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OpenTelemetry Rust is distributed as a collection of crates. Install the crates you need based on which telemetry signals (traces, metrics, logs) and exporters you want to use.

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Prerequisites

Minimum Rust version: 1.75 or later
Verify your Rust version: 
rustc --version
If you need to update Rust: 
rustup update stable

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Basic installation

Add the core OpenTelemetry dependencies to your Cargo.toml: 
[dependencies]
opentelemetry = "0.31.0"
opentelemetry_sdk = "0.31.0"
By default, opentelemetry and opentelemetry_sdk include all signals (trace, metrics, logs). Use feature flags to reduce compile times and binary size if you only need specific signals.

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Choose an exporter

Select an exporter based on your observability backend: The OTLP exporter supports HTTP and gRPC protocols for sending telemetry to the OpenTelemetry Collector or OTLP-compatible backends: 
[dependencies]
opentelemetry = "0.31.0"
opentelemetry_sdk = "0.31.0"
opentelemetry-otlp = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["http-proto", "reqwest-blocking-client"] }

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Stdout (for development and debugging)

Export telemetry to stdout for local development:
Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
opentelemetry = "0.31.0"
opentelemetry_sdk = "0.31.0"
opentelemetry-stdout = "0.31.0"
tokio = { version = "1.0", features = ["full"] }

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Prometheus

Export metrics to Prometheus:
Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
opentelemetry = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["metrics"] }
opentelemetry_sdk = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["metrics"] }
opentelemetry-prometheus = "0.31.0"
prometheus = "0.13"

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Zipkin

Export traces to Zipkin:
Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
opentelemetry = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["trace"] }
opentelemetry_sdk = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["trace"] }
opentelemetry-zipkin = "0.31.0"

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Log appenders

OpenTelemetry Rust does not provide a new logging API. Use an appender to bridge existing logging libraries to OpenTelemetry.
Add a log appender to route logs to OpenTelemetry: 
[dependencies]
opentelemetry = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["logs"] }
opentelemetry_sdk = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["logs"] }
opentelemetry-appender-tracing = "0.31.0"
tracing = "0.1"
tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.3", features = ["registry", "std"] }
If you’re starting a new project, use the tracing crate. It supports structured logging and is actively maintained. OpenTelemetry itself uses tracing for internal logging.

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Common dependency combinations

Here are complete examples for common use cases:

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Full stack with OTLP (HTTP)

Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
opentelemetry = "0.31.0"
opentelemetry_sdk = "0.31.0"
opentelemetry-otlp = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["http-proto", "reqwest-blocking-client"] }
opentelemetry-appender-tracing = "0.31.0"
tracing = "0.1"
tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.3", features = ["registry", "std"] }
tokio = { version = "1.0", features = ["full"] }

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Development with stdout

Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
opentelemetry = "0.31.0"
opentelemetry_sdk = "0.31.0"
opentelemetry-stdout = "0.31.0"
opentelemetry-appender-tracing = "0.31.0"
tracing = "0.1"
tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.3", features = ["registry", "std"] }
tokio = { version = "1.0", features = ["full"] }
once_cell = "1.0"

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Metrics only with Prometheus

Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
opentelemetry = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["metrics"] }
opentelemetry_sdk = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["metrics"] }
opentelemetry-prometheus = "0.31.0"
prometheus = "0.13"
tokio = { version = "1.0", features = ["full"] }

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Optional features

Configure additional features as needed:

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Compression (OTLP)

Enable compression for OTLP exports:
Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
opentelemetry-otlp = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["http-proto", "gzip-http"] }
Available compression features:
  • gzip-http - gzip compression for HTTP
  • zstd-http - zstd compression for HTTP
  • gzip-tonic - gzip compression for gRPC
  • zstd-tonic - zstd compression for gRPC

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TLS support (gRPC)

Enable TLS for gRPC connections:
Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
opentelemetry-otlp = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["grpc-tonic", "tls-ring"] }
Available TLS features:
  • tls-ring - TLS using ring crypto
  • tls-aws-lc - TLS using AWS libcrypto
  • tls-roots - Use native certificate roots
  • tls-webpki-roots - Use webpki certificate roots

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Retry support

Enable automatic retry for failed exports: 
[dependencies]
opentelemetry-otlp = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["http-proto", "experimental-http-retry"] }
opentelemetry_sdk = { version = "0.31.0", features = ["rt-tokio"] }
tokio = { version = "1.0", features = ["full"] }

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Verify installation

Build your project to verify all dependencies are installed correctly: 
cargo build
If you encounter any dependency resolution issues, try updating your dependencies: 
cargo update

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Next steps

Quickstart

Try a complete working example with traces, metrics, or logs

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