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autotel

Introduction

Autotel is a zero-boilerplate OpenTelemetry wrapper for TypeScript. It replaces 30+ lines of SDK setup with a single init() call and replaces manual span lifecycle with functional trace() wrappers.

Core Philosophy

Section titled “Core Philosophy”
  • Write once, observe everywhere: One instrumentation surface; many backends via OTLP.
  • Functional API: Wrap handlers and functions with trace(), span(), instrument(); avoid manual span lifecycle.
  • Structured errors: Errors carry message, why, fix, link so agents and users can diagnose and act.
  • Request context: Use getRequestLogger() when you need one coherent snapshot per request.

Core API

Section titled “Core API”

| Need | API / entry point | | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Wrap a function with a span | trace(fn), span(name, fn), instrument({ key, fn }) | | Request-scoped attributes | getRequestLogger(ctx?) | | Structured throw | createStructuredError({ message, why?, fix?, link?, status?, code?, cause? }) | | Parse API errors (client) | parseError(err) | | Product/analytics events | track(name, attributes) | | Init (once at startup) | init({ service, ... }) | | Testing | createTraceCollector() from autotel/testing |

Installation

Section titled “Installation”
Terminal window
npm install autotel
# or
pnpm add autotel

For auto-instrumentation (HTTP, databases, etc.), also install:

Terminal window
npm install @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node