switching out promtail for alloy (#22)

* rework grafana log ingestion using alloy

* fix docker-compose.yml formatting

files/loki/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+# Loki Configuration
+
+This directory contains the configuration for Grafana Loki, which serves as the log storage and aggregation system in this environment.
+
+## Overview
+
+Loki is a horizontally-scalable, highly-available, multi-tenant log aggregation system designed by Grafana Labs. It is optimized for efficiently storing and querying logs from Kubernetes and microservices deployments.
+
+## Current Setup
+
+- Running as a single instance in this CS Repro environment
+- Available at http://localhost:3100
+- Receives logs from Grafana Alloy (which replaced Promtail)
+
+## Configuration Details
+
+The `loki-config.yaml` file contains the core configuration for the Loki service:
+
+- **Storage**: Configured to use the local filesystem for simplicity
+- **Schema**: Uses the v11 schema with appropriate index/chunk configurations
+- **Compaction**: Enabled to optimize storage over time
+- **Limits**: Configured with reasonable defaults for this environment
+- **Frontend**: Configured for basic query handling
+
+## Querying Logs
+
+Logs can be queried in several ways:
+
+1. **LogQL via Grafana**: The primary and most user-friendly method
+2. **Direct Loki API**: Using the API endpoints at http://localhost:3100/loki/api/v1/
+3. **LogCLI**: If installed, you can use Grafana's logcli tool
+
+Example LogQL queries:
+```
+{job="mattermost"} | json | level=~"error|warn"
+{job="mattermost"} | json | level="error" | line_format "{{.msg}}"
+```
+
+## Labels
+
+The current configuration uses the following key labels:
+
+- `job`: The source application ("mattermost")
+- `level`: The log level (error, warn, info, debug, etc.)
+- `service_name`: Identifies the service
+- `filename`: The source log file
+
+## More Information
+
+- [Grafana Loki Documentation](https://grafana.com/docs/loki/latest/)
+- [LogQL Query Language](https://grafana.com/docs/loki/latest/logql/)