agents-sdk-python-otel

A setup and troubleshooting guide for adding OpenTelemetry to a Microsoft 365 Agents SDK application written in Python. OpenTelemetry collects traces, metrics, and logs so you can observe how the application runs.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to configure and check telemetry providers, SDK signals, web-library instrumentation, OTLP exporters, and local Aspire Dashboard monitoring.
Why use it?
It helps diagnose requests and agent behavior in monitoring tools while preserving the existing Python application's startup, logging, and dependency setup.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/microsoft/agents/agents-sdk-python-otel
Any agent
npx skills add microsoft/Agents --skill agents-sdk-python-otel
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/Agents

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 81 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 5,318 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00081 $0.05318
Opus 5 $0.00041 $0.02659
Sonnet 5 $0.00016 $0.01064
Haiku 4.5 $0.00008 $0.00532

Measured yesterday against content hash c0dd3ee9749c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

agents-sdk-python-otel scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (assets/start-aspire-dashboard.ps1), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

agent-plugins/agents-for-python/skills/agents-sdk-python-otel/SKILL.md · 714 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 714 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

OpenTelemetry for Agents SDK (Python)

Goal

Configure traces, metrics, and logs for a Python Agents SDK application, including the SDK's built-in telemetry and a local Aspire Dashboard. Preserve the project's dependency manager, web host, logging design, and startup lifecycle.

Non-negotiable rules

  • Configure global OpenTelemetry providers before importing most microsoft_agents SDK modules. The Python SDK resolves tracers and meters at import time. microsoft_agents.activity contains no telemetry and is safe to import before provider setup.
  • Extend existing providers instead of attempting to replace already-set global providers. OpenTelemetry Python does not permit provider replacement after initialization.
  • Instrument aiohttp, requests, or other libraries after providers are configured and before the application starts handling traffic.
  • Use one stable application-specific service.name.
  • Let exporters read standard OTEL environment variables. Never hardcode collector credentials, API keys, or connection strings.
  • Never add prompts, responses, message text, tokens, authorization headers, cookies, secrets, attachment contents, user names, user IDs, conversation IDs, activity IDs, or arbitrary HTTP headers to custom telemetry by default.
  • Keep custom metric attributes low-cardinality. Good dimensions include route type, activity type, channel ID, operation, status, and error type.
  • Use batch processors for normal applications. Simple processors are only appropriate for narrow debugging or tests.
  • Do not set always-on sampling as a production default. Honor the deployment sampling policy or configure a deliberate parent-based ratio.
  • Flush tracer, meter, and logger providers during graceful shutdown. Do not silently ignore exporter or shutdown failures.
  • Avoid duplicate LoggingHandler instances on the root logger.
  • Aspire Dashboard anonymous mode is local-development only. Bind it to loopback and never deploy that configuration.
  • Telemetry must record and re-raise application exceptions.

Read the full file on GitHub · 714 lines

Files

What ships with it

2 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 714 lines · 81 tokens per session scan A c0dd3ee9749c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

agents-sdk-python-otel is a skill published in the GitHub repository microsoft/Agents (1,050 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 81 tokens to every session and 5,318 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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