly.
• Faro captures frontend – Browser‑side Real User Monitoring included on port 12347.

No configuration files to edit. Just deploy and instrument your apps.

Get Started in 30 Seconds

git clone https://github.com/quochuydev/dokploy-grafana-compose.git
cd dokploy-grafana-compose
docker compose up -d

This deploys:

• Grafana Alloy v1.11.3 – Unified telemetry collector with OTLP and Faro receivers.
• Tempo v2.9.0 – Distributed tracing backend.
• Loki v3.5.8 – Log aggregation system.
• Grafana v12.2.1 – Pre‑provisioned dashboards for traces and logs.

Stack Components

Instrumenting Your App

The repository includes a Node.js example. Key dependencies:

pnpm add @opentelemetry/sdk-node @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node \
  @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http @opentelemetry/exporter-logs-otlp-http

Initialize the SDK pointing to Alloy:

const { OTLPTraceExporter } = require('@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http');
const { OTLPLogExporter } = require('@opentelemetry/exporter-logs-otlp-http');

const traceExporter = new OTLPTraceExporter({ url: 'http://alloy:4318/v1/traces' });
const logExporter   = new OTLPLogExporter({   url: 'http://alloy:4318/v1/logs' });

Run the example:

(cd examples/node && pnpm start)

Why This Works

• Zero configuration – All services pre‑wired on dokploy-network, just deploy.
• Production versions – Uses stable releases of Grafana ecosystem tools.
• Auto‑restart – Containers use unless-stopped restart policy.
• Standard protocols – OTLP means any OpenTelemetry‑compatible app works.
• Frontend monitoring included – Faro receiver captures browser telemetry out of the box.

Try It

If you’re running Dokploy and want observability without the setup headache:

git clone https://github.com/quochuydev/dokploy-grafana-compose.git
cd dokploy-grafana-compose
docker compose up -d

Open Grafana at http://localhost:3000 and run the Node.js example to see traces flowing in.

GitHub:
Docs: Grafana • OpenTelemetry • Dokploy