docs: add "what to explore next" after first steps - #3058
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The first-steps guide ends abruptly after self-scraping. Add a short next-steps section with concrete links (exporters, SD, alerting, dashboards, OTel) for people asking what to do after the basics. Fixes prometheus#3032 Signed-off-by: Dean Chen <862469039@qq.com>
jan--f
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Sep 2, 2026
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Nice addition, but I have a few proposals.
| - **More targets:** install exporters for the systems you care about (hosts, databases, HTTP endpoints). Start with the [node exporter guide](/docs/guides/node-exporter) and the [list of exporters](/docs/instrumenting/exporters). | ||
| - **Service discovery:** replace static `targets` lists with discovery (Kubernetes, cloud, file-based, and more). See [configuration](/docs/operating/configuration) and the [file-based SD guide](/docs/guides/file-sd). | ||
| - **Alerting:** define recording and alerting rules, then send notifications with [Alertmanager](/docs/alerting/). | ||
| - **Visualization:** point Grafana (or another dashboard) at Prometheus as a data source (`http://localhost:9090`). |
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| - **Visualization:** point Grafana (or another dashboard) at Prometheus as a data source (`http://localhost:9090`). | |
| - **Visualization:** point [Grafana](https://prometheus.io/docs/visualization/grafana/) or [Perses](https://prometheus.io/docs/visualization/perses/) at your Prometheus endpoint (`http://localhost:9090`). |
| - **Service discovery:** replace static `targets` lists with discovery (Kubernetes, cloud, file-based, and more). See [configuration](/docs/operating/configuration) and the [file-based SD guide](/docs/guides/file-sd). | ||
| - **Alerting:** define recording and alerting rules, then send notifications with [Alertmanager](/docs/alerting/). | ||
| - **Visualization:** point Grafana (or another dashboard) at Prometheus as a data source (`http://localhost:9090`). | ||
| - **Applications and OpenTelemetry:** instrument with a [client library](/docs/instrumenting/clientlibs), or see [OpenTelemetry](/docs/guides/opentelemetry) if you are coming from OTLP—Prometheus still scrapes metrics HTTP endpoints the same way as in this guide. |
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The OTLP part here doesn't make sense to me.
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| - **Applications and OpenTelemetry:** instrument with a [client library](/docs/instrumenting/clientlibs), or see [OpenTelemetry](/docs/guides/opentelemetry) if you are coming from OTLP—Prometheus still scrapes metrics HTTP endpoints the same way as in this guide. | |
| - **Applications:** instrument with an application with a suitable [client library](/docs/instrumenting/clientlibs) |
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| ## What to explore next | ||
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| Once the local server is scraping and you can run a few queries, these paths are useful next steps: |
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| Once the local server is scraping and you can run a few queries, these paths are useful next steps: | |
| In this guide, you installed Prometheus, configured a Prometheus instance to monitor resources, and learned some basics of working with time series data in Prometheus' expression browser. To continue learning about Prometheus, check out the [Overview](/docs/introduction/overview) or explore these next steps: |
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| ## Summary | ||
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| In this guide, you installed Prometheus, configured a Prometheus instance to monitor resources, and learned some basics of working with time series data in Prometheus' expression browser. To continue learning about Prometheus, check out the [Overview](/docs/introduction/overview) for some ideas about what to explore next. | ||
| In this guide, you installed Prometheus, configured a Prometheus instance to monitor resources, and learned some basics of working with time series data in Prometheus' expression browser. Use the links above (and the [Overview](/docs/introduction/overview)) to pick the next area to dig into. |
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We can add the summary as an intro to the new section and drop this part completely.
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After self-scraping and a couple of queries, the guide did not really say what to do next. Added a short section with concrete links (exporters, SD, alerting, dashboards, OTel) so people landing from a first install have a clearer path.
Fixes #3032