microsoft/opentelemetry-distro-dotnet

microsoft/opentelemetry-distro-dotnet

Language: C#

License: NOASSERTION

Stars: 4

Forks: 9

Open issues: 3

Created: 2026-04-06T22:32:32Z

Pushed: 2026-10-09T18:17:53Z

Default branch: main

Fork: no

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README:

Microsoft.OpenTelemetry

A unified OpenTelemetry distribution for .NET. One-line onboarding for ASP.NET Core apps, Microsoft Agent Framework, and Agent365 — Microsoft's managed observability backend for AI agents.

Targets: net8.0, netstandard2.0

Install

dotnet add package Microsoft.OpenTelemetry

Quick Start

ASP.NET Core / Worker Services (hosted)

using Microsoft.OpenTelemetry;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.UseMicrosoftOpenTelemetry(o =>
{
o.Exporters = ExportTarget.AzureMonitor;
});

var app = builder.Build();
app.Run();

Console / non-hosted apps

using Microsoft.OpenTelemetry;
using OpenTelemetry;

var sdk = OpenTelemetrySdk.Create(otel =>
{
otel.UseMicrosoftOpenTelemetry(o =>
{
o.Exporters = ExportTarget.AzureMonitor;
});
});

// Your application logic here.
// The SDK must stay alive for the lifetime of the app.
// Disposing the SDK flushes pending telemetry and shuts down all providers.

sdk.Dispose();

> Important: Do not dispose the SDK until your application is shutting down. Disposing it early stops all telemetry collection and export — you will lose data.

> UseMicrosoftOpenTelemetry() works on any IOpenTelemetryBuilder — both the host-integrated and OpenTelemetrySdk.Create() paths are supported.

Signals & destinations

| Signal | Azure Monitor | Agent365 | OTLP | Console | |---|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:| | Traces | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | | Metrics | ✅ | — | ✅ | ✅ | | Logs | ✅ | — | ✅ | ✅ |

Exporters auto-detect when Exporters isn't set:

• Azure Monitor — enabled when ConnectionString is set (code, env var APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING, or IConfiguration).
• Agent365 — enabled when TokenResolver is set (or when the DI token cache is registered by Microsoft.Agents.A365.Observability.Hosting).

Set explicitly to override auto-detection: o.Exporters = ExportTarget.AzureMonitor | ExportTarget.Agent365;

Instrumentation (always active)

• ASP.NET Core incoming HTTP requests
• HTTP client outbound calls (with Azure SDK dedup filter)
• SQL client queries
• Azure SDK client calls
• Resource detection (Azure App Service, VM, Container Apps)
• Agent365 scopes (InvokeAgentScope, InferenceScope, ExecuteToolScope, OutputScope) and baggage propagation
• Microsoft Agent Framework — Experimental.Microsoft.Agents.AI activity sources
• Semantic Kernel — Microsoft.SemanticKernel* activity sources
• OpenAI / Azure OpenAI — Azure.AI.OpenAI*, OpenAI.*, Experimental.Microsoft.Extensions.AI
• Azure SDK EventSource → ILogger log forwarding
• Metrics — Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting, System.Net.Http

Onboarding by scenario

Pick the section that matches your workload. All can be combined in the same app.

---

1. Azure Monitor

Send traces, metrics, and logs to Application Insights / Azure Monitor.

builder.UseMicrosoftOpenTelemetry(o =>
{
o.Exporters = ExportTarget.AzureMonitor;
o.AzureMonitor.ConnectionString = "InstrumentationKey=...";
});

Configuration sources — the connection string can be set via code, appsettings.json, or the APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING environment variable.

📖 Full guide: [Azure Monitor Getting Started](docs/azure-monitor-getting-started.md)

---

2. Microsoft Agent Framework

Capture activity from Agent Framework agents and export to Azure Monitor, OTLP, or both.

builder.UseMicrosoftOpenTelemetry(o =>
{
o.Exporters = ExportTarget.AzureMonitor | ExportTarget.Otlp;
});

Agent Framework activity sources are captured automatically — no extra configuration needed.

📖 Full guide: [Agent Framework Getting Started](docs/agent-framework-getting-started.md)

---

3. Agent365

Send agent telemetry (invoke agent, inference, tool execution, output) to the Agent365 observability backend.

builder.UseMicrosoftOpenTelemetry(o =>
{
o.Exporters = ExportTarget.Agent365;
o.Agent365.TokenResolver = async (agentId, tenantId) =>
{
return await MyTokenService.GetTokenAsync(agentId, tenantId);
};
});

📖 Full guide: [Agent365 Getting Started](docs/agent365-getting-started.md)

---

4. Microsoft Fabric / Azure Data Explorer

Send traces, metrics, and logs to Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence or Azure Data Explorer via an OpenTelemetry Collector with the Azure Data Explorer exporter.

builder.UseMicrosoftOpenTelemetry(o =>
{
o.Exporters = ExportTarget.Otlp;
});

The app sends OTLP to a collector, which forwards to Fabric/ADX. No code changes needed — just configure the collector.

📖 Full guide: [Fabric Getting Started](docs/fabric-getting-started.md)

---

Combining destinations

builder.UseMicrosoftOpenTelemetry(o =>
{
o.Exporters = ExportTarget.AzureMonitor | ExportTarget.Agent365 | ExportTarget.Otlp;

o.AzureMonitor.ConnectionString = "InstrumentationKey=...";
o.Agent365.TokenResolver = async (agentId, tenantId) =>
{
return await MyTokenService.GetTokenAsync(agentId, tenantId);
};
});

Options reference

Full surface of MicrosoftOpenTelemetryOptions. Everything is opt-in; values shown are defaults.

builder.UseMicrosoftOpenTelemetry(o =>
{
// --- Export targets (pick one or combine with |) ---
o.Exporters = ExportTarget.Console // Console output (dev)
| ExportTarget.Agent365 // Agent365 observability platform
| ExportTarget.AzureMonitor // Application Insights
| ExportTarget.Otlp; // OTLP (Aspire, Jaeger, Grafana)

// --- Azure Monitor settings ---
o.AzureMonitor.ConnectionString = "InstrumentationKey=...";
o.AzureMonitor.Credential = new DefaultAzureCredential(); // Optional AAD auth
o.AzureMonitor.SamplingRatio = 1.0f;
o.AzureMonitor.TracesPerSecond = 5.0; // Rate-limited sampling (default)
o.AzureMonitor.EnableLiveMetrics = true;
o.AzureMonitor.EnableStandardMetrics = true;
o.AzureMonitor.EnablePerfCounters = true;
o.AzureMonitor.EnableTraceBasedLogsSampler = true;
o.AzureMonitor.DisableOfflineStorage = false;...