Auto-Instrumentation

Auto-instrumentation provides zero-code observability by automatically capturing traces, metrics, and logs from your application and its dependencies. This is the fastest way to get started with OpenTelemetry.

When to Use Auto-Instrumentation

Use Case	Recommendation
Quick proof-of-concept	✅ Auto-instrumentation
Standard HTTP/database operations	✅ Auto-instrumentation
Business-specific metrics	❌ Use custom instrumentation
Fine-grained span control	❌ Use custom instrumentation
Legacy framework not supported	❌ Use custom instrumentation

Frameworks by Language

Python

Framework	Guide	What's Instrumented
Django	Django	HTTP requests, ORM queries, middleware, templates, Celery tasks
Flask	Flask	HTTP requests, Jinja2 templates, SQLAlchemy
FastAPI	FastAPI	HTTP requests, async handlers, Pydantic validation
Celery	Celery	Task execution, retries, worker lifecycle

Node.js

Framework	Guide	What's Instrumented
Express	Express	HTTP requests, middleware, routing
Fastify	Fastify	HTTP requests, hooks, plugins, PostgreSQL, BullMQ
NestJS	NestJS	Controllers, services, guards, interceptors
Next.js	Next.js	SSR, API routes, middleware, React components
Node.js (generic)	Node.js	HTTP, filesystem, child processes
React	React	Client-side rendering, user interactions

Java / JVM

Framework	Guide	What's Instrumented
Spring Boot	Spring Boot	REST controllers, JPA, JDBC, messaging
Spring Boot (alt)	Alternatives	Micrometer, manual agent setup
Quarkus	Quarkus	REST endpoints, Hibernate, Kafka

Ruby

Framework	Guide	What's Instrumented
Rails 6+	Rails	Controllers, ActiveRecord, ActionCable, Sidekiq
Rails 5.x	Rails Legacy	Controllers, ActiveRecord (older SDK)

Go

Framework	Guide	What's Instrumented
Go (net/http)	Go	HTTP handlers, database/sql, gRPC
Axum	Axum	Handlers, middleware, tower layers

PHP

Framework	Guide	What's Instrumented
Laravel	Laravel	HTTP requests, Eloquent, queues, caching

.NET

Framework	Guide	What's Instrumented
ASP.NET Core	.NET	HTTP requests, EF Core, HttpClient

Elixir

Framework	Guide	What's Instrumented
Phoenix	Phoenix	Controllers, Ecto, LiveView, PubSub

How Auto-Instrumentation Works

Next Steps

1. Choose your framework from the tables above
2. Follow the guide to add auto-instrumentation
3. Add custom instrumentation for business-specific telemetry