---
id: opencensus-context
version: "0.1.3"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# opencensus-context — OpenCensus Runtime Context

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Popularity: top 1,000 on PyPI

## Install

pip install opencensus-context
uv add opencensus-context
poetry add opencensus-context

## Description

OpenCensus Runtime Context
============================================================================

|pypi|

.. |pypi| image:: https://badge.fury.io/py/opencensus-context.svg
   :target: https://pypi.org/project/opencensus-context/

The **OpenCensus Runtime Context** provides in-process context propagation.
By default, ``thread local storage`` is used for Python 2.7, 3.4 and 3.5;
``contextvars`` is used for Python >= 3.6, which provides ``asyncio`` support.

Installation
------------

This library is installed by default with ``opencensus``, there is no need
to install it explicitly.

Usage
-----

In most cases context propagation happens automatically within a process,
following the control flow of threads and asynchronous coroutines. The runtime
context is a dictionary stored in a `context variable <https://docs.python.org/3/library/contextvars.html>`_
when available, and in `thread local storage <https://docs.python.org/2/library/threading.html#threading.local>`_
otherwise.

There are cases where you may want to propagate the context explicitly:

Explicit Thread Creation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.. code:: python

    from threading import Thread
    from...

## AI interpretation — verify before relying

Provides in-process context propagation for distributed tracing, using contextvars for Python 3.6+ and thread-local storage for earlier versions to enable automatic context flow across threads and async coroutines.

Verdict: opencensus-context is a lightweight, dependency-minimal context propagation utility with permissive licensing, but its abandoned status (archived repository, no releases since August 2022) makes it risky for new projects. Suitable only if already locked into an existing opencensus deployment or if you can accept no upstream maintenance.

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/opencensus-context) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/opencensus-context/)