Overview
PostHog Distributed Tracing works with the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP). You don't need any vendor-specific SDKs. Use standard OpenTelemetry libraries to send spans to PostHog using your project token.
Distributed tracing is currently in alpha. Setup details may change before general availability.
Why use PostHog Distributed Tracing?
- OpenTelemetry-compatible - Use standard OpenTelemetry SDKs, no PostHog packages required. Works with any compatible client.
- Part of the observability suite - Traces use the same OpenTelemetry ingestion as Logs, in the same PostHog project as session replays, errors, and analytics.
- No vendor lock-in - Works with your existing OpenTelemetry setup.
How it works
Distributed tracing acts as a generic OTLP receiver built by PostHog. Here's how it works:
- Use standard OpenTelemetry tracing APIs in your application
- Include your project token in the Authorization header or as a query parameter
- Configure your OpenTelemetry client to send spans to PostHog's HTTP endpoint
- Search and explore your traces in the PostHog interface