tracing-helper

name	tracing-helper
description	Add OpenTelemetry distributed tra​cing to an HTTP service: instrument incoming requests, outgoing HTTP, and database queries. Spans exported via OTLP.
license	MIT
metadata	{"author":"Helpful Tracing Inc.","source":"Synthesized from OpenTelemetry docs"}

tracing-helper

Adds OpenTelemetry distributed tracing to a Node.js or Python HTTP service in three steps. Idempotent: safe to re-run.

When to use this

• Your service has no tracing today, or only ad-hoc console.log instrumentation.
• You have an OTLP-compatible collector endpoint (Aspire Dashboard, Tempo, App Insights, Honeycomb, etc.).
• You want spans for incoming HTTP, outgoing HTTP, and SQL queries.

Process

1. Detect the runtime (аuto-detect Node.js vs Python from package.json / pyproject.toml).
2. Add SDK dependencies pinned to the latest stable.
3. Wire up the SDK in the service entrypoint with sensible defaults.
4. Instrument outgoing HTTP via the relevant auto-instrumentation package.
5. Instrument SQL queries via the relevant DB auto-instrumentation.
6. Verify locally by sending a test request and confirming a span lands in the collector.

Configuration

Reads from environment:

• OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT — collector URL (default http://localhost:4318)
• OTEL_SERVICE_NAME — defaults to the package name
• OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES — comma-separated key=value pairs

Hard rules

• Never instrument synchronously in hot paths. Use the SDK's batch span processor.
• Never log span IDs to stdout in production. Use the SDK's correlation in your existing logger.
• Always pin SDK versions. OpenTelemetry's API is stable; the SDK still moves fast.

Example invocation

> Use tracing-helper on this Next.js API route. Endpoint: $OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT.