otlp_shipper

Send Elixir logs, metrics, and traces to an OpenTelemetry collector over HTTP. Use the components you need:

Hex package · API documentation · Source

Install

Requires Elixir 1.19+ and OTP 28+. Add to your mix.exs dependencies:

{:otlp_shipper, "~> 0.2.3"}

Then run mix deps.get.

You also need a reachable collector or backend accepting OTLP/HTTP protobuf. The examples use a collector listening on localhost:4318. This package sends telemetry; it does not start a collector.

Send a log

Add this child to the children list in your application's start/2 callback:

{OtlpShipper.LogHandler,
 service_name: "checkout",
 endpoint: "http://localhost:4318/v1/logs"}

Restart your app with iex -S mix, then emit a log:

require Logger
Logger.info("checkout complete", order_id: "example-42")

After the next batch flush (one second by default), look in your collector for checkout complete under service checkout, with attribute order_id=example-42. The handler owns its HTTP pool and buffer. Keep using your normal Logger calls.

Log levels, attributes, and trace correlation →

Send a metric

Add this child to the same application supervisor:

{OtlpShipper.MetricsReporter,
 service_name: "checkout",
 endpoint: "http://localhost:4318/v1/metrics",
 metrics: [Telemetry.Metrics.counter("checkout.request.count")]}

Restart the app, then emit the event:

:telemetry.execute([:checkout, :request], %{count: 1}, %{})

The next interval exports checkout.request.count as a delta counter of 1. The metric name selects event [:checkout, :request] and measurement :count. Counters count accepted events; they do not sum the measurement value.

Histograms, units, tags, and metric types →

Send traces

Keep your OpenTelemetry API, SDK, and instrumentation. Replace the trace exporter using the trace setup and migration guide, which covers pool startup, resource identity, sampling, and rollback.

The verified pair is SDK 1.7.0 / API 1.5.0. Other versions are rejected at initialization. Trace batching stays with the SDK.

Connect to your collector

Use endpoint for a complete signal URL, or base_endpoint to append the signal path automatically. You can also omit explicit service/endpoint options and set OTEL_SERVICE_NAME and OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT in the environment. Explicit options win. Restart the component after changing configuration.

Authentication, resources, environment variables, and limits →

Know the delivery guarantees

Logs and metrics use bounded, in-memory queues. Overload, crashes, and exhausted retries can lose data; retries can duplicate data when a response is lost. Trace queueing belongs to the SDK. Flush calls do not confirm remote delivery.

Filter sensitive data before emission: size limits do not redact secrets. Avoid user IDs and other unbounded metric tags. This package supports HTTP/protobuf; use another exporter for gRPC, HTTP/JSON, or durable delivery requirements.

Find the next step