OtelExporter - OpenTelemetry Exporter

Export Mastra traces and logs to any OpenTelemetry-compatible observability platform.

⚠️ Important: This package requires you to install an additional exporter package based on your provider. Each provider section below includes the specific installation command.

Signals

The exporter forwards two OpenTelemetry signals:

• Traces — Mastra spans, exported via BatchSpanProcessor over an OTLP SpanExporter.
• Logs — Mastra log events, exported via BatchLogRecordProcessor over an OTLP LogRecordExporter. When a log carries traceId/spanId, both the OTEL log record's native trace context and mastra.traceId/mastra.spanId attributes are populated so backends like Grafana, Datadog, and Honeycomb can correlate logs to traces automatically.

Both signals are enabled by default and share the same provider configuration. Toggle individual signals via signals:

new OtelExporter({
  provider: {
    /* ... */
  },
  signals: {
    traces: true, // default
    logs: true, // default
  },
});

Log export requires the matching OTLP log exporter package for your protocol — install one of:

# HTTP/JSON
npm install @opentelemetry/exporter-logs-otlp-http
# HTTP/Protobuf
npm install @opentelemetry/exporter-logs-otlp-proto
# gRPC
npm install @opentelemetry/exporter-logs-otlp-grpc @grpc/grpc-js

If the matching log exporter package is not installed, log export is silently disabled and traces continue to work.

Environment Variables

All providers support zero-config setup via environment variables. Set the appropriate variables and the exporter will automatically use them:

| Provider | Environment Variables | | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Dash0 | DASH0_API_KEY (required), DASH0_ENDPOINT (required), DASH0_DATASET (optional) | | SigNoz | SIGNOZ_API_KEY (required), SIGNOZ_REGION (optional), SIGNOZ_ENDPOINT (optional) | | New Relic | NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY (required), NEW_RELIC_ENDPOINT (optional) | | Traceloop | TRACELOOP_API_KEY (required), TRACELOOP_DESTINATION_ID, TRACELOOP_ENDPOINT (optional) | | Laminar | LMNR_PROJECT_API_KEY (required), LAMINAR_ENDPOINT (optional) |

Supported Providers

Dash0

Installation

# Dash0 uses gRPC protocol, requires both packages
npm install @mastra/otel-exporter @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-grpc @grpc/grpc-js

Zero-Config Setup

# Required
DASH0_API_KEY=your-api-key
DASH0_ENDPOINT=ingress.us-west-2.aws.dash0.com:4317

# Optional
DASH0_DATASET=production

import { OtelExporter } from '@mastra/otel-exporter';
import { Mastra } from '@mastra/core/mastra';

const mastra = new Mastra({
  ...,
  observability: {
    configs: {
      otel: {
        serviceName: 'my-service',
        exporters: [new OtelExporter({ provider: { dash0: {} } })],
      },
    },
  },
});

Explicit Configuration

new OtelExporter({
  provider: {
    dash0: {
      apiKey: 'your-api-key',
      endpoint: 'ingress.us-west-2.aws.dash0.com:4317',
      dataset: 'production', // Optional
    },
  },
});

Note: Get your endpoint from your Dash0 dashboard. It should be in the format ingress.{region}.aws.dash0.com:4317.

SigNoz

Installation

npm install @mastra/otel-exporter @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto

Zero-Config Setup

# Required
SIGNOZ_API_KEY=your-api-key

# Optional
SIGNOZ_REGION=us  # 'us' | 'eu' | 'in'
SIGNOZ_ENDPOINT=https://my-signoz.example.com  # For self-hosted

import { OtelExporter } from '@mastra/otel-exporter';
import { Mastra } from '@mastra/core/mastra';

const mastra = new Mastra({
  ...,
  observability: {
    configs: {
      otel: {
        serviceName: 'my-service',
        exporters: [new OtelExporter({ provider: { signoz: {} } })],
      },
    },
  },
});

Explicit Configuration

new OtelExporter({
  provider: {
    signoz: {
      apiKey: 'your-api-key',
      region: 'us', // Optional: 'us' | 'eu' | 'in'
      endpoint: 'https://my-signoz.example.com', // Optional: for self-hosted
    },
  },
});

New Relic

Installation

npm install @mastra/otel-exporter @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto

Zero-Config Setup

# Required
NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY=your-license-key

# Optional
NEW_RELIC_ENDPOINT=https://otlp.eu01.nr-data.net  # For EU region

import { OtelExporter } from '@mastra/otel-exporter';
import { Mastra } from '@mastra/core/mastra';

const mastra = new Mastra({
  ...,
  observability: {
    configs: {
      otel: {
        serviceName: 'my-service',
        exporters: [new OtelExporter({ provider: { newrelic: {} } })],
      },
    },
  },
});

Explicit Configuration

new OtelExporter({
  provider: {
    newrelic: {
      apiKey: 'your-license-key',
      endpoint: 'https://otlp.eu01.nr-data.net', // Optional: for EU region
    },
  },
});

