> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://openrouter.ai/docs/llms.txt.
> For full documentation content, see https://openrouter.ai/docs/llms-full.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://openrouter.ai/docs/_mcp/server.

# OpenTelemetry Collector

[OpenTelemetry](https://opentelemetry.io/) is an open-source observability framework for collecting, processing, and exporting telemetry data. OpenRouter can send traces to any backend that supports the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP), including Axiom, Jaeger, Grafana Tempo, and self-hosted collectors.

## Step 1: Get your OTLP endpoint and credentials

Set up your OpenTelemetry-compatible backend and obtain the OTLP traces endpoint URL along with any required authentication headers.

For Axiom:

1. Create an Axiom account and dataset
2. Go to **Settings > API Tokens** and create a new token
3. Your endpoint is `https://api.axiom.co/v1/traces`
4. You'll need headers: `Authorization: Bearer xaat-xxx` and `X-Axiom-Dataset: your-dataset`

For self-hosted collectors:

1. Deploy an OpenTelemetry Collector with an OTLP receiver
2. Configure the receiver to listen on a publicly accessible endpoint
3. Note the endpoint URL (typically ending in `/v1/traces`)

## Step 2: Enable Broadcast in OpenRouter

Go to [Settings > Observability](https://openrouter.ai/settings/observability) and toggle **Enable Broadcast**.

![Enable Broadcast](https://files.buildwithfern.com/openrouter.docs.buildwithfern.com/docs/3e095d95758bab05594f468011be81b7d5a2fb19293fa91d5b3923d9f09b81d8/content/pages/features/broadcast/broadcast-enable.png)

## Step 3: Configure OpenTelemetry Collector

Click the edit icon next to **OpenTelemetry Collector** and enter:

* **Endpoint**: Your OTLP traces endpoint URL (e.g., `https://api.axiom.co/v1/traces` or `https://your-collector.example.com:4318/v1/traces`)
* **Headers** (optional): Custom HTTP headers as a JSON object for authentication

Example headers for Axiom:

```json
{
  "Authorization": "Bearer xaat-your-token",
  "X-Axiom-Dataset": "your-dataset"
}
```

Example headers for authenticated collectors:

```json
{
  "Authorization": "Bearer your-token",
  "X-Custom-Header": "value"
}
```

## Step 4: Test and save

Click **Test Connection** to verify the setup. The configuration only saves if the test passes.

## Step 5: Send a test trace

Make an API request through OpenRouter and view the trace in your OpenTelemetry backend.

## Compatible backends

The OpenTelemetry Collector destination works with any backend that supports OTLP over HTTP, including:

* **Axiom** - Cloud-native log and trace management
* **Jaeger** - Distributed tracing platform
* **Grafana Tempo** - High-scale distributed tracing backend
* **Honeycomb** - Observability for distributed systems
* **Lightstep** - Cloud-native observability platform
* **Self-hosted OpenTelemetry Collector** - Route traces to multiple backends

OpenRouter sends traces using the OTLP/HTTP protocol with JSON encoding. Ensure your collector or backend is configured to accept OTLP over HTTP on the `/v1/traces` path.

## Custom Metadata

Custom metadata from the `trace` field is sent as span attributes in the OTLP payload. How this metadata appears depends on your downstream backend.

### Supported Metadata Keys

| Key               | OTLP Mapping   | Description                                      |
| ----------------- | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| `trace_id`        | Trace ID       | Group multiple requests into a single trace      |
| `trace_name`      | Span Name      | Custom name for the root span                    |
| `span_name`       | Span Name      | Name for intermediate spans in the hierarchy     |
| `generation_name` | Span Name      | Name for the LLM generation span                 |
| `parent_span_id`  | Parent Span ID | Link to an existing span in your trace hierarchy |

### Example

```json
{
  "model": "openai/gpt-4o",
  "messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Hello!" }],
  "user": "user_12345",
  "session_id": "session_abc",
  "trace": {
    "trace_id": "app_trace_001",
    "trace_name": "Chat Handler",
    "generation_name": "Generate Response",
    "environment": "staging",
    "deployment": "us-east-1"
  }
}
```

### Span Attributes

Custom metadata keys are included as span attributes under the `trace.metadata.*` namespace. For example, `environment` from the trace field becomes `trace.metadata.environment` in the OTLP payload.

Standard GenAI semantic conventions (`gen_ai.*`) are used for model, token usage, and cost attributes.

### Additional Context

* The `user` field maps to `user.id` in span attributes
* The `session_id` field maps to `session.id` in span attributes
* Your downstream backend determines how these attributes are indexed, queried, and displayed
* Using `parent_span_id` lets you link OpenRouter traces to your application's existing distributed traces

## Privacy Mode

When [Privacy Mode](/docs/guides/features/broadcast#privacy-mode) is enabled for this destination, prompt and completion content is excluded from traces. All other trace data — token usage, costs, timing, model information, and custom metadata — is still sent normally. See [Privacy Mode](/docs/guides/features/broadcast#privacy-mode) for details.