sentry

Sentry Best Practices

Sentry is our definitive platform for error tracking and performance monitoring. Proper integration ensures we debug faster, ship more reliably, and maintain high application health. This guide outlines the mandatory best practices for all projects.

1. Code Organization and Initialization

Always initialize the Sentry SDK early in your application's bootstrap process. This ensures maximum coverage for errors and performance tracing.

1.1. Early and Centralized Initialization

Initialize Sentry once, as close to your application's entry point as possible. Use environment variables for sensitive data like DSN and for configuration that varies by environment.

❌ BAD: Late or Scattered Initialization

# app/views.py (Django) or a random module
import sentry_sdk

def my_function():
    if not sentry_sdk.is_initialized(): # Don't do this, it's too late and prone to race conditions
        sentry_sdk.init(dsn="YOUR_DSN")
    # ...

✅ GOOD: Application Bootstrap (Python Example)

# app.py or wsgi.py/asgi.py for web apps
import os
import sentry_sdk
from sentry_sdk.integrations.aws_lambda import AwsLambdaIntegration # Example for Lambda

SENTRY_DSN = os.getenv("SENTRY_DSN")
SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT = os.getenv("SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT", "development")
SENTRY_RELEASE = os.getenv("SENTRY_RELEASE", "unknown")
SENTRY_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATE = float(os.getenv("SENTRY_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATE", "0.0")) # Default to 0.0 in prod

if SENTRY_DSN:
    sentry_sdk.init(
        dsn=SENTRY_DSN,
        environment=SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT,
        release=SENTRY_RELEASE,
        enable_tracing=True, # Always enable tracing, sampling controls overhead
        traces_sample_rate=SENTRY_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATE,
        # Add integrations as needed, e.g., for specific frameworks or platforms
        # integrations=[AwsLambdaIntegration()] if SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT == "aws-lambda" else [],
    )

✅ GOOD: Application Bootstrap (JavaScript/TypeScript Example)

// src/index.ts or app.ts
import * as Sentry from "@sentry/node"; // or @sentry/browser, @sentry/react, etc.

const SENTRY_DSN = process.env.SENTRY_DSN;
const SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT = process.env.SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT || "development";
const SENTRY_RELEASE = process.env.SENTRY_RELEASE || "unknown";
const SENTRY_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATE = parseFloat(process.env.SENTRY_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATE || "0.0");

if (SENTRY_DSN) {
    Sentry.init({
        dsn: SENTRY_DSN,
        environment: SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT,
        release: SENTRY_RELEASE,
        integrations: [
            // Add framework-specific integrations here, e.g., new Sentry.Integrations.Http({ tracing: true })
            // new Sentry.Integrations.Express(),
        ],
        tracesSampleRate: SENTRY_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATE,
        enableTracing: true, // Redundant with tracesSampleRate > 0, but good for clarity
    });
}