Traceloop

Installation

# Traceloop uses HTTP/JSON protocol
npm install @mastra/otel-exporter @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http

Zero-Config Setup

# Required
TRACELOOP_API_KEY=your-api-key

# Optional
TRACELOOP_DESTINATION_ID=my-destination
TRACELOOP_ENDPOINT=https://custom.traceloop.com

import { OtelExporter } from '@mastra/otel-exporter';
import { Mastra } from '@mastra/core/mastra';

const mastra = new Mastra({
  ...,
  observability: {
    configs: {
      otel: {
        serviceName: 'my-service',
        exporters: [new OtelExporter({ provider: { traceloop: {} } })],
      },
    },
  },
});

Explicit Configuration

new OtelExporter({
  provider: {
    traceloop: {
      apiKey: 'your-api-key',
      destinationId: 'my-destination', // Optional
      endpoint: 'https://custom.traceloop.com', // Optional
    },
  },
});

Laminar

Installation

npm install @mastra/otel-exporter @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto

Zero-Config Setup

# Required
LMNR_PROJECT_API_KEY=your-api-key

# Optional
LAMINAR_ENDPOINT=https://api.lmnr.ai/v1/traces

import { OtelExporter } from '@mastra/otel-exporter';
import { Mastra } from '@mastra/core/mastra';

const mastra = new Mastra({
  ...,
  observability: {
    configs: {
      otel: {
        serviceName: 'my-service',
        exporters: [new OtelExporter({ provider: { laminar: {} } })],
      },
    },
  },
});

Explicit Configuration

new OtelExporter({
  provider: {
    laminar: {
      apiKey: 'your-api-key',
      endpoint: 'https://api.lmnr.ai/v1/traces', // Optional
    },
  },
});

Zipkin

Installation

npm install @mastra/otel-exporter @opentelemetry/exporter-zipkin

Configuration

import { OtelExporter } from '@mastra/otel-exporter';
import { Mastra } from '@mastra/core/mastra';

const mastra = new Mastra({
  ...,
  observability: {
    configs: {
      otel: {
        serviceName: 'mastra-service',
        exporters: [
          new OtelExporter({
            provider: {
              custom: {
                endpoint: 'http://localhost:9411/api/v2/spans',
                protocol: 'zipkin',
              }
            },
          })
        ],
      },
    },
  },
});

Custom/Other Providers

Installation

Choose the appropriate exporter based on your collector's protocol:

# For HTTP/JSON: Human-readable, larger payload, good for debugging
npm install @mastra/otel-exporter @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http

# For HTTP/Protobuf: Binary format, smaller payload, recommended for production
npm install @mastra/otel-exporter @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto

# For gRPC: Bidirectional streaming, lowest latency, requires gRPC support
npm install @mastra/otel-exporter @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-grpc @grpc/grpc-js

# For Zipkin: Zipkin-specific format
npm install @mastra/otel-exporter @opentelemetry/exporter-zipkin

Most providers recommend HTTP/Protobuf for production use.

Configuration

import { OtelExporter } from '@mastra/otel-exporter';
import { Mastra } from '@mastra/core/mastra';

const mastra = new Mastra({
  ...,
  observability: {
    configs: {
      otel: {
        serviceName: 'mastra-service',
        exporters: [
          new OtelExporter({
            provider: {
              custom: {
                endpoint: 'https://your-collector.example.com/v1/traces', // Required at runtime
                protocol: 'http/protobuf', // Optional: 'http/json' | 'http/protobuf' | 'grpc' | 'zipkin'
                headers: { // Optional
                  'x-api-key': process.env.API_KEY,
                },
              }
            }
          })
        ],
      },
    },
  },
});

Why Separate Packages?

We've made exporter dependencies optional to:

• Reduce bundle size - Only include what you need
• Faster installs - Fewer dependencies to download
• Avoid conflicts - Some exporters have conflicting dependencies

If you forget to install the required exporter, you'll get a helpful error message telling you exactly what to install.

Endpoint Configuration Notes

Protocol Requirements

• gRPC endpoints: Automatically append /v1/traces to the base endpoint
• HTTP endpoints: Most providers expect /v1/traces or provider-specific paths
• Authentication:
  • HTTP uses headers with standard HTTP headers
  • gRPC uses lowercase metadata keys (e.g., authorization instead of Authorization)

Provider-Specific Endpoints

| Provider | Protocol | Endpoint Format | Notes | | --------- | ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | ------------------ | | Dash0 | gRPC | ingress.{region}.aws.dash0.com:4317 | Get from dashboard | | SigNoz | HTTP/Protobuf | https://ingest.{region}.signoz.cloud:443/v1/traces | Cloud hosted | | New Relic | HTTP/Protobuf | https://otlp.nr-data.net:443/v1/traces | US region | | Traceloop | HTTP/JSON | https://api.traceloop.com/v1/traces | Default endpoint | | Laminar | HTTP/Protobuf | https://api.lmnr.ai/v1/traces | Default endpoint |

