OpenTelemetry Integration Guide

Rust

Install dependencies in your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
opentelemetry = "0.24"
opentelemetry_sdk = { version = "0.24", features = ["rt-tokio"] }
opentelemetry-otlp = { version = "0.17", features = ["grpc-tonic"] }
tracing = "0.1"
tracing-opentelemetry = "0.25"
tracing-subscriber = "0.3"

Check crates.io for the latest compatible versions. Initialize the tracer (reads OTEL_* env vars automatically):

use opentelemetry::global;
use opentelemetry_sdk::trace::SdkTracerProvider;
use opentelemetry_sdk::Resource;
use tracing_opentelemetry::OpenTelemetryLayer;
use tracing_subscriber::layer::SubscriberExt;
use tracing_subscriber::util::SubscriberInitExt;

fn init_tracer() {
    let exporter = opentelemetry_otlp::SpanExporter::builder()
        .with_tonic()
        .build()
        .expect("Failed to create OTLP exporter");

    let provider = SdkTracerProvider::builder()
        .with_batch_exporter(exporter)
        .with_resource(Resource::default())
        .build();

    global::set_tracer_provider(provider.clone());

    tracing_subscriber::registry()
        .with(OpenTelemetryLayer::new(provider.tracer("my-service")))
        .init();
}

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    init_tracer();
    tracing::info!("Application started");
    global::shutdown_tracer_provider();
}

Ruby

Install the gems:

gem install opentelemetry-sdk opentelemetry-exporter-otlp opentelemetry-instrumentation-all

Or add to your Gemfile:

gem 'opentelemetry-sdk'
gem 'opentelemetry-exporter-otlp'
gem 'opentelemetry-instrumentation-all'

Initialize OpenTelemetry (e.g., in a Rails initializer or at app startup):

require 'opentelemetry/sdk'
require 'opentelemetry/exporter/otlp'
require 'opentelemetry/instrumentation/all'

# Reads OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT, OTEL_SERVICE_NAME,
# OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES, and OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL
# from environment variables automatically.
OpenTelemetry::SDK.configure do |c|
  c.use_all # Enables all available auto-instrumentation
end

Any Language

The general pattern works with any OpenTelemetry SDK:

1. Install your language's OpenTelemetry SDK and OTLP exporter
2. Set the four environment variables listed above
3. Initialize the SDK — most SDKs auto-read OTEL_* env vars
4. Run your application

Find your language's OpenTelemetry SDK at opentelemetry.io/docs/languages.

Languages with official OpenTelemetry SDKs include: C++, .NET, Erlang/Elixir, Go, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, Swift, and more.