GitHub Copilot → OpenObserve

Updated Nov 6, 2026View Markdown Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude

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

Set COPILOT_OTEL_EXPORTER_TYPE=otlp-http: without it the CLI writes telemetry to a local file exporter instead of sending OTLP.

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`
`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