---
title: Add process metadata
description: The add_process_metadata processor enriches events with information from running processes, identified by their process ID (PID). The fields added to...
url: https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/beats/packetbeat/add-process-metadata
products:
  - Beats
  - Packetbeat
applies_to:
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available
---

# Add process metadata
The `add_process_metadata` processor enriches events with information from running processes, identified by their process ID (PID).
```yaml
processors:
  - add_process_metadata:
      match_pids:
        - process.pid
```

The fields added to the event look as follows:
```json
{
  "container": {
    "id": "b5285682fba7449c86452b89a800609440ecc88a7ba5f2d38bedfb85409b30b1"
  },
  "process": {
    "args": [
      "/usr/lib/systemd/systemd",
      "--switched-root",
      "--system",
      "--deserialize",
      "22"
    ],
    "executable": "/usr/lib/systemd/systemd",
    "name": "systemd",
    "owner": {
      "id": "0",
      "name": "root"
    },
    "parent": {
      "pid": 0
    },
    "pid": 1,
    "start_time": "2018-08-22T08:44:50.684Z",
    "title": "/usr/lib/systemd/systemd --switched-root --system --deserialize 22"
  }
}
```

Optionally, the process environment can be included, too:
```json
  ...
  "env": {
    "HOME":       "/",
    "TERM":       "linux",
    "BOOT_IMAGE": "/boot/vmlinuz-4.11.8-300.fc26.x86_64",
    "LANG":       "en_US.UTF-8",
  }
  ...
```

It has the following settings:
<definitions>
  <definition term="match_pids">
    List of fields to lookup for a PID. The processor will search the list sequentially until the field is found in the current event, and the PID lookup will be applied to the value of this field.
  </definition>
  <definition term="target">
    (Optional) Destination prefix where the `process` object will be created. The default is the event’s root.
  </definition>
  <definition term="include_fields">
    (Optional) List of fields to add. By default, the processor will add all the available fields except `process.env`.
  </definition>
  <definition term="ignore_missing">
    (Optional) When set to `false`, events that don’t contain any of the fields in match_pids will be discarded and an error will be generated. By default, this condition is ignored.
  </definition>
  <definition term="overwrite_keys">
    (Optional) By default, if a target field already exists, it will not be overwritten, and an error will be logged. If `overwrite_keys` is set to `true`, this condition will be ignored.
  </definition>
  <definition term="restricted_fields">
    (Optional) By default, the `process.env` field is not output, to avoid leaking sensitive data. If `restricted_fields` is `true`, the field will be present in the output.
  </definition>
  <definition term="host_path">
    (Optional) By default, the `host_path` field is set to the root directory of the host `/`. This is the path where `/proc` is mounted. For different runtime configurations of Kubernetes or Docker, the `host_path` can be set to overwrite the default.
  </definition>
  <definition term="cgroup_prefixes">
    (Optional) List of prefixes that will be matched against cgroup paths. When a cgroup path begins with a prefix in the list, then the last element of the path is returned as the container ID. Only one of `cgroup_prefixes` and `cgroup_rexex` should be configured. If neither are configured then a default `cgroup_regex` value is used that matches cgroup paths containing 64-character container IDs (like those from Docker, Kubernetes, and Podman).
  </definition>
  <definition term="cgroup_regex">
    (Optional) A regular expression that will be matched against cgroup paths. It must contain one capturing group. When a cgroup path matches the regular expression then the value of the capturing group is returned as the container ID.  Only one of `cgroup_prefixes` and `cgroup_rexex` should be configured. If neither are configured then a default `cgroup_regex` value is used that matches cgroup paths containing 64-character container IDs (like those from Docker, Kubernetes, and Podman).
  </definition>
  <definition term="cgroup_cache_expire_time">
    (Optional) By default, the `cgroup_cache_expire_time` is set to 30 seconds. This is the length of time before cgroup cache elements expire in seconds. It can be set to 0 to disable the cgroup cache. In some container runtimes technology like runc, the container’s process is also process in the host kernel, and will be affected by PID rollover/reuse. The expire time needs to set smaller than the PIDs wrap around time to avoid wrong container id.
  </definition>
</definitions>