# DogStatsD Wire Protocol

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/apis/statsd/dogstatsd-wire-protocol/  
**Provider:** StatsD — https://apis.io/providers/statsd/  
**Documentation:** https://github.com/statsd/statsd/blob/master/docs/metric_types.md

DogStatsD Wire Protocol is one of 8 APIs that [StatsD](https://apis.io/providers/statsd/) publishes on the [APIs.io](https://apis.io/) network, described by an AsyncAPI event-driven specification. This API exposes 2 JSON Schema definitions. Tagged areas include Datadog, Distributions, DogStatsD, Event, and Histograms. The published artifact set on APIs.io includes API documentation, an AsyncAPI specification, and 2 JSON Schemas.

DogStatsD is the Datadog Agent's StatsD-compatible ingestion protocol. It is a strict superset of the StatsD wire format that adds first-class tag syntax (`|#k:v,k:v`), histogram (`|h`) and distribution (`|d`) metric types, events (`_e{title.len,text.len}:title|text|...`), service checks (`_sc|name|status|...`), and Unix Domain Socket transport in addition to UDP/8125. Wide adoption beyond Datadog itself — Stripe Veneur, Atlassian gostatsd, Telegraf, and Shopify's statsd-instrument all speak DogStatsD — has made it the de facto modern dialect of the StatsD line protocol.

## Machine-readable artifacts (8)

- **Documentation** — https://github.com/statsd/statsd/blob/master/docs/metric_types.md
- **AsyncAPI** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/statsd/refs/heads/main/asyncapi/dogstatsd-wire-protocol-asyncapi.yml
- **JSONSchema** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/statsd/refs/heads/main/json-schema/dogstatsd-event-schema.json
- **JSONSchema** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/statsd/refs/heads/main/json-schema/dogstatsd-service-check-schema.json
- **Examples** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/statsd/refs/heads/main/examples/dogstatsd-tagged-counter-example.json
- **Examples** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/statsd/refs/heads/main/examples/dogstatsd-distribution-example.json
- **Examples** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/statsd/refs/heads/main/examples/dogstatsd-event-example.json
- **Examples** — https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/statsd/refs/heads/main/examples/dogstatsd-service-check-example.json

## Other StatsD APIs (7)

- [StatsD Wire Protocol](https://apis.io/apis/statsd/statsd-wire-protocol/)
- [StatsD Configuration API](https://apis.io/apis/statsd/statsd-configuration-api/)
- [StatsD Counters API](https://apis.io/apis/statsd/statsd-counters-api/)
- [StatsD Gauges API](https://apis.io/apis/statsd/statsd-gauges-api/)
- [StatsD Health API](https://apis.io/apis/statsd/statsd-health-api/)
- [StatsD Stats API](https://apis.io/apis/statsd/statsd-stats-api/)
- [StatsD Timers API](https://apis.io/apis/statsd/statsd-timers-api/)

## Tags

Datadog, Distributions, DogStatsD, Event, Histograms, Service Checks, Tags, Unix Domain Socket, Wire Protocol

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/apis/statsd/dogstatsd-wire-protocol/). The API's provider profile, Kin Score and agent-readiness rating are at https://apis.io/providers/statsd/.