Observability Quickstart

Tip

Open Outbox supports native OTLP metrics and traces. Use our pre-built Grafana dashboard and the configurations in the configs/ directory to get started quickly.

Basic Configuration

To enable telemetry, configure your environment to export data via OTLP:

OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER=otlp
OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER=otlp
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4317
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc

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Tip

OpenTelemetry defaults to a 60-second export interval. For faster feedback during testing, set OTEL_METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL=1000 to export metrics every second.

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Backlog stats

Backlog metrics (pending_count and oldest_age_seconds) require heavy database queries. To prevent potential throughput impact, these are disabled by default.

Enable them by setting:

ENABLE_STATS=true

For a full list of available metrics and trace attributes, check the Diagnostics Reference.