OpenTelemetry

Already instrumented? Then you do not need a console client at all. Point a collector's logs pipeline at the console and error-level records become console errors — grouped, prioritised, alerted and browsable like everything else.

Before you start

You need the project's api_key and a running OpenTelemetry Collector (or an SDK that can export OTLP/HTTP directly).

1. Decide whether this is the right door

• Use OTLP if you already run a collector, or your language has an OTel SDK and no console client.
• Use a console client if you want batching at shutdown, redaction and automatic context without configuring a pipeline.
• Both at once is fine. They land in the same queue.

2. Know what the endpoint accepts

Why logs and not traces? A console is a place where a person decides what to fix. Traces are for a system that decides what is slow. Sending spans here would fill the grid with things nobody can act on.

3. Configure the exporter

exporters:
  otlphttp/console:
    logs_endpoint: https://yourconsole.cloud/api/v1/ingest/otel
    encoding: json                      # protobuf is refused with 415
    headers:
      X-Console-Key: ${env:CONSOLE_KEY}

processors:
  filter/errors:                        # send what a person should see
    logs:
      log_record:
        - 'severity_number < SEVERITY_NUMBER_WARN'
  batch:
    send_batch_size: 200
    timeout: 5s

service:
  pipelines:
    logs:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [filter/errors, batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp/console]

Point the SDK's OTLP/HTTP log exporter at the endpoint:

	OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_ENDPOINT=https://yourconsole.cloud/api/v1/ingest/otel
	OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_PROTOCOL=http/json
	OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_HEADERS=X-Console-Key=<api_key>

A collector in between is still worth it: it batches, filters and survives
your app restarting.

services:
  collector:
    image: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib:latest
    command: ["--config=/etc/otel/config.yaml"]
    environment:
      CONSOLE_KEY: ${CONSOLE_KEY}
    volumes:
      - ./otel-config.yaml:/etc/otel/config.yaml:ro
    ports:
      - "4318:4318"

4. Know what maps to what

5. Avoid the three things that trip people up

• Protobuf is refused. Set encoding: json on the exporter or every export answers 415.
• Filter before exporting. Without the filter processor you will ship every INFO line your services emit and the priority gate will drop them — bandwidth spent to be ignored.
• Metrics are one counter. A monotonic DELTA sum named console.rollup.requests, gated per project. Everything else in a metrics export is reported back through partialSuccess and never stored.

6. Check it worked

Send one WARN-level record and watch the grid.

Next: the wire-level detail is in Ingest API v1; the rules a client follows are in Build your own client.