---
id: opentelemetry-sdk-extension-aws
version: "2.1.0"
license: unclear
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# opentelemetry-sdk-extension-aws — AWS SDK extension for OpenTelemetry

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 6.2M/mo

## What it is and what it does

This package extends OpenTelemetry's SDK with AWS-specific components that bridge the gap between OpenTelemetry's distributed tracing model and AWS X-Ray's backend service. It provides an AwsXRayIdGenerator that formats span IDs and trace IDs in the format X-Ray expects, ensuring compatibility when exporting traces to X-Ray. It also includes resource detectors that automatically populate span resource attributes with AWS environment metadata—such as EC2 instance information—without requiring manual configuration.

The package is designed for developers instrumenting applications running on AWS infrastructure who want to use OpenTelemetry for observability while sending traces to X-Ray. It handles the translation layer between OpenTelemetry's semantic conventions and X-Ray's requirements, reducing boilerplate and configuration errors.

Use it for:

- Configure OpenTelemetry tracing on an EC2 instance to automatically detect and attach instance metadata to spans sent to AWS X-Ray.
- Instrument a microservice deployed on AWS with OpenTelemetry while ensuring trace IDs remain compatible with X-Ray's trace format.
- Populate resource attributes (region, instance ID, availability zone) automatically when creating a TracerProvider for AWS workloads.
- Integrate OpenTelemetry into an existing AWS X-Ray observability pipeline without manual ID translation or resource mapping.
- Build a multi-service tracing setup on AWS where OpenTelemetry agents export traces to X-Ray with proper AWS resource context.

## Worth the install?

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

Provides OpenTelemetry SDK components to make distributed traces compatible with AWS X-Ray, including a custom ID generator and resource detectors for AWS services.

Yes. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and is essential if you are using OpenTelemetry with AWS X-Ray. The permissive license and broad Python version support (3.8–3.12) make adoption straightforward. Install it if you need X-Ray compatibility; skip it if you are not using X-Ray or are not instrumenting AWS workloads.

## Install

pip install opentelemetry-sdk-extension-aws
uv add opentelemetry-sdk-extension-aws
poetry add opentelemetry-sdk-extension-aws

## Installing opentelemetry-sdk-extension-aws

Before you install: Low install friction with a single runtime dependency on opentelemetry-sdk. Actively maintained as of 2026-08-14 with no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice: Licensed under permissive terms (Apache Software License), imposing no restrictions on use or redistribution in proprietary or open-source projects.

Quickstart:

pip install opentelemetry-sdk-extension-aws

import opentelemetry.trace as trace
from opentelemetry.sdk.extension.aws.trace import AwsXRayIdGenerator
from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import TracerProvider

trace.set_tracer_provider(
    TracerProvider(id_generator=AwsXRayIdGenerator())
)

Requires opentelemetry-sdk to be installed separately; Python 3.8 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether resource detectors (e.g., AwsEc2ResourceDetector) require AWS credentials or IAM permissions to function.
- Performance overhead of resource detection on non-AWS environments or when detectors fail to retrieve metadata.

## Package facts

- License: not declared (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 6.2M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

opentelemetry aws x-ray tracing, otel sdk aws extension, x-ray trace id generator, aws resource detector otel, opentelemetry aws integration, distributed tracing aws x-ray, otel aws ec2 resource detection, observability, aws-integration, distributed-tracing

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