feat(server): opt-in OpenTelemetry auto-instrumentation (#3735)

## Thinking Path

> - Paperclip orchestrates AI agents for zero-human companies
> - Production self-hosters increasingly expect telemetry out of the box
— Jaeger, Tempo, Honeycomb, Datadog, Grafana Cloud, Dynatrace all speak
OTLP
> - Today there is no OpenTelemetry bootstrap in the server, so
operators who want traces have to patch their fork or run a sidecar that
captures only HTTP-level info
> - An opt-in bootstrap that costs nothing when disabled is the
minimum-viable surface for this audience
> - The OpenTelemetry packages are heavyweight enough that we don't want
them in the default dependency graph — they should load only when the
operator configures an OTLP endpoint
> - This pull request adds a self-contained
`server/src/instrumentation.ts` that dynamically imports the OTel SDK
and starts it when `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT` is set, and is a
complete no-op otherwise

## Linked Issues or Issue Description

No existing issue covers this directly — feature-gap description
following the feature-request template:

**Problem or motivation**

Production self-hosters increasingly expect telemetry out of the box —
Jaeger, Tempo, Honeycomb, Datadog, Grafana Cloud, Dynatrace all speak
OTLP — but the server has no OpenTelemetry bootstrap. Operators who want
traces today must patch their fork or run a sidecar that captures only
HTTP-level information.

**Proposed solution**

An opt-in OTel bootstrap gated on `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT`, loaded
via dynamic `import()` only when configured, so the heavyweight OTel
packages stay out of the default dependency graph.

**Alternatives considered**

Related open PRs found during the duplicate-PR search approach
observability differently: #4894 adds OTLP instrumentation to Paperclip
core unconditionally, and #3752 proposes an observability plugin. Not
duplicates — different layering: this PR keeps the default install
dependency-free via opt-in dynamic import.

## What Changed

- New `server/src/instrumentation.ts` — opt-in OpenTelemetry
auto-instrumentation. Gated on `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT`. Respects
the standard OTel env vars (`OTEL_SERVICE_NAME`, `OTEL_SERVICE_VERSION`,
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT`). Skips the fs/dns/net
auto-instrumentations (too chatty). `sdk.start()` is wrapped in
try/catch so a bad endpoint or missing native bindings doesn't crash the
server. `process.once("SIGTERM" / "SIGINT", …)` for clean shutdown on
the first signal only. OTel packages are loaded via dynamic `import()`
so they are true optional runtime dependencies — no entries in
`package.json`, no lockfile churn.
- `server/src/index.ts` — import `./instrumentation.js` as the very
first statement so auto-instrumentation can patch `http` / `express` /
`pg` before they are evaluated by downstream modules.

## Verification

- `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4317 pnpm start` after
`pnpm install
@opentelemetry/{sdk-node,auto-instrumentations-node,exporter-trace-otlp-grpc,resources,semantic-conventions}`
in `server/` — traces show up in the configured collector; HTTP,
Express, and Postgres spans are populated.
- `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT` unset — server starts with no
OTel-shaped output in logs, no behavior change.
- `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=…` set but packages not installed —
single `console.warn` at startup telling the operator which packages to
install.

## Risks

Low. No behavior change unless the env var is set. The bootstrap never
throws into the caller; every failure path ends in `console.warn` /
`console.error` and falls through to non-traced operation.

## Model Used

Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context), extended thinking mode.

## Checklist

- [x] I have searched GitHub for duplicate or related PRs and linked
them above
- [x] Thinking path traces from project context to this change
- [x] Model used specified
- [x] Tests run locally and pass
- [x] CI green
- [x] Greptile review addressed

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Jannes Stubbemann
2026-06-12 19:44:22 +02:00
committed by GitHub
parent 937fe62d10
commit 362c30ccdc
5 changed files with 410 additions and 0 deletions
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@@ -401,6 +401,10 @@ This is the short roadmap preview. See the full roadmap in [ROADMAP.md](ROADMAP.
Find Plugins and more at [awesome-paperclip](https://github.com/gsxdsm/awesome-paperclip)
## Observability
Paperclip ships with opt-in OpenTelemetry auto-instrumentation for the server (traces only). It activates when `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT` is set and supports `grpc`, `http/protobuf`, and `http/json` via the standard `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL` env var. The `@opentelemetry/*` packages are optional peer dependencies — install them only if you want tracing. See [doc/observability.md](doc/observability.md) for install commands and the full env-var reference.
## Telemetry
Paperclip collects anonymous usage telemetry to help us understand how the product is used and improve it. No personal information, issue content, prompts, file paths, or secrets are ever collected. Private repository references are hashed with a per-install salt before being sent.