GitHub Copilot → OpenObserve

Monitor GitHub Copilot agent sessions in OpenObserve using OpenTelemetry.

Both the Copilot Chat extension in VS Code and the Copilot CLI ship with a native OpenTelemetry exporter. Point it at OpenObserve's OTLP endpoint and every agent interaction — model calls, tool executions, token usage — streams in directly. No collector, no SDK, no custom code.

What you get

Signal	Examples	Stored in OpenObserve as
Traces	span tree per agent turn: `invoke_agent` → `chat`, `execute_tool`, `execute_hook`, following the OTel GenAI semantic conventions	A traces stream
Metrics	token-usage histograms, operation durations, tool call counts, edit acceptance	Metric streams
Events	inference details, session starts, tool invocations, agent turns	A log stream

Prerequisites

GitHub Copilot with an active subscription — the Copilot CLI (npm install -g @github/copilot) and/or VS Code with the Copilot Chat extension
An OpenObserve account (cloud or self-hosted)
Your OpenObserve organisation ID and Base64-encoded auth token

Setup

1. Get your OpenObserve endpoint and auth token

OpenObserve accepts OTLP over HTTP at https://<your-openobserve-host>/api/<your-org>. The exporter appends /v1/traces, /v1/metrics, and /v1/logs itself, so configure the base endpoint with no trailing slash.

Generate the Authorization value (Basic <base64(email:password)>):

echo -n 'your-email:your-password' | base64

2. Configure GitHub Copilot

Export the OTLP environment variables before starting copilot (add to your shell profile to persist):

export COPILOT_OTEL_ENABLED=true
export COPILOT_OTEL_EXPORTER_TYPE=otlp-http
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="https://<your-openobserve-host>/api/<your-org>"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="Authorization=Basic <base64-token>"
export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=github-copilot

All three of the first variables matter: without COPILOT_OTEL_EXPORTER_TYPE=otlp-http the CLI writes telemetry to a local file exporter instead of sending OTLP, and without OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf it sends OTLP JSON, which OpenObserve rejects with a 400.

Add to VS Code settings.json:

{
  "github.copilot.chat.otel.enabled": true,
  "github.copilot.chat.otel.exporterType": "otlp-http",
  "github.copilot.chat.otel.otlpEndpoint": "https://<your-openobserve-host>/api/<your-org>"
}

The auth header cannot be set in settings.json — it comes from the environment, so launch VS Code with the variable set:

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="Authorization=Basic <base64-token>"
code .

Environment variables

Variable	Description	Default
`COPILOT_OTEL_ENABLED`	Enable OTel export	`false`
`COPILOT_OTEL_EXPORTER_TYPE`	Exporter backend — set to `otlp-http` (CLI defaults to a local `file` exporter)	`file`
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT`	OpenObserve base endpoint, no trailing slash	—
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS`	Auth headers (`Authorization=Basic <base64-token>`)	—
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL`	Set to `http/protobuf` — required for OpenObserve	`http/json`
`OTEL_SERVICE_NAME`	Service name on all telemetry	`copilot-chat`
`OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES`	Extra resource attributes (`key1=val1,key2=val2`)	—
`COPILOT_OTEL_CAPTURE_CONTENT`	Capture full prompt/response text	`false`
`COPILOT_OTEL_LOG_LEVEL`	Minimum event level (`trace`…`error`)	`info`

OTLP over HTTP only for the CLI

The Copilot CLI exports over OTLP HTTP only — if grpc is configured it silently falls back to HTTP. Use the HTTP endpoint form shown above.

Prompt capture is off by default

COPILOT_OTEL_CAPTURE_CONTENT=true includes full prompt and response text in the telemetry. Leave it off unless you have a deliberate reason, and make sure OpenObserve retention and access controls match your data-handling policy.

3. Verify

Run a Copilot session — e.g. copilot in a terminal, ask it something — or use Copilot Chat in VS Code.
In OpenObserve, open Traces and filter by service_name = 'github-copilot' (or copilot-chat if you didn't set a service name). Each turn appears as an invoke_agent root span with a chat <model> child carrying gen_ai_provider_name, the model, and token usage.
Open Metrics and look for the Copilot token-usage and duration streams.

GitHub Copilot trace in OpenObserve

What Gets Captured

Attribute	Description
`gen_ai_operation_name`	Operation per span (`invoke_agent`, `chat`, `execute_tool`)
`gen_ai_provider_name`	Model provider behind the request
`gen_ai_request_model` / `gen_ai_response_model`	Model used for the turn
`gen_ai_usage_input_tokens` / `gen_ai_usage_output_tokens`	Token usage per model call
`gen_ai_tool_name`	Tool invoked in `execute_tool` spans
`github_copilot_agent_type`	Copilot agent surface (CLI, chat)
`github_copilot_git_repository`	Repository the session ran in
`span_status`	`OK` on success, `ERROR` on failure
`duration`	Latency of each agent step

With COPILOT_OTEL_CAPTURE_CONTENT=true, prompt and response text are added to the inference spans.

Org-wide rollout

GitHub Enterprise administrators can mandate the OTel destination centrally via the telemetry block in enterprise-managed settings, so telemetry from every developer's VS Code and Copilot CLI flows to OpenObserve without per-user environment variables.

Troubleshooting

The CLI logs its OTel state to ~/.copilot/logs/ — set COPILOT_OTEL_LOG_LEVEL=debug for detail. On startup you should see OpenTelemetry enabled: exporter=otlp-http.

Symptom	Cause	Fix
No data at all	Exporter not enabled	Set `COPILOT_OTEL_ENABLED=true` and restart the session
Log shows `exporter=file`	Default exporter is a local file	Set `COPILOT_OTEL_EXPORTER_TYPE=otlp-http`
Log shows `HTTP export failed: network error`	OTLP JSON payload rejected by OpenObserve (`400`)	Set `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf`
`404` on export	Trailing slash on the endpoint	Use `.../api/<org>` with no trailing `/`
`401`/`403` errors	Wrong auth header	Re-encode `email:password`; header is `Authorization=Basic <base64>`
Traces but no content	Content capture disabled (default)	Set `COPILOT_OTEL_CAPTURE_CONTENT=true` if you need it
VS Code sends nothing	Env var not visible to the app	Launch VS Code from a shell that has `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS` exported