---
title: "Honeycomb"
description: "Connect Honeycomb so OpenSRE can query traces during investigations"
---

OpenSRE queries Honeycomb to surface distributed traces during alert investigations — identifying slow spans, high-error services, and query patterns correlated with incidents.

## Prerequisites

- Honeycomb account (classic or environments-based)
- API key with query access

## Setup

### Option 1: Interactive CLI

```bash
opensre integrations setup
```

Select **Honeycomb** when prompted and provide your API key and dataset.

### Option 2: Environment variables

Add to your `.env`:

```bash
HONEYCOMB_API_KEY=your-api-key
HONEYCOMB_DATASET=your-dataset      # optional, defaults to __all__
HONEYCOMB_API_URL=https://api.honeycomb.io  # optional
```

| Variable | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `HONEYCOMB_API_KEY` | — | **Required.** Honeycomb API key |
| `HONEYCOMB_DATASET` | `__all__` | Dataset to query (classic) or `__all__` for environments |
| `HONEYCOMB_API_URL` | `https://api.honeycomb.io` | Override for EU region or proxies |

### Option 3: Persistent store

```json
{
  "version": 1,
  "integrations": [
    {
      "id": "honeycomb-prod",
      "service": "honeycomb",
      "status": "active",
      "credentials": {
        "api_key": "your-api-key",
        "dataset": "__all__",
        "base_url": "https://api.honeycomb.io"
      }
    }
  ]
}
```

## Creating an API key

1. In Honeycomb, go to **Account** → **API Keys**
2. Click **Create API Key**
3. Set the environment and enable **Query Data** permission
4. Copy the key

<Tip>
Use `__all__` as the dataset to query across all datasets in an environment. For EU accounts, set `HONEYCOMB_API_URL=https://api.eu1.honeycomb.io`.
</Tip>

## Verify

```bash
opensre integrations verify honeycomb
```

Expected output:

```
Service: honeycomb
Status: passed
Detail: Connected to https://api.honeycomb.io (environment production) and queried dataset __all__
```

## Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Fix |
| --- | --- |
| **401 Unauthorized** | Confirm the API key is correct and has Query Data permission |
| **Dataset not found** | Use `__all__` or check the exact dataset name in Honeycomb |
| **EU account unreachable** | Set `HONEYCOMB_API_URL=https://api.eu1.honeycomb.io` |

## Security best practices

- Use a dedicated **read-only** API key scoped to query access.
- Store the API key in `.env`, not in source code.