OpenTelemetry-native tracing

Instrument. Query. Solve.

Your coding agent instruments your app with upstream OpenTelemetry in minutes. simpletel stores the traces — query them from your terminal or browser, and solve issues fast, in development and production.

$ curl -fsSL https://simpletel.dev/install | sh

Installs the simpletel CLI — one binary, no daemon, no sudo.

Prefer to delegate? Prefer a manual install?

Copy the prompt into Claude Code, Codex, or Pi — the agent installs the onboarding skill (simpletel skill install), instruments your app with upstream OpenTelemetry, then polls the CLI until your first trace lands. No simpletel SDK, no lock-in.

Onboard this repository to simpletel.
If the simpletel onboarding skill is not installed, run `simpletel skill install`.
- Log in: `simpletel login`
- Create a team for this repo: `simpletel team create --name <repo-name>`
- Export the env block: `eval "$(simpletel env)"`
- Smoke-test first: `simpletel run -- <start-command>`, then confirm a `cli.run` trace with `simpletel get traces`
- Instrument this app with the upstream OpenTelemetry for its language (zero-code agent preferred), configured only by those OTel env vars
- Run the app, then poll `simpletel get traces --service <service-name>` until the first trace appears, and report the trace id
No simpletel SDK — upstream OpenTelemetry only.

Install the CLI

$ curl -fsSL https://simpletel.dev/install | sh

macOS & Linux · one binary, no daemon, no sudo.

$ simpletel login

$ simpletel team create --name <your-app>

GitHub device-flow sign-in; a team is your x-simpletel-team ingest key.

Export env & smoke-test

$ eval "$(simpletel env)"

$ simpletel run -- <start-command>

Smoke test before touching code — a green cli.run trace proves the pipe works.

Point your app at it

export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT='https://simpletel.dev'
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL='http/protobuf'
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS='x-simpletel-team=<20-hex>'
export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME='your-app'

Your app’s official OpenTelemetry SDK reads these env vars — configured by env only, upstream OTel, no lock-in.

Read the traces back

$ simpletel get traces

$ simpletel get trace <id>

$ simpletel console

simpletel console opens the web console in your browser.

? How the agent path works

Your agent runs simpletel skill install (or Pi’s pi install git:github.com/willnewby/simpletel-skill), then simpletel login → team create → env → smoke test → instrument with the upstream zero-code agent or a minimal SDK bootstrap for your language. Verification is a real trace read back from your app. Everything it writes is ordinary OpenTelemetry — repoint it at any OTLP backend later and nothing breaks.

Instrument. Query. Solve.

From “where’s the bug?” to fixed