---
title: "OpenTelemetry"
id: opentelemetry
slug: "/tracing-opentelemetry"
description: "Learn how to trace your Haystack pipelines with OpenTelemetry."
---

import ClickableImage from "@site/src/components/ClickableImage";

# OpenTelemetry

Learn how to trace your Haystack pipelines with OpenTelemetry.

<div className="key-value-table">

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| **Tracer class** | `OpenTelemetryTracer` |
| **How to enable** | Configure an OpenTelemetry `TracerProvider`, then enable the tracer with `tracing.enable_tracing(OpenTelemetryTracer(trace.get_tracer("my_application")))`, or add the `OpenTelemetryConnector` component to your pipeline |
| **Content tracing** | Set `HAYSTACK_CONTENT_TRACING_ENABLED` to `true` to trace component inputs and outputs |
| **Package** | `opentelemetry-haystack` |
| **API reference** | [opentelemetry](/reference/integrations-opentelemetry) |
| **GitHub link** | https://github.com/deepset-ai/haystack-core-integrations/tree/main/integrations/opentelemetry |

</div>

## Overview

[OpenTelemetry](https://opentelemetry.io/) is an open-source observability framework for collecting traces, metrics, and logs. Haystack integrates with OpenTelemetry, so you can send traces of your pipeline runs to any OpenTelemetry-compatible backend.

:::info[Moving to an integration]
`OpenTelemetryTracer` is deprecated in Haystack core and is moving to the `opentelemetry-haystack` package. Starting with Haystack 3.0, OpenTelemetry tracing is no longer auto-enabled when `opentelemetry-sdk` is installed. Install the integration and either enable the `OpenTelemetryTracer` directly or add the `OpenTelemetryConnector` component to your pipeline.
:::

## Installation

Install the `opentelemetry-haystack` package:

```shell
pip install opentelemetry-haystack
```

To add traces to even deeper levels of your pipelines, we recommend you check out [OpenTelemetry integrations](https://opentelemetry.io/ecosystem/registry/?s=python), such as:

- [`urllib3` instrumentation](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/tree/main/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-urllib3) for tracing HTTP requests in your pipeline,
- [OpenAI instrumentation](https://github.com/traceloop/openllmetry/tree/main/packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai) for tracing OpenAI requests.

## Prerequisites

A configured OpenTelemetry `TracerProvider` with an exporter, for example an OTLP exporter that sends traces to a collector or a backend. Set up the provider before enabling the tracer.

## Usage

Enable the `OpenTelemetryTracer` directly to trace any Haystack pipeline, without adding a component to it. Configure your `TracerProvider` and set the `HAYSTACK_CONTENT_TRACING_ENABLED` environment variable before importing any Haystack components.

```python
import os

os.environ["HAYSTACK_CONTENT_TRACING_ENABLED"] = "true"

from opentelemetry import trace
from opentelemetry.exporter.otlp.proto.http.trace_exporter import OTLPSpanExporter
from opentelemetry.sdk.resources import Resource
from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import TracerProvider
from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export import BatchSpanProcessor
from opentelemetry.semconv.resource import ResourceAttributes

# Configure the OpenTelemetry SDK. A service name is required for most backends.
resource = Resource(attributes={ResourceAttributes.SERVICE_NAME: "haystack"})
tracer_provider = TracerProvider(resource=resource)
tracer_provider.add_span_processor(
    BatchSpanProcessor(OTLPSpanExporter(endpoint="http://localhost:4318/v1/traces")),
)
trace.set_tracer_provider(tracer_provider)

from haystack import tracing
from haystack_integrations.tracing.opentelemetry import OpenTelemetryTracer

# Enable the OpenTelemetry tracer
tracing.enable_tracing(OpenTelemetryTracer(trace.get_tracer("my_application")))
```

Each pipeline run then produces a trace that includes the entire execution context, including prompts, completions, and metadata. You can view the traces in your OpenTelemetry-compatible backend.

## Alternative: the OpenTelemetryConnector component

If you prefer to manage tracing as part of your pipeline definition, you can add the `OpenTelemetryConnector` component instead. It enables the same OpenTelemetry tracing as soon as it is initialized.

:::info
See the [`OpenTelemetryConnector` documentation page](../../pipeline-components/connectors/opentelemetryconnector.mdx) for full usage examples, or check out the [integration page](https://haystack.deepset.ai/integrations/opentelemetry).
:::

## Visualizing Traces During Development

Use [Jaeger](https://www.jaegertracing.io/docs/1.6/getting-started/) as a lightweight tracing backend for local pipeline development. This allows you to experiment with tracing without the need for a complex tracing backend.
<ClickableImage src="/img/dd906d7-Screenshot_2024-02-22_at_16.51.01.png" alt="Jaeger UI trace timeline displaying haystack pipeline execution with component spans showing duration and nesting of operations" />

1. Run the Jaeger container. This creates a tracing backend as well as a UI to visualize the traces:

   ```shell
   docker run --rm -d --name jaeger \
     -e COLLECTOR_ZIPKIN_HOST_PORT=:9411 \
     -p 6831:6831/udp \
     -p 6832:6832/udp \
     -p 5778:5778 \
     -p 16686:16686 \
     -p 4317:4317 \
     -p 4318:4318 \
     -p 14250:14250 \
     -p 14268:14268 \
     -p 14269:14269 \
     -p 9411:9411 \
     jaegertracing/all-in-one:latest
   ```
2. Install the integration and the OTLP exporter:

   ```shell
   pip install opentelemetry-haystack
   pip install opentelemetry-exporter-otlp
   ```
3. Configure `OpenTelemetry` to use the Jaeger backend and enable the tracer:

   ```python
   from opentelemetry import trace
   from opentelemetry.exporter.otlp.proto.http.trace_exporter import OTLPSpanExporter
   from opentelemetry.sdk.resources import Resource
   from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import TracerProvider
   from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export import BatchSpanProcessor
   from opentelemetry.semconv.resource import ResourceAttributes

   from haystack import tracing
   from haystack_integrations.tracing.opentelemetry import OpenTelemetryTracer

   # Service name is required for most backends
   resource = Resource(attributes={
       ResourceAttributes.SERVICE_NAME: "haystack"
   })

   tracer_provider = TracerProvider(resource=resource)
   processor = BatchSpanProcessor(OTLPSpanExporter(endpoint="http://localhost:4318/v1/traces"))
   tracer_provider.add_span_processor(processor)
   trace.set_tracer_provider(tracer_provider)

   tracing.enable_tracing(OpenTelemetryTracer(trace.get_tracer("my_application")))
   ```
4. Run your pipeline:

   ```python
   ...
   pipeline.run(...)
   ...
   ```
5. Inspect the traces in the UI provided by Jaeger at [http://localhost:16686](http://localhost:16686/search).