OtelKit

An "almost magical" OpenTelemetry integration for .NET 9 - Presets for logs, traces, and metrics with minimal configuration.

🚀 Features

• One-line setup for complete observability (logs, traces, metrics)
• Minimal dependencies in the Core package
• Convention over configuration with sensible defaults
• Azure Monitor / Application Insights integration via optional adapter
• Automatic instrumentation for ASP.NET Core, HttpClient, and more
• Production-ready with best practices built-in

📦 Packages

Package	Description	NuGet
OtelKit.Core	Minimal, dependency-light OpenTelemetry helper
OtelKit.Azure	Optional Azure Monitor / Application Insights adapter

🎯 Quick Start

Basic Setup (Console Output)

Perfect for development and testing:

using OtelKit.Core;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// One-line setup with console output
builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options => 
    options.UseConsole()
);

var app = builder.Build();
app.Run();

Azure Monitor Integration

For production with Application Insights:

using OtelKit.Core;
using OtelKit.Azure;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// One-line setup with Azure Monitor
builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options => 
    options.UseAzureMonitor(builder.Configuration["ApplicationInsights:ConnectionString"]!)
);

var app = builder.Build();
app.Run();

Or use environment variables:

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options => 
    options.UseAzureMonitorFromEnvironment()
);

🎨 Advanced Configuration

Custom Service Information

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options => options
    .WithService("MyAwesomeService", "1.0.0", "Production")
    .UseConsole()
);

Resource Attributes

Add custom attributes to your telemetry:

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options => options
    .WithResourceAttribute("environment", "production")
    .WithResourceAttribute("datacenter", "us-east-1")
    .WithResourceAttribute("team", "platform")
    .UseAzureMonitor(connectionString)
);

Selective Telemetry

Disable specific telemetry types if needed:

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options => options
    .DisableMetrics()  // Only logs and traces
    .UseAzureMonitor(connectionString)
);

Multiple Exporters

Combine console output with Azure Monitor:

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options => options
    .UseConsole()
    .UseAzureMonitor(connectionString)
);

Custom Configuration

For advanced scenarios, use the ConfigureWith method:

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options => options
    .ConfigureWith((serviceProvider, context) =>
    {
        // Access the tracing builder
        context.TracingBuilder?.AddSource("MyCustomSource");
        
        // Access the metrics builder
        context.MetricsBuilder?.AddMeter("MyCustomMeter");
        
        // Access the logging options
        if (context.LoggingOptions != null)
        {
            context.LoggingOptions.IncludeScopes = true;
        }
    })
);

⚙️ Configuration Options Reference

OtelKit provides flexible configuration through OtelKitOptions. You can configure it using either the fluent API or direct property assignment.

Fluent API (Recommended)

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options => options
    .WithService("MyService", "1.0.0", "MyNamespace")
    .UseConsole()
    .DisableMetrics()
    .DisableLogging()
);

Direct Configuration

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options =>
{
    options.ServiceName = "MyService";
    options.ServiceVersion = "1.0.0";
    options.ServiceNamespace = "MyNamespace";
    options.EnableConsoleExporter = true;
    options.EnableMetrics = false;
    options.EnableLogging = false;
});

Available Options

Service Identification

Property	Type	Default	Description
ServiceName	string	"UnknownService"	Identifies your service in telemetry data
ServiceVersion	string?	null	Version of your service
ServiceNamespace	string?	null	Logical namespace for grouping services

Telemetry Signals

Property	Type	Default	Description
EnableTracing	bool	true	Enable distributed tracing
EnableMetrics	bool	true	Enable metrics collection
EnableLogging	bool	true	Enable log export to OpenTelemetry

Exporters

Property	Type	Default	Description
EnableConsoleExporter	bool	false	Output telemetry to console for debugging

Instrumentation

Property	Type	Default	Description
EnableAspNetCoreInstrumentation	bool	true	Auto-instrument ASP.NET Core requests
EnableHttpClientInstrumentation	bool	true	Auto-instrument outgoing HTTP calls

Advanced

Property	Type	Default	Description
ResourceAttributes	Dictionary<string, object>	new()	Custom attributes for the telemetry resource

Common Configuration Scenarios

Development Environment (Console Only)

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options =>
{
    options.ServiceName = "MyApi";
    options.EnableConsoleExporter = true;
});

Production with Traces and Logs Only

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options =>
{
    options.ServiceName = "MyApi";
    options.ServiceVersion = "1.0.0";
    options.EnableMetrics = false;
});

Minimal Configuration (No Auto-Instrumentation)

builder.Services.AddOtelKit(options =>
{
    options.ServiceName = "MyApi";
    options.EnableAspNetCoreInstrumentation = false;
    options.EnableHttpClientInstrumentation = false;
});

📚 What's Included?

Automatic Instrumentation

OtelKit automatically instruments:

• ✅ ASP.NET Core (HTTP requests, MVC, minimal APIs)
• ✅ HttpClient (outgoing HTTP calls)
• ✅ .NET Runtime metrics (GC, thread pool, exceptions)

Telemetry Types

• Traces - Distributed tracing for request flows
• Metrics - Performance counters and custom metrics
• Logs - Structured logging with correlation

🏗️ Architecture

OtelKit follows a modular architecture:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│         Your Application            │
└──────────────┬──────────────────────┘
               │
               ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│         OtelKit.Core                │
│  (Core abstractions + OpenTelemetry)│
└──────────────┬──────────────────────┘
               │
               ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│       Optional Adapters             │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │      OtelKit.Azure           │   │
│  │  (Azure Monitor Exporter)    │   │
│  └─────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

🧪 Testing

Run all tests:

dotnet test

Run specific test project:

dotnet test tests/OtelKit.Core.Tests
dotnet test tests/OtelKit.Azure.Tests

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

📖 Documentation

For more detailed documentation, see the docs folder.

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built on top of the excellent OpenTelemetry .NET project.

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Made with ❤️ for the .NET community