---
id: opentelemetry-instrumentation-boto
version: "0.61b0"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# opentelemetry-instrumentation-boto — OpenTelemetry Boto instrumentation

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 1.9M/mo

## What it is and what it does

This package integrates AWS SDK (Boto) calls into OpenTelemetry's distributed tracing framework. When installed and activated, it automatically wraps Boto requests to emit spans that capture the operation, service, and outcome, making AWS API calls visible in your observability pipeline alongside other instrumented services.

It depends on the core OpenTelemetry libraries (opentelemetry-api, opentelemetry-instrumentation, opentelemetry-semantic-conventions) and is designed to work alongside other OpenTelemetry instrumentation packages. The package is in beta status but actively maintained, supporting Python 3.9 through 3.14.

Use it for:

- Trace AWS API calls in microservices to correlate them with other service requests in a distributed system.
- Debug performance issues by viewing Boto request latency and errors as spans in your tracing backend.
- Monitor which AWS services and operations your application uses by collecting and analyzing Boto span data.
- Correlate application logs with AWS API calls using trace IDs propagated through OpenTelemetry.
- Build cost attribution by tracking which code paths trigger which AWS API calls via span metadata.

## Worth the install?

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

Adds distributed tracing to AWS SDK (Boto) calls by instrumenting requests with OpenTelemetry, capturing spans for observability.

Yes, if you use Boto and already run OpenTelemetry in your application. It adds observability to AWS SDK calls with minimal setup and no known vulnerabilities. The beta status and recent maintenance suggest it is production-ready for the tracing use case, though verify span coverage matches your needs.

## Install

pip install opentelemetry-instrumentation-boto
uv add opentelemetry-instrumentation-boto
poetry add opentelemetry-instrumentation-boto

## Installing opentelemetry-instrumentation-boto

Before you install: Low friction install with three core runtime dependencies (opentelemetry-api, opentelemetry-instrumentation, opentelemetry-semantic-conventions). Active maintenance with recent releases; last commit 2026-08-14.

License in practice: Apache-2.0 permissive license allows use in most projects without significant restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install opentelemetry-instrumentation-boto

from opentelemetry.instrumentation.boto import BotoInstrumentor

BotoInstrumentor().instrument()

Requires Python 3.9 or later; assumes you have an OpenTelemetry tracer provider already configured in your application.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works with both boto and boto3, or only one of them.
- What span attributes are captured for Boto requests (operation name, service, error details, etc.).
- Whether automatic instrumentation requires any configuration beyond calling instrument().

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 1.9M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

boto tracing instrumentation, aws sdk opentelemetry, distributed tracing boto3, aws request spans, opentelemetry boto instrumentation, trace aws api calls, boto observability, observability, aws-sdk, tracing

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