OpenTelemetry for VS Code

Runtime observability, right inside your editor.
Collect and explore OpenTelemetry logs, metrics, traces & spans and a service map from any app — via an embedded OTLP receiver. No external collector required.

This extension embeds a local OTLP receiver ("Satellite service") that collects logs, metrics, and traces from any application that exports OpenTelemetry data — whether launched from VS Code or run externally — and lets you explore it through an instances tree, logs, traces/spans, metrics, and a service map. It is a language-agnostic VS Code re-imagining of the JetBrains Rider OpenTelemetry plugin.

✨ Features

Embedded OTLP receiver — in-process Node.js server accepting OTLP/gRPC (default 4317) and OTLP/HTTP (protobuf + JSON, default 4318). No external collector or binaries.
Instances tree — applications (grouped by service.name) → instances (identified by service.instance.id or a synthesized GUID). Remove instances from the context menu.
Logs — timestamp, level, message, and attributes with text/level/attribute filtering, Navigate To Code (via code.filepath/code.lineno), and Open In Editor (JSON).
Traces & spans — filter traces by duration/ID/errors and Examine any trace as a span waterfall (distributed spans across services are merged by trace ID).
Metrics — per-instance view of gauges, sums, and histograms.
Service map — architecture diagram of services, databases, queues, and external dependencies derived from trace spans, refreshed as data arrives.
Launch/debug integration — auto-injects OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT into VS Code launch/debug configs, plus copy-endpoint commands, an OTel-enabled terminal, and per-language instrumentation snippets for external apps.

Telemetry is stored in memory and cleared when the receiver restarts (Phase 1).

📸 Screenshots

Logs — filter by text/level/attributes, with Navigate To Code and Open In Editor:

Logs panel

Traces & spans — filter traces and examine any trace as a span waterfall:

Traces panel

Metrics — per-instance gauges, sums, and histograms:

Metrics panel

🚀 Quick start

Install from the Extensions view (search “OpenTelemetry”), or:
```
code --install-extension SukantaSaha.opentelemetry
```
Open the OpenTelemetry view in the Activity Bar and click Start receiver (or use the status bar item). The status bar shows the active gRPC/HTTP ports.
Point your app at the receiver and watch instances, logs, traces, and metrics appear.

Wire up your app

Launched from VS Code — just run/debug; the OTLP endpoint env var is injected automatically (disable via otel.overwriteEnvVars).

Running externally — point your app's OTLP exporter at the receiver. Use OpenTelemetry: Copy OTLP Endpoint / Copy Environment Variable, or Show Instrumentation Snippet, e.g.:

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="http://127.0.0.1:4317"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL="grpc"

You can also route through an OpenTelemetry Collector by adding the receiver as an OTLP exporter target.

🧭 Commands

Command	Description
`OpenTelemetry: Start / Stop / Restart Receiver`	Control the embedded OTLP receiver.
`OpenTelemetry: Clear Collected Data`	Drop all in-memory telemetry.
`OpenTelemetry: Copy OTLP Endpoint`	Copy the gRPC or HTTP endpoint.
`OpenTelemetry: Copy OTLP Endpoint Environment Variable`	Copy `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=…`.
`OpenTelemetry: Open Terminal With OTLP Environment`	New terminal pre-set with the OTLP env vars.
`OpenTelemetry: Show Instrumentation Snippet`	Per-language exporter snippets (Node/Python/Go/.NET/Java).
`OpenTelemetry: Open Logs / Traces / Metrics`	Open a panel for the selected instance.
`OpenTelemetry: Open Service Map`	Show the service dependency graph.

Instances also expose inline Logs / Traces / Metrics icons and a Remove Instance action.

⚙️ Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`otel.launchOnStartup`	`false`	Start the receiver when VS Code starts.
`otel.port.mode`	`fixed`	`fixed` or `random` port assignment.
`otel.port.grpc`	`4317`	OTLP/gRPC port (fixed mode).
`otel.port.http`	`4318`	OTLP/HTTP port (fixed mode).
`otel.host`	`127.0.0.1`	Bind address. Binding beyond localhost exposes telemetry.
`otel.overwriteEnvVars`	`true`	Inject the OTLP endpoint into launch/debug configs.
`otel.retention.maxLogsPerInstance`	`5000`	Log retention cap per instance.
`otel.retention.maxTracesPerInstance`	`2000`	Trace retention cap per instance.

🏗️ Architecture

src/receiver/ — gRPC (@grpc/grpc-js + @grpc/proto-loader) and HTTP (protobufjs) OTLP servers, plus the Receiver lifecycle facade.
src/store/ — OTLP decoding and the in-memory TelemetryStore (applications → instances → logs/traces/metrics) with ring-buffer retention and debounced change events.
src/views/ — the instances TreeDataProvider and the Logs, Traces, Metrics, and Service Map webview panels.
src/integration/ — debug-config env injection and instrumentation snippets.
proto/ — vendored opentelemetry-proto definitions (bundled into dist/proto).

🧪 Development

npm install
npm run build         # bundle with esbuild (copies proto assets to dist/)
npm run watch         # rebuild on change
npm run typecheck     # type-check only
npm run lint          # eslint
npm test              # build + unit + smoke + activation tests
npm run package       # produce a .vsix

Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.

🚧 Limitations (Phase 1)

Telemetry is in-memory only; configurable export/persistence is a planned enhancement.
The receiver binds to 127.0.0.1 with no TLS/auth (localhost-only by design).
Navigate To Code depends on code.* span/log attributes being present.
Service-map edges are heuristic (span kind + trace parent/child + semantic-convention attrs).

🤝 Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome at github.com/sukanta1991/opentelemetry. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md and our CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md first.

OpenTelemetry

Sukanta Saha