> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.langtrace.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# OTEL Configuration

> Learn how to configure the OpenTelemetry Collector integration.

The following is a quick guide on how to run an OpenTelemetry Collector with a custom config to forward traces to Langtrace either self-hosted or on Cloud.

## Collector Configuration

Save the following to a file named `otel.yaml` and replace `<LANGTRACE_API_KEY>` with your Langtrace API key.
If you are using a self-hosted setup, you will need to log in as an admin user first to create a project and generate an API key.

```yaml theme={null}
receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      http:
        include_metadata: true
        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4318

exporters:
  otlphttp:
    encoding: json
    compression: none
    traces_endpoint: "https://app.langtrace.ai/api/trace"
    tls:
      insecure: false
    headers:
      x-api-key: "<LANGTRACE_API_KEY>"
      Content-Type: "application/json"

service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers:
        - otlp
      exporters:
        - otlphttp
```

<Note>
  The Langtrace client processes only JSON-encoded data. Please make sure to use
  an exporter that can encode the data in json format and does not use any
  compression.
</Note>

### Important Configuration Notes

* endpoint: Change the endpoint in the otlphttp exporter section to `https://SELF_HOSTED_URL/api/trace` if you are sending your traces to self hosted Langtrace backend. For example, for localhost, the endpoint would be `http://localhost:3000/api/trace`. If you are running the collector along with the Langtrace's docker compose setup, the endpoint would be `http://langtrace:3000/api/trace` i.e. the name of the Langtrace client container name specified in the docker compose file.
* x-api-key: The value of x-api-key should be the API key generated for your specific Langtrace project.

<Tip>
  You can add `debug` as an exporter to the config if you wish to debug the
  working of the collector.

  ```yaml theme={null}
    exporters:
      debug:
        verbosity: detailed
  ```

  and append the `debug` exporter to the traces pipeline.

  ```yaml theme={null}
    service:
      pipelines:
        traces:
          exporters:
            - debug
  ```
</Tip>

## Docker Compose Configuration

The following is a sample `docker-compose.yaml` file that runs the OpenTelemetry Collector with a custom configuration file. The configuration file is mounted as a volume in the container.
Use this as a reference to run the OpenTelemetry Collector with a custom configuration file.

```yaml theme={null}
version: "3"
services:
  otel-collector:
    image: otel/opentelemetry-collector-contrib
    volumes:
      - ./otel.yaml:/etc/otelcol-contrib/config.yaml
    ports:
      - 1888:1888 # pprof extension
      - 8888:8888 # Prometheus metrics exposed by the Collector
      - 8889:8889 # Prometheus exporter metrics
      - 13133:13133 # health_check extension
      - 4317:4317 # OTLP gRPC receiver
      - 4318:4318 # OTLP HTTP receiver
      - 55679:55679 # zpages extension
```