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Tools · Anthropic · 14 Oct 2026

Anthropic has put OpenTelemetry export for the Claude API into beta, so developers can trace requests and agent sessions in their own monitoring tools.

Related party This item is about Anthropic, which makes Claude, the AI that drafts theTN.ai.

Anthropic added OpenTelemetry export to the Claude API on 14 Oct 2026. It is in beta. An admin adds a destination in the Claude Console, and the API then sends spans for Messages API requests and Managed Agents sessions to a monitoring platform. By default only metadata is sent, not prompts.

What changed

Anthropic's API release notes for 14 Oct 2026 say OpenTelemetry export is now in beta. OpenTelemetry is a vendor-neutral standard that most monitoring platforms support. A trace is the full record of one request, and a span is one step in it, such as a model request or a tool use.

The Claude API and the Claude SDK can now emit spans for Messages API requests, tool uses and Claude Managed Agents sessions. Anthropic says developers can use them to debug failed or slow requests, track token spend and latency, and build evals from real traffic.

There are two ways to get spans. SDK tracing is set up in code and covers clients that use the SDK. API tracing is set up in the Claude Console and covers any client.

How it works and what is sent

For API tracing, an admin opens the OpenTelemetry settings page in the Console and adds a destination: an HTTPS OTLP endpoint plus its credentials. The docs name partners such as Datadog, Grafana Cloud, Honeycomb, Langfuse, LangSmith, Sentry and Splunk, and say any platform that accepts OTLP works. The same setup can be done through the Admin API.

Each destination has a content mode. The default, Metadata only, sends identifiers, timing, status and token counts. Full content also sends prompts and responses, so the monitoring platform will store them under its own retention rules. Anthropic says destinations send metadata only for organisations with a HIPAA, FERPA or K-12 data-handling restriction.

Delivery is best effort, so a span can be lost, and the docs say exported spans are not a complete record of usage. Each organisation can have up to 10 destinations.

How to try it

  1. Sign in to the Claude Console with the admin role and open the OpenTelemetry settings page.
  2. Click Add destination, pick your monitoring platform (or Custom), and enter its HTTPS OTLP endpoint and credentials.
  3. Leave the content mode on Metadata only unless you need prompts and responses, then choose which workspaces to cover.
  4. Click Test, then send a request and look for spans with service.name set to claude-platform in your monitoring tool.

How to get good results

Our practical advice, based on what the sources below say about it.

  1. Start with metadata onlyIt is the default and keeps prompts out of your monitoring tool. Switch to Full content only if that tool's access and retention rules suit your data.
  2. Turn on both SDK and API tracingTogether they show one request's SDK and API spans in a single trace, nested under your own application spans.
  3. Count tokens from one sourceToken use appears on several spans. Sum only the spans the docs name, so you do not count a request twice.
  4. Do not use spans for billingDelivery is best effort and spans can be lost. Anthropic points to its Usage API for a full count.

Why it matters in Tamil Nadu

Startups and teams in Tamil Nadu that build on the Claude API can now see slow or failing requests and token use in the monitoring tool they already run.

Where this comes from

Spotted an error? Tell us: we fix confirmed errors within 24 hours and log them in public.

Cite this page

theTN.ai, "Anthropic has put OpenTelemetry export for the Claude API into beta, so developers can trace requests and agent sessions in their own monitoring tools.", 14 Oct 2026. https://thetn.ai/tech/2026-10-15-claude-api-opentelemetry-beta/

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