Agent Install

What it does

When your agent uses it

• No agent is installed yet
• Tasks that involve Monitoring and alerting

Example prompts

• “/agent-install”

Requirements

• Python 3
• A credential in DD_API_KEY
• A credential in SSH_KEY

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

1. 1Load Credentials
2. 2Gather Infrastructure Info
3. 3Install the Datadog Agent with SSI
4. 4Verify the Agent is Running and Healthy
5. 5Discover Services That Need Restarting

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 5b40c73. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • ssh
  • curl
  • yum
  • bash

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

  • install.datadoghq.com

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names these keys or tokens, usually read from environment variables:

  • SSH_KEY
  • DD_API_KEY
  • NEW_API_KEY

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Agent Install loads about 2.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 56 tokens; SKILL.md has 868 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~56

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~2.7k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:138

  rmission error — ensure the SSH user has sudo access. The install script requires root.

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:163

  (sudo systemctl restart datadog-agent 2>/dev/null || sudo service datadog-agent restart)"

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:169

  emctl start datadog-agent 2>/dev/null && sudo systemctl enable datadog-agent 2>/dev/null || sudo service datadog-agent s

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:175

  "ls /opt/datadog-packages/ && sudo datadog-installer status 2>/dev/null | grep apm | head -10"

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:205

  echo \"hostname: ${ACTUAL_HOSTNAME}\" | sudo tee -a /etc/datadog-agent/datadog.yaml"

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:209

  ctl restart datadog-agent 2>/dev/null || sudo service datadog-agent restart"

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:226

  "sudo ss -lntp 2>/dev/null || sudo netstat -tlnp 2>/dev/null || cat /proc/net/tcp"

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:234

  sudo cat /proc/<PID>/cmdline | tr '\0' ' '

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:236

  sudo systemctl status <PID> 2>/dev/null | head -3 || true

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:238

  PPID=\$(sudo awk '/PPid/ {print \$2}' /proc/<PID>/status)

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from datadog-labs/agent-skills at commit 5b40c73, republished under its MIT licence (© datadog-labs). 868 words, ~2,659 tokens.

name

agent-install

description

Install the Datadog Agent on Linux hosts via SSH with Single Step Instrumentation (SSI) enabled — SSI automatically instruments applications for APM without code changes. Only use if no agent is installed yet.

metadata.version

1.0.0

metadata.author

datadog-labs

metadata.repository

https://github.com/datadog-labs/agent-skills

metadata.tags

datadog,apm,linux,agent,install,ssi,ssh

metadata.alwaysApply

false

[ -f environment ] && source environment
echo "DD_API_KEY set: $([ -n "${DD_API_KEY:-}" ] && echo yes || echo no)"
echo "DD_SITE: ${DD_SITE:-not set}"

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> "hostname"

Here's what I'm going to do:
  1. Install the Datadog Agent with SSI on: <host1>, <host2>, ...
  2. Verify each agent is running and healthy
  3. Discover services on each host that need restarting for SSI to take effect
  4. After you restart services, verify instrumentation is working

Ready to proceed?

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "uname -m && cat /etc/os-release | grep -E '^(ID|VERSION_ID|PRETTY_NAME)='"

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "DD_API_KEY=${DD_API_KEY} DD_SITE=${DD_SITE} DD_APM_INSTRUMENTATION_ENABLED=host bash -c \"\$(curl -L https://install.datadoghq.com/scripts/install_script_agent7.sh)\""

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "apt-get install -y curl 2>/dev/null || yum install -y curl"

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "sudo datadog-agent status 2>&1 | head -40"

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "sudo sed -i 's/^api_key:.*/api_key: <NEW_API_KEY>/' /etc/datadog-agent/datadog.yaml && \
   (sudo systemctl restart datadog-agent 2>/dev/null || sudo service datadog-agent restart)"

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "sudo systemctl start datadog-agent 2>/dev/null && sudo systemctl enable datadog-agent 2>/dev/null || sudo service datadog-agent start"

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "ls /opt/datadog-packages/ && sudo datadog-installer status 2>/dev/null | grep apm | head -10"

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "sudo datadog-installer remove datadog-apm-inject && \
   DD_API_KEY=${DD_API_KEY} DD_SITE=${DD_SITE} DD_APM_INSTRUMENTATION_ENABLED=host bash -c \"\$(curl -L https://install.datadoghq.com/scripts/install_script_agent7.sh)\""

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "sudo datadog-agent status 2>&1 | grep -iE '^\s+Hostname' | head -3"

# Read the actual system hostname
ACTUAL_HOSTNAME=$(ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> "hostname")

# Append to datadog.yaml only if not already set
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "grep -q '^hostname:' /etc/datadog-agent/datadog.yaml || \
   echo \"hostname: ${ACTUAL_HOSTNAME}\" | sudo tee -a /etc/datadog-agent/datadog.yaml"

# Restart the Agent
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "sudo systemctl restart datadog-agent 2>/dev/null || sudo service datadog-agent restart"

# Confirm hostname is now registered
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "sudo datadog-agent status 2>&1 | grep -iE '^\s+Hostname' | head -2"

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> \
  "sudo ss -lntp 2>/dev/null || sudo netstat -tlnp 2>/dev/null || cat /proc/net/tcp"

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i <SSH_KEY> <SSH_USER>@<SSH_HOST> "
# Command line of the process
sudo cat /proc/<PID>/cmdline | tr '\0' ' '
# Service manager (may not be available in all environments)
sudo systemctl status <PID> 2>/dev/null | head -3 || true
# Parent process
PPID=\$(sudo awk '/PPid/ {print \$2}' /proc/<PID>/status)
sudo cat /proc/\$PPID/cmdline | tr '\0' ' '
"

I found the following application services on <host>:

  Port 8080 — PID 1234 — /usr/bin/python3 /app/server.py
    Managed by: systemd unit flask-app.service

  Port 3000 — PID 5678 — node /app/server.js
    Managed by: supervisord

These services need to be restarted for Datadog SSI to inject into them.
Restart them however is appropriate for your environment, then let me know
and I'll verify the instrumentation.

© datadog-labs, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in dd-apm/linux-ssi/agent-install of datadog-labs/agent-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 5b40c73