Is Openshell instrumented for OpenTelemetry ?

[didier-durand]

Hi,

I see some mentions of OpenTelemetry pacakges in

OpenShell/deploy/sbom/resolve_licenses.py

Line 59 in 71d78c2

"go.opentelemetry.io/otel": "Apache-2.0",

"go.opentelemetry.io/otel": "Apache-2.0",
"go.opentelemetry.io/otel/metric": "Apache-2.0",
"go.opentelemetry.io/otel/trace": "Apache-2.0",
"go.opentelemetry.io/auto/sdk": "Apache-2.0",

Can I assume than OpenShell is Otel-enabled for logs, spans (for ex, LLM infererences) and metrics?
(I didn't find any mention in the doc)

Happy to build and share a proto if you confirm that it will work.

Thanks!

Didier

[Advait251206]

From what is currently visible in the codebase and documentation, I would not assume OpenShell is OpenTelemetry-enabled end-to-end yet.

The references you found in sbom/resolve_licenses.py only indicate that OpenTelemetry-related dependencies are present in the dependency graph / license inventory, not that:

• traces are being emitted,
• spans are instrumented around sandbox or LLM execution,
• logs are exported via OTEL pipelines,
• or metrics are exposed through an OTEL collector.

In other words, that file is about software composition tracking (SBOM/licensing), not runtime observability behavior.

What this usually implies

Seeing packages like:

• go.opentelemetry.io/otel
• otel/trace
• otel/metric

can simply mean:

• they are dependencies of a transitive library, or
• they are included for potential future instrumentation, or
• they are required by a component that is not currently wired into OpenShell’s runtime paths.

But that alone does not indicate that OpenShell is actively:

• creating spans around sandbox lifecycle events,
• instrumenting LLM inference calls,
• or exporting telemetry to a collector.

What would confirm OTEL support

To safely conclude OpenTelemetry support, you’d typically expect to see:

• explicit tracer initialization (TracerProvider, SpanProcessor, exporters)
• environment-based configuration (e.g. OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT)
• spans around key runtime operations (sandbox create/run/exec)
• metrics counters/histograms tied to execution events
• documentation describing observability setup

If none of those are present in the runtime code paths or docs, then it’s likely not yet instrumented, even if OTEL libraries are present.

Likely current state

Based on your observation and the lack of documentation mention, the most reasonable interpretation is:

OpenShell currently includes OpenTelemetry libraries in dependencies but is not yet fully instrumented for traces/metrics/logs.

Good next step

Your suggestion to prototype OTEL integration is actually a strong idea. If you build a proof-of-concept wrapper (for example around sandbox lifecycle events or inference calls), it would likely be very valuable feedback for the maintainers—especially if they are already carrying OTEL dependencies in their SBOM.

It would also be useful if maintainers clarified:

1. Are OTEL dependencies intended for future instrumentation or currently used anywhere in runtime paths?
2. Is there an internal observability plan (traces for sandbox lifecycle, inference, policy evaluation)?
3. Would they accept external OTEL exporters or hooks as a contribution direction?

---

If this answer helped or pointed you in the right direction, I'd appreciate it if you could mark it as the accepted answer so it's easier for others with the same issue to find.

Also, if you found my contribution useful, I'd appreciate it if you could check out my GitHub profile, follow me, and star any repositories you find interesting.

GitHub: https://github.com/Advait251206

[TaylorMutch]

Otel is not yet enabled but it is in our radar.