otel-kit

otel-kit is the repository for three Rust crates that cover different observability boundaries:

• otel-init initializes OpenTelemetry providers and tracing subscribers;
• tracing-otel provides shared HTTP tracing utilities and an opinionated logging/bootstrap facade;
• axum-otel adapts the shared HTTP span behavior to Axum and tower-http::TraceLayer.

Choose the smallest crate that owns the behavior your application needs. An Axum application can use axum-otel with its own subscriber, while an application that wants the repository’s complete logging setup can combine it with tracing-otel’s logger or env feature. Provider-only users can depend directly on otel-init.

The workspace packages are currently version 0.33.1. Cargo.toml declares Rust 1.92.0 as the minimum supported Rust version. The repository toolchain may pin a newer compiler for local development.

Where to start

• Getting started — install the right crates and build a minimal application.
• Crates — choose the smallest crate for each observability responsibility.
• Cargo features — keep optional dependencies and capabilities explicit.
• Comparison with axum-tracing-opentelemetry — choose between focused request middleware and this workspace’s broader observability setup.
• OTLP export and lifecycle — configure exporters and shut providers down safely.
• HTTP span attributes — understand emitted fields before writing dashboards or alerts.

The complete type-level references are on docs.rs for tracing-otel, docs.rs for otel-init, and docs.rs for axum-otel.