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docs: add "what to explore next" after first steps #3058

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14 changes: 13 additions & 1 deletion docs/introduction/first_steps.md
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Expand Up @@ -123,6 +123,18 @@ You can experiment with the graph range parameters and other settings.

Collecting metrics from Prometheus alone isn't a great representation of Prometheus' capabilities. To get a better sense of what Prometheus can do, we recommend exploring documentation about other exporters. The [Monitoring Linux or macOS host metrics using a node exporter](/docs/guides/node-exporter) guide is a good place to start.

## What to explore next

Once the local server is scraping and you can run a few queries, these paths are useful next steps:

- **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`).
- **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.

The [Overview](/docs/introduction/overview) page maps how these pieces fit together.

## Summary

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.