---
id: otel-ci
version: "0.4.0"
license: unclear
license_treatment: unclear
maintenance: active
---

# otel-ci — Add your description here

License: unclear · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 74.4K/mo

## What it is and what it does

otel-ci is a Python utility for recording OpenTelemetry spans from command-line execution. It wraps CLI commands to generate and propagate spans via environment variables, similar to otel-cli. The key difference is its ability to export spans to a local directory instead of sending them live to a receiver, then replay those spans in bulk to an OTLP endpoint later. This deferred export model is useful when you want to avoid the overhead and latency of live span transmission during command execution.

The package supports nested span recording (running otel-ci within otel-ci) and integrates with OpenTelemetry's standard exporters. It depends on opentelemetry-exporter-otlp for replay functionality and requires Python 3.12.1 or later.

Use it for:

- Record spans from CI/CD pipeline steps without adding live export latency to the build.
- Batch-export traces from multiple commands executed in sequence, then replay them together to a collector.
- Debug command execution by capturing nested spans and exporting them to disk for later analysis.
- Instrument shell scripts and automation workflows with distributed tracing without modifying the underlying commands.
- Collect telemetry from ephemeral or resource-constrained environments where live export is impractical.

## Worth the install?

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

Records and exports OpenTelemetry spans from CLI commands, with optional bulk replay to an OTLP receiver instead of live export.

Yes, if you need CLI span recording with deferred export. The low install friction and active maintenance are positive signals. However, the unclear license status is a blocker for some use cases—verify the actual license before committing to production. The Python 3.12.1 requirement is a hard constraint.

## Install

pip install otel-ci
uv add otel-ci
poetry add otel-ci

## Installing otel-ci

Before you install: Low friction install with a single runtime dependency (opentelemetry-exporter-otlp). Package is actively maintained with a recent release.

License in practice: License status is unclear—no SPDX identifier or license text is declared. Verify the actual license before use in proprietary or restricted contexts.

Quickstart:

pip install otel-ci

export OTEL_EXPORTER_FILE_DIRECTORY="/tmp/out"
export OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER="file"
otel-ci exec ls

export OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER="otlp"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="localhost:4317"
otel-ci replay -d "/tmp/out"

Requires Python 3.12.1 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package is documented beyond the description excerpt provided.
- What the actual license is (SPDX identifier or text).
- Whether nested span recording and service naming work as shown in the usage examples.

## Package facts

- License: not declared (unclear)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 74.4K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

opentelemetry CLI span recording, otel command tracing, distributed tracing CLI, span export to file, batch telemetry replay, opentelemetry instrumentation CLI, command execution tracing, observability, cli-instrumentation, batch-export

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