npm package: @opentelemetry/instrumentation-http
Description: OpenTelemetry instrumentation for `node:http` and `node:https` http client and server modules
Author: OpenTelemetry Authors
Latest version: 0.214.0

# OpenTelemetry HTTP and HTTPS Instrumentation for Node.js

[![NPM Published Version][npm-img]][npm-url]
[![Apache License][license-image]][license-image]

**Note: This is an experimental package under active development. New releases may include breaking changes.**

This module provides automatic instrumentation for [`http`](https://nodejs.org/api/http.html) and [`https`](https://nodejs.org/api/https.html).

For automatic instrumentation see the
[@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/tree/main/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-trace-node) package.

## Installation

```bash
npm install --save @opentelemetry/instrumentation-http
```

## Supported Versions

- Nodejs `>=14`

## Usage

OpenTelemetry HTTP Instrumentation allows the user to automatically collect telemetry and export it to their backend of choice, to give observability to distributed systems.

To load a specific instrumentation (HTTP in this case), specify it in the Node Tracer's configuration.

```js
const { HttpInstrumentation } = require('@opentelemetry/instrumentation-http');
const {
  ConsoleSpanExporter,
  NodeTracerProvider,
  SimpleSpanProcessor,
} = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node');
const { registerInstrumentations } = require('@opentelemetry/instrumentation');

const provider = new NodeTracerProvider({
  spanProcessors: [new SimpleSpanProcessor(new ConsoleSpanExporter())]
});

provider.register();

registerInstrumentations({
  instrumentations: [new HttpInstrumentation()],
});

```

See [examples/http](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/tree/main/examples/http) for a short example.

### Http instrumentation Options

Http instrumentation has a few [configuration options](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/blob/e1ec4026edae53a2dea3a9a604d6d21bb5e8d99f/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-http/src/types.ts#L60-L93) available to choose from.
You can set the following:

Options                                 | Type                                       | Description
--------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | -----------
`applyCustomAttributesOnSpan`           | `HttpCustomAttributeFunction`              | Function for adding custom attributes
`requestHook`                           | `HttpRequestCustomAttributeFunction`       | Function for adding custom attributes before request is handled
`responseHook`                          | `HttpResponseCustomAttributeFunction`      | Function for adding custom attributes before response is handled
`startIncomingSpanHook`                 | `StartIncomingSpanCustomAttributeFunction` | Function for adding custom attributes before a span is started in incomingRequest
`startOutgoingSpanHook`                 | `StartOutgoingSpanCustomAttributeFunction` | Function for adding custom attributes before a span is started in outgoingRequest
`ignoreIncomingRequestHook`             | `IgnoreIncomingRequestFunction`            | HTTP instrumentation will not trace all incoming requests that matched with custom function.
`ignoreOutgoingRequestHook`             | `IgnoreOutgoingRequestFunction`            | HTTP instrumentation will not trace all outgoing requests that matched with custom function.
`disableOutgoingRequestInstrumentation` | `boolean`                                  | Set to true to avoid instrumenting outgoing requests at all. This can be helpful when another instrumentation handles outgoing requests.
`disableIncomingRequestInstrumentation` | `boolean`                                  | Set to true to avoid instrumenting incoming requests at all. This can be helpful when another instrumentation handles incoming requests.
`serverName`                            | `string`                                   | The primary server name of the matched virtual host.
`requireParentforOutgoingSpans`         | Boolean                                    | Require that is a parent span to create new span for outgoing requests.
`requireParentforIncomingSpans`         | Boolean                                    | Require that is a parent span to create new span for incoming requests.
`headersToSpanAttributes`               | `object`                                   | Specify which HTTP headers should be captured as span attributes. This is an object of the form `{client: {requestHeaders: [...], responseHeaders: [...]}, server: {requestHeaders: [...], responseHeaders: [...]}}`, where each `[...]` is an array of HTTP header names (case-insensitive) to capture. Client (outgoing requests, incoming responses) and server (incoming requests, outgoing responses) headers will be converted to span attributes in the form of `http.{request,response}.header.$header_name`, e.g. `http.response.header.content_length`. By default hyphens in header names are converted to underscore. However, if stable semantic conventions are selected (see next section), then, hyphens in header names are not changed, e.g. `http.response.header.content-length`.

## Semantic Conventions

Prior to version `0.54.0`, this instrumentation created spans targeting an experimental semantic convention [Version 1.7.0](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/v1.7.0/semantic_conventions/README.md).

