content/telegraf/v1/metrics.md
Telegraf metrics are the internal representation used to model data during processing. These metrics are closely based on InfluxDB's data model and contain four main components:
Telegraf metrics exist only in memory and must be converted to a concrete representation to be transmitted or viewed. Telegraf provides output data formats (also known as serializers) for these conversions. Telegraf's default serializer converts to InfluxDB line protocol, which provides a high performance and one-to-one direct mapping from Telegraf metrics.