Telemetry Configuration

Configure OpenTelemetry integration for metrics collection and distributed tracing across the Excalibur framework.

Before You Start

• .NET 8.0+ (or .NET 9/10 for latest features)
• Install the required packages:

  dotnet add package Excalibur.Dispatch.Observability
  dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Extensions.Hosting

• Familiarity with OpenTelemetry .NET concepts
• An OpenTelemetry-compatible backend (Prometheus, OTLP, Azure Monitor, etc.)

Quick Start

Register All Metrics and Tracing

The simplest approach registers all framework meters and activity sources at once:

builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .AddAllDispatchMetrics()
    .AddAllDispatchTracing();

These extension methods are defined in OpenTelemetryExtensions from the Excalibur.Dispatch.Observability package.

With Exporters

Combine with your preferred exporter:

builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .AddAllDispatchMetrics()
    .AddAllDispatchTracing()
    .WithMetrics(metrics => metrics
        .AddPrometheusExporter())
    .WithTracing(tracing => tracing
        .AddOtlpExporter());

Metrics Registration

Register All Meters (Recommended)

AddAllDispatchMetrics() registers all known meters across the entire Excalibur framework:

// On IOpenTelemetryBuilder (simplest)
builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .AddAllDispatchMetrics();

// On MeterProviderBuilder (within WithMetrics)
builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .WithMetrics(metrics => metrics
        .AddAllDispatchMetrics()
        .AddPrometheusExporter());

This registers the following meters:

Meter Name	Package	Description
Excalibur.Dispatch.Core	Dispatch	Core message processing counters and histograms
Excalibur.Dispatch.Pipeline	Dispatch	Pipeline execution metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.TimePolicy	Dispatch	Time policy metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.BatchProcessor	Dispatch	Batch processing metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport	Transport.Abstractions	Transport send/receive/error counters
Excalibur.Dispatch.DeadLetterQueue	Observability	Dead letter queue metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.CircuitBreaker	Observability	Circuit breaker state and operation metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.Streaming	Dispatch	Streaming document handler metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.Compliance	Compliance	Compliance monitoring metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.Compliance.Erasure	Compliance	GDPR erasure request metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.Encryption	Compliance	Encryption operation metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.BackgroundServices	Outbox	Background service processing metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.Sagas	Saga	Saga orchestration metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.WriteStores	Data.Abstractions	Write store operation metrics
Excalibur.Dispatch.Observability.Context	Observability	Context flow tracking metrics
Excalibur.EventSourcing.MaterializedViews	EventSourcing	Materialized view rebuild metrics
Excalibur.Data.Cdc	Data.SqlServer	Change data capture metrics
Excalibur.Data.Audit	Data.ElasticSearch	Security audit metrics
Excalibur.LeaderElection	LeaderElection	Leader election acquisition metrics

Per-Package Opt-In Registration

For fine-grained control, register individual meters:

builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .WithMetrics(metrics =>
    {
        // Core dispatch only
        metrics.AddDispatchMetrics();

        // Transport only
        metrics.AddTransportMetrics();

        // Or use AddMeter with specific names
        metrics.AddMeter("Excalibur.Dispatch.CircuitBreaker");
        metrics.AddMeter("Excalibur.LeaderElection");
    });

The AddDispatchMetrics() and AddTransportMetrics() convenience methods are available on both IOpenTelemetryBuilder and MeterProviderBuilder.

DI-Based Metrics Registration

Register metrics instrumentation services for dependency injection:

// All observability metrics (core + circuit breaker + DLQ)
builder.Services.AddAllDispatchMetrics();

// Or individually
builder.Services.AddDispatchMetricsInstrumentation();
builder.Services.AddCircuitBreakerMetrics();
builder.Services.AddDeadLetterQueueMetrics();

// With configuration
builder.Services.AddDispatchMetricsInstrumentation(options =>
{
    options.MeterName = "MyApp.Dispatch";
});

These extension methods from ObservabilityMetricsServiceCollectionExtensions register the singleton metric classes (DispatchMetrics, CircuitBreakerMetrics, DeadLetterQueueMetrics) into the DI container.

Transport-Specific Meters

Each transport registers its own meter automatically during AddXxxTransport():

Transport	Meter Name
RabbitMQ	Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.RabbitMQ
Kafka	Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.Kafka
Azure Service Bus	Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.AzureServiceBus
Google Pub/Sub	Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.GooglePubSub
AWS SQS	Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.AwsSqs

These follow the pattern Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.{TransportName} defined in TransportTelemetryConstants.MeterName().