HTTP semantic conventions (semconv) were stabilized in v1.23.0, and a [migration process](https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/blob/main/docs/non-normative/http-migration.md#http-semantic-convention-stability-migration) was defined.
`instrumentation-http` versions 0.54.0 and later include support for migrating to stable HTTP semantic conventions, as described below.
The intent is to provide an approximate 6 month time window for users of this instrumentation to migrate to the new HTTP semconv, after which a new minor version will use the *new* semconv by default and drop support for the old semconv.
See the [HTTP semconv migration plan for OpenTelemetry JS instrumentations](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/issues/5646).

To select which semconv version(s) is emitted from this instrumentation, use the `OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN` environment variable.

- `http`: emit the new (stable) v1.23.0+ semantics
- `http/dup`: emit **both** the old v1.7.0 and the new (stable) v1.23.0+ semantics
- By default, if `OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN` includes neither of the above tokens, the old v1.7.0 semconv is used.

### Attributes collected

v1.7.0 semconv                              | v1.23.0 semconv                     | Short Description
------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | -----
`http.client_ip`                            | `client.address`                    | The IP address of the original client behind all proxies, if known
`http.flavor`                               | `network.protocol.version`          | Kind of HTTP protocol used
`http.host`                                 | `server.address`                    | The value of the HTTP host header
`http.method`                               | `http.request.method`               | HTTP request method
`http.request_content_length`               | (opt-in, `headersToSpanAttributes`) | The size of the request payload body in bytes. For newer semconv, use the `headersToSpanAttributes` option to capture this as `http.request.header.content-length`.
`http.request_content_length_uncompressed`  | (not included)                      | The size of the uncompressed request payload body after transport decoding. (In semconv v1.23.0 this is defined by `http.request.body.size`, which is experimental and opt-in.)
`http.response_content_length`              | (opt-in, `headersToSpanAttributes`) | The size of the response payload body in bytes. For newer semconv, use the `headersToSpanAttributes` option to capture this as `http.response.header.content-length`.
`http.response_content_length_uncompressed` | (not included)                      | The size of the uncompressed response payload body after transport decoding. (In semconv v1.23.0 this is defined by `http.response.body.size`, which is experimental and opt-in.)
`http.route`                                | no change                           | The matched route (path template).
`http.scheme`                               | `url.scheme`                        | The URI scheme identifying the used protocol
`http.server_name`                          | `server.address`                    | The primary server name of the matched virtual host
`http.status_code`                          | `http.response.status_code`         | HTTP response status code
`http.target`                               | `url.path` and `url.query`          | The URI path and query component
`http.url`                                  | `url.full`                          | Full HTTP request URL in the form `scheme://host[:port]/path?query[#fragment]`
`http.user_agent`                           | `user_agent.original`               | Value of the HTTP User-Agent header sent by the client
`net.host.ip`                               | `network.local.address`             | Like net.peer.ip but for the host IP. Useful in case of a multi-IP host
`net.host.name`                             | `server.address`                    | Local hostname or similar
`net.host.port`                             | `server.port`                       | Like net.peer.port but for the host port
`net.peer.ip`                               | `network.peer.address`              | Remote address of the peer (dotted decimal for IPv4 or RFC5952 for IPv6)
`net.peer.name`                             | `server.address`                    | Server domain name if available without reverse DNS lookup
`net.peer.port`                             | `server.port`                       | Server port number
`net.transport`                             | `network.transport`                 | Transport protocol used

Metrics Exported:

- [`http.server.request.duration`](https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/blob/v1.27.0/docs/http/http-metrics.md#metric-httpserverrequestduration)
- [`http.client.request.duration`](https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/blob/v1.27.0/docs/http/http-metrics.md#metric-httpclientrequestduration)

### Upgrading Semantic Conventions

When upgrading to the new semantic conventions, it is recommended to do so in the following order:

1. Upgrade `@opentelemetry/instrumentation-http` to the latest version
2. Set `OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN=http/dup` to emit both old and new semantic conventions
3. Modify alerts, dashboards, metrics, and other processes to expect the new semantic conventions
4. Set `OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN=http` to emit only the new semantic conventions

This will cause both the old and new semantic conventions to be emitted during the transition period.

## Useful links

- For more information on OpenTelemetry, visit: <https://opentelemetry.io/>
- For more about OpenTelemetry JavaScript: <https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js>
- For help or feedback on this project, join us in [GitHub Discussions][discussions-url]

## License

Apache 2.0 - See [LICENSE][license-url] for more information.

[discussions-url]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/discussions
[license-url]: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/blob/main/LICENSE
[license-image]: https://img.shields.io/badge/license-Apache_2.0-green.svg?style=flat
[npm-url]: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@opentelemetry/instrumentation-http
[npm-img]: https://badge.fury.io/js/%40opentelemetry%2Finstrumentation-http.svg