docs/examples/sqlcommenter/README.rst
This is an example of how to use OpenTelemetry Python instrumention with sqlcommenter to enrich database query statements with contextual information. For more information on sqlcommenter concepts, see:
Semantic Conventions - Database Spans <https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/blob/main/docs/db/database-spans.md#sql-commenter>_sqlcommenter <https://google.github.io/sqlcommenter/>_The source files of this example are available here <https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/tree/main/docs/examples/sqlcommenter/>_.
This example uses Docker to manage a database server and OpenTelemetry collector.
A running MySQL server with general logs enabled will store query statements with context resulting from the sqlcommenter feature enabled in this example.
.. code-block:: sh
cd books_database
docker build -t books-db .
docker run -d --name books-db -p 3366:3306 books-db
cd ..
Check that the run is working and the general log is available:
.. code-block:: sh
docker exec -it books-db tail -f /var/log/general.log
Running the OpenTelemetry collector will show the MySQL instrumentor's comment-in-span-attribute feature, which this example has also enabled.
.. code-block:: sh
docker run \
-p 4317:4317 \
-v $(pwd)/collector-config.yaml:/etc/otel/config.yaml \
otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib:latest
Set up and activate a Python virtual environment. Install these dependencies of the sqlcommenter example:
.. code-block:: sh
pip install opentelemetry-sdk \
opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-grpc \
opentelemetry-instrumentation-mysql \
mysql-connector-python
Then, run this script, which instruments all mysql-connector calls with two sqlcommenter features opted in.
.. code-block:: sh
python instrumented_query.py
Note that OpenTelemetry instrumentation with sqlcommenter is also
available for other Python database client drivers/object relation
mappers (ORMs). See full list at instrumentation_.
.. _instrumentation: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/tree/main/instrumentation
After running the query script, check the MySQL general log contents:
.. code-block:: sh
docker exec -it books-db tail -f /var/log/general.log
For each instrumented SELECT call, a query was made and logged with
a sqlcomment appended. For example:
.. code::
2025-09-02T18:49:06.981980Z 186 Query SELECT * FROM authors WHERE id = 1 /*db_driver='mysql.connector%%3A9.4.0',dbapi_level='2.0',dbapi_threadsafety=1,driver_paramstyle='pyformat',mysql_client_version='9.4.0',traceparent='00-2c45248f2beefdd9688b0a94eb4ac9ee-4f3af9a825aae9b1-01'*/
In the running OpenTelemetry collector, you'll also see one span per
SELECT call. Each of those span's trace ID and span ID will
correspond to a query log sqlcomment. With the comment-in-attribute
feature enabled, the span's db.statement attribute will also contain
the sqlcomment. For example:
.. code::
ScopeSpans #0
ScopeSpans SchemaURL: https://opentelemetry.io/schemas/1.11.0
InstrumentationScope opentelemetry.instrumentation.mysql 0.57b0
Span #0
Trace ID : 2c45248f2beefdd9688b0a94eb4ac9ee
Parent ID :
ID : 4f3af9a825aae9b1
Name : SELECT
Kind : Client
Start time : 2025-09-02 18:49:06.982341 +0000 UTC
End time : 2025-09-02 18:49:06.98463 +0000 UTC
Status code : Unset
Status message :
Attributes:
-> db.system: Str(mysql)
-> db.name: Str(books)
-> db.statement: Str(SELECT * FROM authors WHERE id = %s /*db_driver='mysql.connector%%3A9.4.0',dbapi_level='2.0',dbapi_threadsafety=1,driver_paramstyle='pyformat',mysql_client_version='9.4.0',traceparent='00-2c45248f2beefdd9688b0a94eb4ac9ee-4f3af9a825aae9b1-01'*/)
-> db.user: Str(books)
-> net.peer.name: Str(localhost)
-> net.peer.port: Int(3366)
OpenTelemetry Project <https://opentelemetry.io/>_OpenTelemetry Collector <https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector>_OpenTelemetry MySQL instrumentation <https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/tree/main/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-mysql>_Semantic Conventions - Database Spans <https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/blob/main/docs/db/database-spans.md#sql-commenter>_sqlcommenter <https://google.github.io/sqlcommenter/>_