To subscribe to transport-specific meters:

builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .WithMetrics(metrics =>
    {
        // All transports at once (wildcard)
        metrics.AddMeter("Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.*");

        // Or specific transports
        metrics.AddMeter("Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.Kafka");
        metrics.AddMeter("Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.RabbitMQ");
    });

Tracing Registration

Register All Activity Sources (Recommended)

AddAllDispatchTracing() registers all known activity sources:

// On IOpenTelemetryBuilder
builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .AddAllDispatchTracing();

// On TracerProviderBuilder
builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .WithTracing(tracing => tracing
        .AddAllDispatchTracing()
        .AddOtlpExporter());

This registers the following activity sources:

Activity Source Name	Package	Description
Excalibur.Dispatch.Core	Dispatch	Core message processing spans
Excalibur.Dispatch.Pipeline	Dispatch	Pipeline execution spans
Excalibur.Dispatch.TimePolicy	Dispatch	Time policy operation spans
Excalibur.Dispatch.Streaming	Dispatch	Streaming handler spans
Excalibur.Dispatch.Compliance.Erasure	Compliance	GDPR erasure operation spans
Excalibur.Data.Cdc	Data.SqlServer	CDC processing spans
Excalibur.Data.Audit	Data.ElasticSearch	Audit recording spans
Excalibur.LeaderElection	LeaderElection	Leader election acquisition spans

Per-Source Opt-In

builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .WithTracing(tracing =>
    {
        // Only core dispatch tracing
        tracing.AddSource("Excalibur.Dispatch.Core");

        // Or use wildcards
        tracing.AddSource("Excalibur.Dispatch.*");
    });

Pipeline-Level Telemetry

Enable OpenTelemetry middleware in the Dispatch pipeline:

builder.Services.AddDispatch(dispatch =>
{
    dispatch.UseOpenTelemetry(); // Enables tracing + metrics (recommended)
});

// Or enable individually
builder.Services.AddDispatch(dispatch =>
{
    dispatch.UseTracing();  // Distributed tracing only
    dispatch.UseMetrics();  // Metrics only
});

This registers:

• TracingMiddleware -- Creates OpenTelemetry spans for each dispatched message
• MetricsMiddleware -- Records processing duration, success/failure counts

Custom Metric Filtering

Filter by Meter Name

Use OpenTelemetry's view API to filter or customize metrics:

builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .WithMetrics(metrics =>
    {
        metrics.AddAllDispatchMetrics();

        // Drop high-cardinality tags from transport metrics
        metrics.AddView(
            instrumentName: "dispatch.transport.send.duration",
            new MetricStreamConfiguration
            {
                TagKeys = ["dispatch.transport.name"]
            });

        // Set histogram boundaries for processing duration
        metrics.AddView(
            instrumentName: "dispatch.messages.duration",
            new ExplicitBucketHistogramConfiguration
            {
                Boundaries = [1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000]
            });
    });

Suppress Specific Metrics

builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .WithMetrics(metrics =>
    {
        metrics.AddAllDispatchMetrics();

        // Drop a specific metric instrument entirely
        metrics.AddView(
            instrumentName: "dispatch.circuitbreaker.state",
            MetricStreamConfiguration.Drop);
    });

Telemetry Constants Reference

Each package exposes its telemetry names through constants classes. Use these when building custom instrumentation or filtering rules.

Constants Class	Namespace	Contains
DispatchTelemetryConstants	Excalibur.Dispatch.Diagnostics	Core meter/activity/tag names
StreamingHandlerTelemetryConstants	Excalibur.Dispatch.Diagnostics	Streaming meter/activity names
TransportTelemetryConstants	Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.Diagnostics	Transport metric/tag names
GooglePubSubTelemetryConstants	Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.GooglePubSub	Google Pub/Sub consolidated names
ContextObservabilityTelemetryConstants	Excalibur.Dispatch.Observability.Diagnostics	Context flow meter/activity names
ErasureTelemetryConstants	Excalibur.Dispatch.Compliance.Diagnostics	GDPR erasure meter/activity/metric names
CdcTelemetryConstants	Excalibur.Data.SqlServer.Diagnostics	CDC meter/activity/metric names
AuditTelemetryConstants	Excalibur.Data.ElasticSearch.Diagnostics	Audit meter/activity/metric names
LeaderElectionTelemetryConstants	Excalibur.LeaderElection.Diagnostics	Leader election meter/activity/metric names
EventSourcingMeters	Excalibur.EventSourcing.Observability	Event/snapshot store meter names
EventSourcingActivitySources	Excalibur.EventSourcing.Observability	Event/snapshot store activity source names

Complete Example

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// 1. Register Dispatch with pipeline telemetry
builder.Services.AddDispatch(dispatch =>
{
    dispatch.UseOpenTelemetry();
});

// 2. Register DI-based metrics instrumentation
builder.Services.AddAllDispatchMetrics();

// 3. Configure OpenTelemetry with all meters and activity sources
builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .AddAllDispatchMetrics()
    .AddAllDispatchTracing()
    .WithMetrics(metrics =>
    {
        // Transport-specific meters (registered automatically by AddXxxTransport)
        metrics.AddMeter("Excalibur.Dispatch.Transport.*");

        // Event sourcing meters (if using ES)
        metrics.AddMeter("Excalibur.EventSourcing.*");

        // Export to Prometheus
        metrics.AddPrometheusExporter();
    })
    .WithTracing(tracing =>
    {
        // Event sourcing activity sources (if using ES)
        tracing.AddSource("Excalibur.EventSourcing.*");

        // Export to OTLP
        tracing.AddOtlpExporter();
    });

var app = builder.Build();

// Expose Prometheus scrape endpoint
app.MapPrometheusScrapingEndpoint();

app.Run();

See Also

• Metrics Reference -- Complete catalog of 100+ available metrics
• Metric Naming Conventions -- Naming patterns across packages
• Health Checks -- Application health monitoring
• Production Observability Guide -- Which metrics matter and what to alert on