[docs] Update tracing.md with up-to-date way of doing things (#4452)

Updates tracing docs with the latest stufffff

Closes https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues/4446

Reviewed-on: https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/pulls/4452
Co-authored-by: tobi <tobi.smethurst@protonmail.com>
Co-committed-by: tobi <tobi.smethurst@protonmail.com>
This commit is contained in:
tobi 2025-09-22 15:32:04 +02:00 committed by tobi
commit 121677754c

View file

@ -1,25 +1,20 @@
# Tracing # Tracing
GoToSocial comes with [OpenTelemetry][otel] based tracing built-in. It's not wired through every function, but our HTTP handlers and database library will create spans. How to configure tracing is explained in the [Observability configuration reference][obs]. GoToSocial comes with [OpenTelemetry][otel] based tracing built-in. It's not wired through every function, but our HTTP handlers and database library will create spans that may help you debug issues.
## Enabling tracing
To enable tracing on your instance, you must set `tracing-enabled` to `true` in your config.yaml file. Then, you must set the environment variable `OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER` to your desired tracing format. A list of available options is available [here](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/languages/sdk-configuration/general/#otel_traces_exporter). Once you have changed your config and set the environment variable, restart your instance.
If necessary, you can do further configuration of tracing using the other environment variables listed [here](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/languages/sdk-configuration/general/).
## Ingesting traces
In order to receive the traces, you need something to ingest them and then visualise them. There are many options available including self-hosted and commercial options. In order to receive the traces, you need something to ingest them and then visualise them. There are many options available including self-hosted and commercial options.
We provide an example of how to do this using [Grafana Tempo][tempo] to ingest the spans and [Grafana][grafana] to explore them. Please beware that the configuration we provide is not suitable for a production setup. It can be used safely for local development and can provide a good starting point for setting up your own tracing infrastructure. In [`example/tracing`][ext] we provide an example of how to do this using [Grafana Tempo][tempo] to ingest the spans and [Grafana][grafana] to explore them. You can use the files with `docker-compose up -d` to get Tempo and Grafana running.
You'll need the files in [`example/tracing`][ext]. Once you have those you can run `docker-compose up -d` to get Tempo and Grafana running. With both services running, you can add the following to your GoToSocial configuration and restart your instance: Please be aware that while the example configuration we provide can be used safely for local development and can provide a good starting point for setting up your own tracing infrastructure, it is not suitable for a so-called "production" setup.
```yaml
tracing-enabled: true
tracing-transport: "grpc"
tracing-endpoint: "localhost:4317"
tracing-insecure-transport: true
```
[otel]: https://opentelemetry.io/
[obs]: ../configuration/observability_and_metrics.md
[tempo]: https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/
[grafana]: https://grafana.com/oss/grafana/
[ext]: https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/tree/main/example/tracing
## Querying and visualising traces ## Querying and visualising traces
@ -27,18 +22,23 @@ Once you execute a few queries against your instance, you'll be able to find the
Using TraceQL, a simple query to find all traces related to requests to `/api/v1/instance` would look like this: Using TraceQL, a simple query to find all traces related to requests to `/api/v1/instance` would look like this:
``` ```traceql
{.http.route = "/api/v1/instance"} {.http.route = "/api/v1/instance"}
``` ```
If you wanted to see all GoToSocial traces, you could instead run: If you wanted to see all GoToSocial traces, you could instead run:
``` ```traceql
{.service.name = "GoToSocial"} {.service.name = "GoToSocial"}
``` ```
Once you select a trace, a second panel will open up visualising the span. You can drill down from there, by clicking into every sub-span to see what it was doing. Once you select a trace, a second panel will open up visualising the span. You can drill down from there, by clicking into every sub-span to see what it was doing.
![Grafana showing a trace for the /api/v1/instance endpoint](../public/tracing.png) ![Grafana showing a trace for the /api/v1/instance endpoint](../overrides/public/tracing.png)
[traceql]: https://grafana.com/docs/tempo/latest/traceql/ [traceql]: https://grafana.com/docs/tempo/latest/traceql/
[otel]: https://opentelemetry.io/
[obs]: ../configuration/observability_and_metrics.md
[tempo]: https://grafana.com/oss/tempo/
[grafana]: https://grafana.com/oss/grafana/
[ext]: https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/src/branch/main/example/tracing