Backends

autotel-backends provides vendor-specific configuration helpers that simplify init() for popular observability platforms.

If you want to send telemetry to more than one OTLP backend at once, use Autotel’s destinations config in addition to these helpers. Keep endpoint for one destination; use destinations for explicit fan-out.

Installation

npm install autotel autotel-backends

Honeycomb

import { init } from 'autotel';
import { createHoneycombConfig } from 'autotel-backends/honeycomb';

init(
  createHoneycombConfig({
    apiKey: process.env.HONEYCOMB_API_KEY!,
    service: 'my-app',
  }),
);

Datadog

For the full Datadog integration guide — including architecture choices, Agent vs. direct ingestion setup, migration from pino-datadog-transport, deployment patterns, troubleshooting, and advanced configuration — see the dedicated Datadog Integration page.

import { init } from 'autotel';
import { createDatadogConfig } from 'autotel-backends/datadog';

// Direct cloud ingestion (serverless, edge)
init(
  createDatadogConfig({
    apiKey: process.env.DATADOG_API_KEY!,
    service: 'my-lambda',
  }),
);

// Or local Datadog Agent (Kubernetes, long-running services)
init(
  createDatadogConfig({
    service: 'my-api',
    useAgent: true,
  }),
);

Available Backends

Backend	Import
Honeycomb	autotel-backends/honeycomb
Datadog	autotel-backends/datadog
Google Cloud	autotel-backends/google-cloud
Grafana	autotel-backends/grafana

Multi-backend fan-out

Use destinations when you want one app to ship to multiple OTLP backends without manually constructing exporters:

import { init } from 'autotel';

init({
  service: 'my-app',
  logs: true,
  destinations: [
    {
      endpoint: 'https://otlp-gateway-prod.grafana.net/otlp',
      headers: 'Authorization=Basic ...',
    },
    {
      endpoint: 'https://api.honeycomb.io',
      headers: { 'x-honeycomb-team': process.env.HONEYCOMB_API_KEY! },
      signals: ['traces'],
    },
  ],
});

Use the backend helpers when you want vendor-specific defaults for one destination. Use destinations when you want one service to fan out to several OTLP backends.

Examples

• example-datadog — Datadog with createDatadogConfig(), direct cloud ingestion and local agent modes.
• example-grafana — Grafana Cloud (Tempo + Mimir + Loki) via OTLP with canonical log lines.

Backends vs Plugins

Package	Purpose
autotel-backends	Configure where telemetry goes (outputs)
autotel-plugins	Instrument libraries to create telemetry (inputs)