Node.js

The @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node package starts the OpenTelemetry SDK before your code loads. It instruments Express, Fastify, Koa, NestJS, http, fetch, database drivers, Redis, Kafka and more without code changes.

Use this page when you run a Node.js service (JavaScript or TypeScript) and want it in FuseScope. For browser apps, see Real User Monitoring.

Signal	Status	What is sent
Traces	Stable	Spans for requests, HTTP calls, database and messaging.
Metrics	Stable	HTTP server/client metrics, plus what your code records.
Logs	Development	pino, winston and bunyan records with trace IDs.

Prerequisites

Node.js on an active or maintenance LTS release. Current package versions require Node.js 22.15 or later.
A FuseScope collector you can reach on port 4317 or 4318. See OTLP.

Install and run

Install the packages:

npm install --save @opentelemetry/api @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node

Configure the SDK:

export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=checkout
export OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=deployment.environment.name=production,service.version=1.4.2
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://fusescope-collector.example.com:4318
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf
export OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER=otlp
export OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER=otlp
export OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER=otlp

Load the instrumentation before your app:

export NODE_OPTIONS="--require @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node/register"
node app.js

Useful settings:

Variable	Example	Purpose
`OTEL_NODE_ENABLED_INSTRUMENTATIONS`	`http,express,pg`	Only load these (names without `@opentelemetry/instrumentation-`).
`OTEL_NODE_DISABLED_INSTRUMENTATIONS`	`fs,dns`	Skip these. `fs` is off by default.
`OTEL_NODE_RESOURCE_DETECTORS`	`env,host,os`	Resource detectors to run. All run by default.
`OTEL_LOG_LEVEL`	`debug`	The SDK’s own diagnostic output, printed to the console.

Send to FuseScope

OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://fusescope-collector.example.com:4317
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc

OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://fusescope-collector.example.com:4318
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf

Behind the chart ingress, use https://otlp.example.com. See from outside the cluster.

OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf

Run the collector with Docker, on a VM or in Kubernetes.

Docker

The packages are regular dependencies, so they are in node_modules after npm ci:

FROM node:22-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --omit=dev
COPY . .
ENV NODE_OPTIONS="--require @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node/register"
CMD ["node", "app.js"]

docker run \
  -e OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=checkout \
  -e OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=deployment.environment.name=production \
  -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://fusescope-collector.example.com:4318 \
  -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf \
  -e OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER=otlp \
  checkout:latest

Kubernetes

Set the variables in the pod spec. The downward API adds the pod name and namespace:

env:
  - name: NODE_OPTIONS
    value: --require @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node/register
  - name: OTEL_SERVICE_NAME
    value: checkout
  - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT
    value: http://fusescope-otel-collector.fusescope.svc.cluster.local:4318
  - name: OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL
    value: http/protobuf
  - name: K8S_POD_NAME
    valueFrom:
      fieldRef:
        fieldPath: metadata.name
  - name: K8S_NAMESPACE_NAME
    valueFrom:
      fieldRef:
        fieldPath: metadata.namespace
  - name: OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES
    value: deployment.environment.name=production,k8s.pod.name=$(K8S_POD_NAME),k8s.namespace.name=$(K8S_NAMESPACE_NAME)

$(VAR) only expands variables defined earlier in the list, so keep OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES last.

Logs

The pino, winston and bunyan instrumentations are included. Each does two things, both on by default:

Correlation: adds trace_id and span_id to records written inside a span, so they also appear in stdout.
Sending: forwards each record to the OpenTelemetry Logs SDK, which exports it over OTLP when OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER=otlp.

Library	Sending needs
pino	pino 7 or later.
winston	winston 3, and `npm install @opentelemetry/winston-transport`.
bunyan	Nothing extra.

console.log is not captured. If a collector already reads your stdout, set OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER=none so each line is stored once.

Check that data arrives

Send a few requests to the service.
Open Services. The service appears under its OTEL_SERVICE_NAME within a minute.
Open the Traces explorer and filter by service.name.

Nothing arrives? Run with OTEL_LOG_LEVEL=debug to see export errors, and check the endpoint and protocol match (4318 with http/protobuf, 4317 with grpc).