Open Telemetry

Export traces, metrics, and logs from Strapi to any OTLP-compatible observability backend — Grafana Tempo, Jaeger, Honeycomb, SigNoz, Datadog via OTLP, or your own OpenTelemetry Collector. Unlike Prometheus scrape plugins, this plugin pushes telemetry using the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) over gRPC or HTTP.

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Strapi OpenTelemetry Plugin

Export traces, metrics, and logs from Strapi to any OTLP-compatible observability backend (Grafana Tempo, Prometheus via Collector, Honeycomb, SigNoz, your own server, etc.).

Unlike Prometheus scrape plugins, this plugin pushes telemetry using the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) over gRPC or HTTP/protobuf.

Features

OTLP export for traces, metrics, and logs (each signal independently configurable)
Standard OTEL_* environment variables supported out of the box
Auto-instrumentation for HTTP, Koa, PostgreSQL, DNS, and Net
Runtime & host metrics (event loop, GC, CPU, memory)
Strapi HTTP metrics with route normalization to control cardinality
Database lifecycle metrics & traces for create/update/delete/find operations
Early instrumentation entrypoint for maximum auto-instrumentation coverage
Strapi v5 compatible

Installation

pnpm add strapi-plugin-opentelemetry
# or
npm install strapi-plugin-opentelemetry

Enable the plugin in config/plugins.ts:

export default ({ env }) => ({
  opentelemetry: {
    enabled: true,
    config: {
      serviceName: env('OTEL_SERVICE_NAME', 'my-strapi-app'),
      traces: { enabled: true, exporter: 'otlp', protocol: 'grpc' },
      metrics: {
        enabled: true,
        exporter: 'otlp',
        protocol: 'grpc',
        exportIntervalMillis: 60_000,
        runtimeNode: true,
        hostMetrics: true,
        httpMetrics: true,
        lifecycleMetrics: true,
      },
      logs: { enabled: false, exporter: 'otlp', protocol: 'grpc' },
    },
  },
});

Environment variables

When useEnvironmentVariables is true (default), standard OpenTelemetry environment variables are respected:

Variable	Description
`OTEL_SERVICE_NAME`	Service name for all signals
`OTEL_SERVICE_VERSION`	Service version
`OTEL_SERVICE_INSTANCE_ID`	Instance identifier
`OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES`	Comma-separated `key=value` resource attributes
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT`	Base OTLP endpoint
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_ENDPOINT`	Traces endpoint override
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_ENDPOINT`	Metrics endpoint override
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_ENDPOINT`	Logs endpoint override
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL`	`grpc`, `http/protobuf`, or `http/json`
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS`	Comma-separated `key=value` headers
`OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER`	`otlp` or `none`
`OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER`	`otlp` or `none`
`OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER`	`otlp` or `none`
`OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL`	Metrics export interval in ms
`OTEL_LOG_LEVEL`	Diagnostic log level (`error` by default; use `debug` only when troubleshooting)

Example: push to a local OpenTelemetry Collector

OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=strapi-cms
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4317
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc
OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER=otlp
OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER=otlp

Configuration reference

All options can be set in config/plugins.ts under opentelemetry.config:

Top-level

Option	Type	Default	Description
`enabled`	`boolean`	`true`	Master switch
`useEnvironmentVariables`	`boolean`	`true`	Merge standard `OTEL_*` env vars
`serviceName`	`string`	`strapi`	Service name
`serviceVersion`	`string`	—	Service version
`serviceInstanceId`	`string`	hostname	Instance ID
`resourceAttributes`	`Record<string, string>`	`{}`	Extra resource attributes
`diagLogLevel`	`string`	`error`	OTel internal diagnostics

`traces`, `metrics`, `logs`

Each signal supports:

Option	Type	Default	Description
`enabled`	`boolean`	traces/metrics: `true`, logs: `false`	Enable this signal
`exporter`	`otlp` \| `none`	`otlp`	Exporter type
`protocol`	`grpc` \| `http/protobuf` \| `http/json`	`grpc`	OTLP transport
`endpoint`	`string`	—	Signal-specific OTLP URL
`headers`	`Record<string, string>`	—	Auth / custom headers
`timeoutMillis`	`number`	—	Export timeout

`metrics` (additional)

Option	Type	Default	Description
`exportIntervalMillis`	`number`	`60000`	Export interval
`runtimeNode`	`boolean`	`true`	Node.js runtime metrics
`hostMetrics`	`boolean`	`true`	Host CPU/memory metrics
`httpMetrics`	`boolean`	`true`	HTTP request metrics middleware
`lifecycleMetrics`	`boolean`	`true`	DB lifecycle duration metrics

`instrumentations`

Option	Type	Default
`enabled`	`boolean`	`true`
`http`	`boolean`	`true`
`koa`	`boolean`	`true`
`pg`	`boolean`	`true`
`dns`	`boolean`	`true`
`net`	`boolean`	`true`

`http`

Option	Type	Default	Description
`enabled`	`boolean`	`true`	Register HTTP metrics middleware
`ignorePaths`	`string[]`	`['/favicon.ico', '/_health', …]`	Paths to skip
`normalize`	`[string, string][]` \| `function`	Strapi-aware rules	Route normalization
`recordPayloadSizes`	`boolean`	`true`	Record request/response sizes

`lifecycles`

Option	Type	Default	Description
`enabled`	`boolean`	`true`	Track DB lifecycle events
`events`	`LifecycleEvent[]`	all supported	Events to instrument
`contentTypes`	`string[]`	`[]` (all)	Content-type UIDs to filter

Early instrumentation (recommended for production)

For the best auto-instrumentation coverage, load the SDK before Strapi boots:

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "NODE_OPTIONS='--import strapi-plugin-opentelemetry/instrumentation' strapi start"
  }
}

Optional JSON config via env when using early instrumentation:

STRAPI_OTEL_CONFIG='{"serviceName":"strapi-cms","metrics":{"exportIntervalMillis":30000}}'

Collected metrics

HTTP (middleware)

Metric	Type	Attributes
`http.server.request.duration`	Histogram	`http.request.method`, `http.route`, `http.response.status_code`
`http.server.active_requests`	UpDownCounter	`http.request.method`, `http.route`
`http.server.request.body.size`	Histogram	`http.request.method`, `http.route`
`http.server.response.body.size`	Histogram	`http.request.method`, `http.route`, `http.response.status_code`