README

OpenTelemetry Symfony Bundle

Pure-PHP OpenTelemetry instrumentation for Symfony — automatic tracing for HTTP, Console, HttpClient, Messenger, Mailer, Scheduler, Doctrine DBAL, Cache, and Twig, plus Monolog log-trace correlation, OpenTelemetry log export, and opt-in metrics for Messenger, DBAL, and HTTP server/client. No C extension required.

Works with any OpenTelemetry-compatible backend: Traceway, Jaeger, Zipkin, Datadog, Grafana Tempo, Honeycomb, and more.

• Pure PHP — no C extension required; installs on every managed Symfony host
• Production-ready — stable since v1.0, PHPStan level 10 with no baseline, supports Symfony 6.4 LTS through 8.x
• Correct under load — Messenger trace context propagates across async queue boundaries, Doctrine DBAL 3 and 4 both CI-tested, re-entrance guards prevent export-path recursion in HttpClient and the log handler

Quick Start

composer require traceway/opentelemetry-symfony

OTEL_PHP_AUTOLOAD_ENABLED=true
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-symfony-app
OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER=otlp
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/json
# Optional: OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=service.version=1.0

Use http/json unless you have ext-protobuf installed — see Performance.

With Symfony Flex the bundle auto-registers; without Flex, add Traceway\OpenTelemetryBundle\OpenTelemetryBundle::class => ['all' => true] to config/bundles.php.

That's it. Every HTTP request, console command, outgoing call, Messenger job, DB query, cache operation, and Twig render is now traced.

What Gets Traced

Also: Server-Timing response headers, full OTel semantic conventions.

Configuration

All options are optional — the bundle works out of the box with zero configuration. Create config/packages/open_telemetry.yaml to customize:

open_telemetry:
    traces_enabled: true
    tracer_name: 'opentelemetry-symfony'

    excluded_paths: [/health, /_profiler, /_wdt]
    record_client_ip: true           # disable for GDPR
    error_status_threshold: 500      # 400-599

    console_enabled: true
    console_excluded_commands: [cache:clear, assets:install]

    http_client_enabled: true
    http_client_excluded_hosts: []   # OTLP endpoint is auto-excluded

    messenger_enabled: true
    messenger_root_spans: false      # true = standalone traces per consumed message

    scheduler_enabled: true          # suppresses parallel Messenger spans for scheduled tasks
    mailer_enabled: true
    mailer_record_subject: false     # subjects can be PII

    doctrine_enabled: true
    doctrine_record_statements: true # false = hide SQL from spans

    cache_enabled: true
    cache_excluded_pools: [cache.system, cache.validator, cache.serializer]

    twig_enabled: true
    twig_excluded_templates: ['@WebProfiler/', '@Debug/']

    monolog_enabled: true            # inject trace_id/span_id into log records

    log_export_enabled: false        # OTel Logs API export (requires symfony/monolog-bundle)
    log_export_level: debug
    log_export_capture_code_attributes: false  # fallback debug_backtrace when IntrospectionProcessor is absent
    log_export_unprefixed_attributes: false    # emit context/extra as flat attributes (default flips in v2.0)

    metrics:                           # nested today; flat keys above migrate to nested in v2.0
        enabled: false
        meter_name: 'opentelemetry-symfony'
        messenger:
            enabled: false
            excluded_queues: []
        doctrine:
            enabled: false
        http_server:
            enabled: false
            excluded_paths: []         # same prefix-match rules as tracing excluded_paths
        http_client:
            enabled: false
            excluded_hosts: []         # OTLP endpoint is auto-excluded

Environment Variables

See the OpenTelemetry SDK docs for all available options.

