---
title: "Connect Datadog to Rig — Rig guide"
description: "Connect Datadog to Rig with an API key and application key, and sync Service Level Objective definitions and daily SLI history."
canonical: "https://rig.so/guides/connect-datadog"
format: markdown
---

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# Connect Datadog to Rig

Rig pulls your Datadog Service Level Objectives and their daily history into your warehouse, so reliability targets can be compared with releases, incidents and customer data. It needs an API key and an application key.

## Before you start

- You need permission to create API keys and application keys in Datadog.
- The application key must belong to a user, or a service account, that holds the `slos_read` permission.
- Note the site you sign in on. If your address starts `app.datadoghq.eu`, your site is `datadoghq.eu`.

## Step 1: Create an API key and an application key

1. In Datadog, go to `Organization Settings` → `API Keys`, click `New Key`, name it and create it. Copy the key.
2. Go to `Organization Settings` → `Application Keys` and click `New Key`. Create it as a user or service account that has `slos_read`, then copy the key.

Scopes
Datadog lets you scope an application key to narrower permissions. If you scope this one, include the permission to read SLOs.

## Step 2: Connect it in Rig

New to Rig? Watch how to find Connections

Adding a source needs a workspace owner, or a role with the Manage connections permission, on a workspace where you manage your own connections. If the Connectors tab says “Data ingestion for this workspace is managed by Rig”, ask an owner or Rig support to add the source.

1. In Rig, open `Connections`, choose the `Connectors` tab and go to `Sources & actions`.
2. Search for **Datadog**, open the card and click `Connect`.
3. **API key**: the API key you created.
4. **Application key**: the application key you created.
5. **Datadog site**: choose the site you sign in on. It defaults to `datadoghq.com`, so leave it if that is your site.
6. Click `Continue`. Rig checks the credentials and lists the streams it can reach, so choose the ones you want and click `Connect`.
7. The source then syncs on its schedule, which is nightly unless you change it. To load data straight away, click `Sync` on its row; `Test` pulls a small sample first if you want to check the connection.

## What Rig pulls in

Datadog lands in its own `datadog` schema in your warehouse:

- **SLOs**: each objective's definition and its tags.
- **SLO history**: one row per SLO per day, with the overall SLI, its state and the time window, plus the daily numerator and denominator points for metric SLOs and the state changes for monitor SLOs.

## Good to know

- Each run re-reads the trailing history window (up to 90 days) for every SLO and merges it, so days that roll out of the window stay in your warehouse.
- The first run also reads earlier 90-day windows, so history reaches back about a year instead of starting on the day you connected. If Datadog refuses a window for one SLO, Rig skips it, names it in the run and asks again next time.
- Datadog rate limits the history endpoint for your whole organisation, and Rig makes one request per SLO. A large number of SLOs makes the first sync slower.
- Per-group and per-timeframe results are stored as JSON text columns, so a grouped SLO does not widen the table.
- To disconnect Datadog, click the bin icon on the source's row under `Sources & actions`. Only whoever connected the source or a workspace owner can do this, and data already synced stays in the warehouse.

## What people use this for

- Track reliability against each objective
- Spot SLOs that keep missing
- Organise objectives by team and service

[More ideas for using Datadog](https://rig.so/integrations/datadog)

## Datadog documentation

- [API and application keys](https://docs.datadoghq.com/account_management/api-app-keys/)
- [Service Level Objectives API](https://docs.datadoghq.com/api/latest/service-level-objectives/)

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