Additional configuration

// Main configuration interface
interface OtelExporterConfig {
  // Provider configuration (discriminated union)
  provider?: ProviderConfig;

  // Export configuration
  timeout?: number; // Export timeout in milliseconds (default: 30000)
  batchSize?: number; // Max spans/logs per batch (default: 512)

  // Per-signal toggles. All signals are enabled by default.
  signals?: {
    traces?: boolean;
    logs?: boolean;
  };

  // Debug
  logLevel?: 'debug' | 'info' | 'warn' | 'error';
}

Batching Strategy

The OtelExporter uses OpenTelemetry's BatchSpanProcessor for efficient span export:

• Automatic batching: Spans are queued and exported in batches
• Default batch size: 512 spans (configurable via batchSize)
• Export interval: Every 5 seconds or when batch is full
• Queue size: Up to 2048 spans queued in memory
• High-throughput support: Handles large volumes of spans efficiently

This approach ensures:

• Efficient network usage (fewer HTTP/gRPC calls)
• Better performance under load
• Automatic retry with backoff
• Proper trace context propagation across all spans in a trace

OpenTelemetry Semantic Conventions

This exporter follows the OpenTelemetry Semantic Conventions for GenAI to ensure compatibility with observability platforms.

Span Naming

Spans are named following OTEL conventions:

• LLM Operations: chat {model} or tool_selection {model}
• Tool Execution: tool.execute {tool_name}
• Agent Runs: invoke_agent {agent_name}
• Workflow Runs: workflow.{workflow_id}

Attributes

The exporter maps Mastra's tracing data to OTEL-compliant attributes:

Core Attributes

• gen_ai.operation.name - Operation type (chat, tool.execute, agent.run, workflow.run)
• gen_ai.provider.name - AI provider (openai, anthropic, etc.)
• gen_ai.request.model - Model identifier

LLM-Specific Attributes

• gen_ai.usage.input_tokens - Number of input tokens
• gen_ai.usage.output_tokens - Number of output tokens
• gen_ai.usage.total_tokens - Total token count
• gen_ai.request.temperature - Sampling temperature
• gen_ai.request.max_tokens - Maximum tokens to generate
• gen_ai.request.top_p - Top-p sampling parameter
• gen_ai.request.top_k - Top-k sampling parameter
• gen_ai.response.finish_reasons - Reason for completion
• gen_ai.response.model - Actual model used in response (may differ from request)
• gen_ai.response.id - Unique response identifier
• gen_ai.prompt - Input prompt (for Model spans)
• gen_ai.completion - Model output (for Model spans)
• server.address - Server address for the model endpoint
• server.port - Server port for the model endpoint

Tool Attributes

• gen_ai.tool.name - Tool identifier
• gen_ai.tool.description - Tool description
• gen_ai.tool.success - Whether tool execution succeeded
• gen_ai.tool.input - Tool input parameters
• gen_ai.tool.output - Tool execution result

Agent & Workflow Attributes

• gen_ai.agent.id - Agent identifier
• gen_ai.agent.name - Human-readable agent name
• gen_ai.conversation.id - Conversation/thread/session identifier
• agent.id - Agent identifier (also included for compatibility)
• agent.max_steps - Maximum agent steps
• workflow.id - Workflow identifier
• workflow.status - Workflow execution status

Error Attributes

• error - Boolean indicating error occurred
• error.type - Error identifier
• error.message - Error description
• error.domain - Error domain/category

Opt-In Content Attributes

For enhanced observability, you can enable additional content attributes that capture detailed message data. These attributes may contain sensitive information and should only be enabled with proper consent and security considerations.

To enable content attributes:

new OtelExporter({
  provider: {
    /* your provider config */
  },
  genAiConventions: {
    includeContentAttributes: true, // Default: false
  },
});

When enabled, the following additional attributes are captured:

Model Content Attributes

• gen_ai.input.messages - Structured input messages in OpenTelemetry format
• gen_ai.output.messages - Structured output messages in OpenTelemetry format

These attributes convert Mastra's message format to the OpenTelemetry GenAI standard message schema, providing detailed conversation history and tool interactions.

Agent Content Attributes

• gen_ai.system_instructions - Agent system instructions/prompts

Privacy Considerations:

• These attributes may contain user data, prompts, and model responses
• Only enable in environments where data privacy and compliance requirements are met
• Consider using span processors to filter sensitive data before export
• Review your organization's data retention and privacy policies before enabling

Troubleshooting

Missing Dependency Error

If you forget to install the required exporter package, you'll get a clear error message:

HTTP/Protobuf exporter is not installed (required for signoz).
To use HTTP/Protobuf export, install the required package:

  npm install @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto
  # or
  pnpm add @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto
  # or
  yarn add @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto

Common Issues

1. Wrong exporter installed: Make sure you installed the exporter matching your provider's protocol
2. Multiple exporters needed: If switching between providers, you may need multiple exporters installed
3. Bundle size concerns: Only install the exporters you actually use

License

Apache 2.0