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OpenClaw Telemetry

Something is slow in your bot pipeline. You don't know which plugin. Telemetry tells you in milliseconds.

openclaw telemetry observability metrics tracing opentelemetry monitoring

What breaks without openclaw telemetry observability

No traces across plugin chain. Latency spikes unattributed. Error rates invisible in production.

→
Full bot observability × OpenTelemetry-standard traces and metrics ÷ 20-minute install ÷ no custom instrumentation needed = every slow plugin found.

openclaw telemetry observability — what it actually does

01
Emits distributed traces for every message processed through the OpenClaw pipeline.
02
Records plugin execution spans so slow handlers appear immediately in Grafana.
03
Exports metrics for message throughput, latency p99, and error rates.
04
Works with any OpenTelemetry backend: Grafana, Datadog, Jaeger, or Honeycomb.
05
Adds zero hot-path overhead by sampling traces asynchronously.

Security check — openclaw telemetry observability

Privacy score: 7/10 — accesses connected platform APIs only. Lock it: review OAuth scopes before install, confirm Linux, macOS; OpenClaw ≥1.2; compatible with any OpenTelemetry-compatible backend compatibility.

Quick start — openclaw telemetry observability in 20–40 minutes

Setup time: 20–40 minutes

!
You need:
  • OpenClaw core
  • an observability backend (Grafana/Prometheus
  • Datadog
  • or Jaeger)
  • Node.js ≥18

Install the package:

npm install @knostic/openclaw-telemetry
1
Install the plugin via npm
2
Configure your observability backend (OTLP endpoint URL)
3
Add the plugin to openclaw.config.js with exporter config
4
Restart OpenClaw
5
Send test messages and verify traces appear in your backend
6
Set up dashboards for message latency, plugin execution time, and error rates

Troubleshooting openclaw telemetry observability

1
1. Pointing the OTLP endpoint at a public URL without auth — exposes internal bot metrics
2
2. Enabling all trace spans in production without sampling — can cause 5–10% latency overhead
3
3. Not setting resource attributes (service.name, deployment.environment) — makes traces unidentifiable

Compatibility & status

Works with: Linux, macOS; OpenClaw ≥1.2; compatible with any OpenTelemetry-compatible backend intermediate Last updated: Sep 2025 ★ 175 on GitHub MIT

Official docs →

View on GitHub →

FAQ — openclaw telemetry observability

Does this require a paid observability backend?

No. Grafana + Prometheus + Tempo is a popular free self-hosted stack.

Can I trace across multiple OpenClaw instances?

Yes. Distributed tracing works if you propagate the traceparent header through your message payloads.

Does this log message content?

By default, message content is not included in traces for privacy.

Related — more like openclaw telemetry observability

OpenClaw Detect
From silent failures to instant alerts — anomaly detection and runtime monitoring for OpenClaw.
Openclaw Ubuntu Guide
From a fresh Ubuntu VPS to a hardened production OpenClaw deployment — step by step.
OpenClaw Use Case: Dynamic Dashboard
Build a conversational metrics dashboard — query KPIs, chart data, and get alerts via chat without opening a browser.

More by knostic

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Production latency bugs you can't trace cost users and cost credibility.

Every slow plugin running undetected degrades every message your bot handles.

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