Distributed Tracing Specialist

Distributed Tracing Specialist

Compact skill for implementing OpenTelemetry distributed tracing with Jaeger in HuleEdu services.

When to Use

Activate when the user:

• Needs to initialize OpenTelemetry tracing for a service
• Wants to create spans for operations or requests
• Asks about trace context propagation across services
• Needs to correlate traces with logs and metrics
• Wants to understand W3C Trace Context standard
• Mentions OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, distributed tracing, or spans
• Needs help with tracing middleware for Quart/FastAPI

Core Capabilities

• Tracer Initialization: Configure OpenTelemetry with Jaeger OTLP endpoint
• Span Creation: Create spans for operations with automatic timing
• Trace Context Propagation: W3C Trace Context across HTTP and Kafka
• Middleware Integration: Automatic tracing for HTTP requests (Quart/FastAPI)
• Correlation: Link traces with correlation IDs, logs, and metrics
• Error Recording: Automatic exception recording in spans
• Context Injection/Extraction: Propagate traces through event metadata
• Context7 Integration: Fetch latest OpenTelemetry/Jaeger documentation

Quick Workflow

1. Initialize tracer at service startup with service name
2. Setup tracing middleware for automatic HTTP span creation
3. Create spans for important operations
4. Inject trace context when publishing events
5. Extract trace context when consuming events
6. View traces in Jaeger UI (http://localhost:16686)

Tracer Initialization

from huleedu_service_libs.observability.tracing import init_tracing

# In app.py startup
tracer = init_tracing("spellchecker_service")

Middleware Setup

from huleedu_service_libs.middleware.frameworks.quart_middleware import (
    setup_tracing_middleware
)

@app.before_serving
async def startup():
    setup_tracing_middleware(app, tracer)

Span Creation Pattern

from huleedu_service_libs.observability.tracing import trace_operation

async def process_essay(essay_id: str) -> None:
    with trace_operation(
        tracer,
        "process_essay",
        attributes={"essay_id": essay_id}
    ) as span:
        # Work happens here (timed automatically)
        result = await spell_checker.check(essay)
        span.set_attribute("corrections_count", len(result.corrections))

Jaeger UI Access

• URL: http://localhost:16686
• Service: Select service from dropdown
• Query: Find traces by service, operation, or tags

Reference Documentation

• Detailed Tracing Patterns: See reference.md in this directory
• Real-World Tracing Examples: See examples.md in this directory
• Tracing Library: /libs/huleedu_service_libs/src/huleedu_service_libs/observability/tracing.py
• Middleware: /libs/huleedu_service_libs/src/huleedu_service_libs/middleware/frameworks/quart_middleware.py