elastic / elastic/elastic-agent
[heartbeat] Literal dots in browser params are not preserved
@macdewee is already working on this.
Since Sep 17, 2026.
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- Go
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Description
Summary
Process-mode Heartbeat has explicit handling that extracts browser params before dot-expanding parsing and restores them using PathSep(""):
https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/main/x-pack/heartbeat/cmd/root.go#L30-L107
The receiver path bypasses heartbeatCfg and later parses the receiver map using ucfg.PathSep("."):
https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/main/x-pack/libbeat/cmd/instance/beat.go#L77-L81
A local reproduction using that receiver parser configuration produced:
input params: {"subdomain.example.com": "literal-value"}
decoded params: {"subdomain":{"example":{"com":"literal-value"}}}
The existing process-mode fix for elastic/beats#51685 is therefore not effective in OTel receiver mode.
Expected
params["subdomain.example.com"] remains a literal parameter name.
Actual
It becomes the nested path params.subdomain.example.com.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the receiver parsing entry point in x-pack/libbeat/cmd/instance/beat.go#L77-L81, then compare it with the process-mode handling in x-pack/heartbeat/cmd/root.go#L30-L107. Reproduce the receiver-mode case and verify that params["subdomain.example.com"] remains a literal parameter name rather than becoming nested path components.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- go
- Domain
- backend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 72/100