# Assign a display name to an instance

Type of document: How-to guide
Product: NGINX Agent
> Set a custom display name for an NGINX instance in NGINX One Console using the NGINX Agent display-name label.

---


## Overview

By default, NGINX One Console identifies each NGINX instance by its hostname. To assign a display name to an instance, set the reserved `display-name` NGINX Agent label. After NGINX Agent reports the label, NGINX One Console shows the display name alongside the hostname. You can then use the display name to filter and sort instances.

## Before you begin

Before you start, make sure that you have:

- [NGINX Agent installed](/nginx-one-console/agent/install-upgrade/) and connected to NGINX One Console.
- Access to the NGINX Agent configuration file, CLI, or container environment.

## Set a display name

Set the `display-name` label using any of the [NGINX Agent label](/nginx-one-console/agent/configure-instances/configuration-overview.md) configuration sources.

### Configuration file

Add the label to the `labels` section of `/etc/nginx-agent/nginx-agent.conf`:

```yaml
labels:
  display-name: prod-usw2-edge-03
```

### CLI parameters

```shell
nginx-agent --labels=display-name=prod-usw2-edge-03
```

### Environment variables

```shell
export NGINX_AGENT_LABELS="display-name=prod-usw2-edge-03"
```

After you save your changes, restart NGINX Agent to apply them:

```shell
sudo systemctl restart nginx-agent
```

**Note:** 
Display names must be 256 characters or fewer. If a value exceeds this limit, the instance registers without a display name.

Display names cannot include Unicode characters like emoji or other multi-byte characters.

## Where the display name appears

Once NGINX Agent reports the `display-name` label, NGINX One Console uses it in the following places:

- The **Instances** list and **Instance details** page, alongside the hostname.
- Instance filters and sort options, so you can find instances by display name.
- Data Plane Key details, Config Sync Group instance lists, and Staged Config publish flows.
- Instance metrics dashboards and F5 WAF for NGINX security events, where available.

If an instance doesn't have a display name set, NGINX One Console continues to show its hostname.