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codex/codex-rs/otel
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richardopenai feca160da4 [codex] Add OTEL counter descriptions (#26091)
## Why

Metric descriptions should be declared with reusable OTEL instruments
instead of being coupled to individual consumers. Counter descriptions
are the smallest API primitive needed by the exec-server observability
work.

## What changed

- Adds `counter_with_description` while preserving the existing counter
API.
- Caches counters by name and description so instrument metadata remains
part of the declaration identity.
- Covers the exported description together with the existing value and
attribute contract.

This PR only adds counter descriptions. It does not add gauges,
second-based durations, or exec-server adoption.

## Stack

1. **#26091: counter descriptions**
2. #27057: gauge instruments
3. #27058: second-based duration histograms

Related independent coverage: #27059 tests OTLP HTTP log and trace event
export.

The `codex-exec-server` bounded service tag now stays with the
exec-server adoption change instead of this reusable infrastructure
stack.

## Validation

- `just test -p codex-otel`
- `just fix -p codex-otel`
- `just fmt`
feca160da4 ยท 2026-06-08 22:29:51 +00:00
History
..

codex-otel

codex-otel is the OpenTelemetry integration crate for Codex. It provides:

  • Provider wiring for log/trace/metric exporters (codex_otel::OtelProvider and codex_otel::provider).
  • Session-scoped business event emission via codex_otel::SessionTelemetry.
  • Low-level metrics APIs via codex_otel::metrics.
  • Trace-context helpers via codex_otel::trace_context and crate-root re-exports.

Tracing and logs

Create an OTEL provider from OtelSettings. The provider also configures metrics (when enabled), then attach its layers to your tracing_subscriber registry:

use codex_otel::config::OtelExporter;
use codex_otel::config::OtelHttpProtocol;
use codex_otel::config::OtelSettings;
use codex_otel::OtelProvider;
use tracing_subscriber::prelude::*;

let settings = OtelSettings {
    environment: "dev".to_string(),
    service_name: "codex-cli".to_string(),
    service_version: env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION").to_string(),
    codex_home: std::path::PathBuf::from("/tmp"),
    exporter: OtelExporter::OtlpHttp {
        endpoint: "https://otlp.example.com".to_string(),
        headers: std::collections::HashMap::new(),
        protocol: OtelHttpProtocol::Binary,
        tls: None,
    },
    trace_exporter: OtelExporter::OtlpHttp {
        endpoint: "https://otlp.example.com".to_string(),
        headers: std::collections::HashMap::new(),
        protocol: OtelHttpProtocol::Binary,
        tls: None,
    },
    metrics_exporter: OtelExporter::None,
    span_attributes: std::collections::BTreeMap::new(),
    tracestate: std::collections::BTreeMap::new(),
};

if let Some(provider) = OtelProvider::from(&settings)? {
    let registry = tracing_subscriber::registry()
        .with(provider.logger_layer())
        .with(provider.tracing_layer());
    registry.init();
}

Configured span attributes and W3C tracestate member fields are applied to exported trace spans and propagated trace context:

[otel.span_attributes]
"example.trace_attr" = "enabled"

[otel.tracestate.example]
alpha = "one"
beta = "two"

Configured tracestate members and encoded values must be valid W3C tracestate. Each nested table is encoded as semicolon-separated key:value fields inside that member. If propagated trace context already has the named member, Codex upserts configured fields and preserves other fields in that member. This config shape does not support setting opaque tracestate member values. Invalid trace metadata entries are ignored during config load and reported as startup warnings.

SessionTelemetry (events)

SessionTelemetry adds consistent metadata to tracing events and helps record Codex-specific session events. Rich session/business events should go through SessionTelemetry; subsystem-owned audit events can stay with the owning subsystem.

use codex_otel::SessionTelemetry;

let manager = SessionTelemetry::new(
    conversation_id,
    model,
    slug,
    account_id,
    account_email,
    auth_mode,
    originator,
    log_user_prompts,
    terminal_type,
    session_source,
);

manager.user_prompt(&prompt_items);

Metrics (OTLP or in-memory)

Modes:

  • OTLP: exports metrics via the OpenTelemetry OTLP exporter (HTTP or gRPC).
  • In-memory: records via opentelemetry_sdk::metrics::InMemoryMetricExporter for tests/assertions; call shutdown() to flush.

codex-otel also provides OtelExporter::Statsig, a shorthand for exporting OTLP/HTTP JSON metrics to Statsig using Codex-internal defaults.

Statsig ingestion (OTLP/HTTP JSON) example:

use codex_otel::config::{OtelExporter, OtelHttpProtocol};

let metrics = MetricsClient::new(MetricsConfig::otlp(
    "dev",
    "codex-cli",
    env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"),
    OtelExporter::OtlpHttp {
        endpoint: "https://api.statsig.com/otlp".to_string(),
        headers: std::collections::HashMap::from([(
            "statsig-api-key".to_string(),
            std::env::var("STATSIG_SERVER_SDK_SECRET")?,
        )]),
        protocol: OtelHttpProtocol::Json,
        tls: None,
    },
))?;

metrics.counter("codex.session_started", 1, &[("source", "tui")])?;
metrics.histogram("codex.request_latency", 83, &[("route", "chat")])?;

In-memory (tests):

let exporter = InMemoryMetricExporter::default();
let metrics = MetricsClient::new(MetricsConfig::in_memory(
    "test",
    "codex-cli",
    env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"),
    exporter.clone(),
))?;
metrics.counter("codex.turns", 1, &[("model", "gpt-5.1")])?;
metrics.shutdown()?; // flushes in-memory exporter

Trace context

Trace propagation helpers remain separate from the session event emitter:

use codex_otel::current_span_w3c_trace_context;
use codex_otel::set_parent_from_w3c_trace_context;

Shutdown

  • OtelProvider::shutdown() stops the OTEL exporter.
  • SessionTelemetry::shutdown_metrics() flushes and shuts down the metrics provider.

Both are optional because drop performs best-effort shutdown, but calling them explicitly gives deterministic flushing (or a shutdown error if flushing does not complete in time).