---
id: instana
version: "3.17.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# instana — Python Distributed Tracing & Metrics Sensor for Instana.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 129.1K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Instana is a Python instrumentation library that integrates with the Instana monitoring platform to collect application metrics and distributed traces automatically. It works by instrumenting your Python application—either through environment variable activation without code changes or by importing the package directly—and then reporting performance data and trace information to a local Instana host agent. The package builds on OpenTelemetry standards and includes support for common frameworks like Django and Flask.

The library handles the complexity of tracing function calls, capturing request/response data, and measuring performance across your application stack. It's designed for developers who want visibility into their Python applications' behavior and performance without extensive manual instrumentation code. The package supports Python 3.9 through 3.14 and is actively maintained.

Use it for:

- Monitor distributed traces across microservices to diagnose latency and performance bottlenecks in production
- Collect application metrics automatically without modifying application code by setting AUTOWRAPT_BOOTSTRAP
- Instrument Django or Flask web applications to track request handling and downstream service calls
- Integrate with existing Instana monitoring infrastructure to correlate application metrics with infrastructure data
- Track end-user monitoring data alongside server-side traces for complete application visibility

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Instana is a Python instrumentation package that automatically collects metrics and distributed traces from your application, reporting them to an Instana monitoring agent.

Yes, if you are already using Instana for infrastructure monitoring and need Python application instrumentation. The low install friction, active maintenance, permissive license, and automatic instrumentation capability make it a straightforward choice for that use case. No, if you need a general-purpose tracing library independent of the Instana platform—consider OpenTelemetry directly instead.

## Install

pip install instana
uv add instana
poetry add instana

## Installing instana

Before you install: Low install friction: pure Python wheel with 9 runtime dependencies including widely-used packages like requests, pyyaml, and opentelemetry-api. Active maintenance with a release on 2026-08-14 and recent repository activity.

License in practice: MIT license (permissive) means you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and open-source projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install instana

# Automatic activation via environment variable:
export AUTOWRAPT_BOOTSTRAP=instana

# Or manual activation in code:
import instana

Requires Python 3.9 or later. Instana host agent must be running to report metrics and traces.

Verify before relying:

- Whether automatic instrumentation via AUTOWRAPT_BOOTSTRAP covers all common frameworks or requires additional configuration
- Performance overhead of automatic instrumentation on typical application workloads
- Compatibility with specific ASGI frameworks or async Python applications

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 129.1K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

distributed tracing python, application metrics collection, opentelemetry instrumentation, python performance monitoring, automatic application instrumentation, wsgi middleware tracing, instana agent integration, observability, distributed-tracing, opentelemetry

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