A service definition contains a set of parameters that specify various aspects of the service, including how it is discovered by other services in the network. The service definition may also contain health check configurations. Configure individual services and health checks by specifying parameters in the `service` block of a service definition file. Refer to [Define Services](/consul/docs/register/service/vm/define) for information about defining services. Refer to [Health Check Configuration Reference](/consul/docs/reference/service/health-check) for configuration details about health checks. 

Consul supports service definitions written in JSON and HCL.