
Logs Without the Regret, Part 1: How Loki and Alloy Fit Into OpenTelemetry
Most log pipelines weren't chosen so much as inherited, and the bill nobody can fully explain traces back to a single decision: what you put in the index. Loki's native OTLP endpoint splits log data into a small set of indexed labels and unlimited structured metadata, and Grafana Alloy gives you a server-side place to decide which is which. Here's why traditional pipelines break on cardinality, what the native endpoint actually changes, and where the collector tier still earns its keep.