Manual Instrumentation

Inject TracingInterface for one-liner span creation:

use Traceway\OpenTelemetryBundle\TracingInterface;

class OrderService
{
    public function __construct(private readonly TracingInterface $tracing) {}

    public function process(int $orderId): void
    {
        $this->tracing->trace('order.validate', function () use ($orderId) {
            // validation logic...
        });

        $this->tracing->trace('order.fulfill', function () {
            $this->tracing->trace('inventory.reserve', fn () => $this->reserve());
            $this->tracing->trace('payment.charge', fn () => $this->charge());
        });
    }
}

Mock in tests with $this->createStub(TracingInterface::class) and have trace() invoke the callback directly.

Metrics

Off by default. Enable to export OpenTelemetry metrics alongside traces, with opt-in automatic instrumentation for Messenger, Doctrine DBAL, and HTTP server/client.

open_telemetry:
    metrics:
        enabled: true
        meter_name: 'opentelemetry-symfony'
        messenger:
            enabled: true
            excluded_queues: []
        doctrine:
            enabled: true

What Gets Measured

Names and attributes follow OTel semantic conventions (messaging, database, HTTP). http.server.request.duration and error.type are Stable; the rest are Development.

• HTTP server — only main requests are measured; sub-requests are covered by the main duration. Service identity comes from the OTel resource (OTEL_SERVICE_NAME, OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES), not from metric name prefixing.
• Messenger — excluded_queues matches the transport name on both sides (ReceivedStamp::getTransportName() on consume, SentStamp::getSenderAlias() on dispatch). A dispatched envelope landing on multiple transports emits one point per non-excluded transport.
• DBAL — records duration for Connection::query()/exec(), prepared Statement::execute(), and transaction control methods. SQL text is never recorded — only the leading keyword (db.operation.name) and the primary table when extractable (db.collection.name).

HTTP Client (outgoing requests):

http_client.excluded_hosts skips matching hostnames; the OTLP endpoint (from OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT) is always auto-excluded to prevent instrumentation loops.

Manual Metrics

Inject MeterRegistryInterface to record your own counters, histograms, and up/down counters without touching the MeterProvider directly:

use OpenTelemetry\API\Metrics\CounterInterface;
use Traceway\OpenTelemetryBundle\Metrics\MeterRegistryInterface;

final class MediaDownloader
{
    private readonly CounterInterface $downloads;

    public function __construct(MeterRegistryInterface $metrics)
    {
        $this->downloads = $metrics->counter(
            'media.download.count',
            description: 'Media downloads by outcome',
        );
    }

    public function download(string $url): void
    {
        try {
            // ... download logic
            $this->downloads->add(1, ['outcome' => 'success']);
        } catch (\Throwable $e) {
            $type = $e::class;
            if (str_contains($type, '@anonymous')) {
                $type = get_parent_class($e) ?: \Throwable::class;
            }
            $this->downloads->add(1, ['outcome' => 'error', 'error.type' => $type]);
            throw $e;
        }
    }
}

The registry caches instruments per name, so repeated ->counter('x') calls return the same instance. When the OTel SDK is not configured, the NoOp meter provider returns no-op instruments — safe to inject unconditionally. The @anonymous guard above normalises anonymous-class names to their parent; otherwise $e::class embeds a filesystem path, leaking code locations and exploding label cardinality.

Metrics Environment Variables

Performance

Near-zero overhead when the SDK is inactive — every component short-circuits via isEnabled(). When tracing is on, almost all cost is in span export, not instrumentation. PHP-FPM has no background thread, so BatchSpanProcessor flushes during request shutdown.

Use http/json unless you have ext-protobuf installed. PHP's native json_encode() is faster than the pure-PHP protobuf encoder, which adds significant CPU overhead under load. Switch to http/protobuf only with the C extension installed.

For high-traffic apps:

• Run a local OTel Collector at localhost:4318 (sub-ms latency) and let it forward asynchronously.
• Enable head sampling: OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER=parentbased_traceidratio + OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG=0.1.
• Use excluded_paths / cache_excluded_pools to drop noisy spans.

Contributing

git clone https://github.com/tracewayapp/opentelemetry-symfony-bundle.git
cd opentelemetry-symfony-bundle
composer install
vendor/bin/phpunit
vendor/bin/phpstan analyse

License

MIT