OpenTelemetry PostgreSQL Instrumentation

A OpenTelemetry instrumentation library for the Postgres.js that provides observability for PostgreSQL database operations.

What This Library Measures

This instrumentation captures:

📊 Database Query Metrics

• Query Duration: Histogram of query execution times
• Query Count: Total number of queries executed
• Error Count: Number of failed queries
• Connection Count: Number of database connections established
• Connection Duration: How long connections remain active

🔍 Query Analysis

• Operation Type: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, ALTER, DROP
• Table Names: Extracted from SQL queries
• Query Complexity: Low/Medium/High based on query structure
• Query Characteristics: Presence of WHERE, JOIN, ORDER BY, LIMIT clauses
• Parameter Count: Number of query parameters used

📈 Performance Insights

• Query Duration Distribution: Histogram with configurable buckets
• Slow Query Detection: Built-in support for identifying performance issues
• Connection Pool Monitoring: Track connection lifecycle events

Installation

npm install otel-instrumentation-postgres

Quick Start

1. Set up OpenTelemetry SDK

import { NodeSDK } from "@opentelemetry/sdk-node";
import { ConsoleSpanExporter } from "@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-node";
import { ConsoleMetricExporter, PeriodicExportingMetricReader } from "@opentelemetry/sdk-metrics";
import { PostgresInstrumentation } from "otel-instrumentation-postgres";

const sdk = new NodeSDK({
  traceExporter: new ConsoleSpanExporter(),
  metricReader: new PeriodicExportingMetricReader({
    exporter: new ConsoleMetricExporter(),
  }),
  instrumentations: [
    new PostgresInstrumentation({
      serviceName: "my-app",
      collectQueryParameters: true
    }),
  ],
});

sdk.start();

2. Wrap your postgres.js client

import postgres from "postgres";
import { createOTELEmitter } from "otel-instrumentation-postgres";

// Create your postgres client
const sql = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL);

// Wrap it with telemetry
const instrumentedSql = createOTELEmitter(sql);

// Use the instrumented client - all queries are now tracked
const users = await instrumentedSql`SELECT * FROM users WHERE active = ${true}`;

Configuration Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
serviceName	string	-	Service name for telemetry attributes
enableHistogram	boolean	true	Enable query duration histogram metrics
histogramBuckets	number[]	[0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, 60, 120, 300, 600]	Duration buckets in seconds
collectQueryParameters	boolean	false	Include query parameters in spans
serverAddress	string	process.env.PGHOST	Database server address
serverPort	number	process.env.PGPORT	Database server port
databaseName	string	process.env.PGDATABASE	Database name
parameterSanitizer	Function	Built-in sanitizer	Custom parameter sanitization
beforeSpan	Function	-	Hook called before span creation
afterSpan	Function	-	Hook called after span completion
responseHook	Function	-	Hook called with query result

Generated Telemetry Data

Spans (Traces)

Each database query generates a span with rich attributes:

Standard OpenTelemetry Attributes

• db.system.name: "postgresql"
• db.query.text: Sanitized SQL query
• db.operation.name: SQL operation (SELECT, INSERT, etc.)
• db.namespace: Database name
• db.collection.name: Extracted table name
• net.peer.name: Database server address
• net.peer.port: Database server port
• exception.type: Error type for failed queries

Custom Attributes

• db.parameter_count: Number of query parameters
• db.duration_ms: Query duration in milliseconds
• db.duration_seconds: Query duration in seconds
• db.query.has_where: Whether query has WHERE clause
• db.query.has_join: Whether query has JOIN clause
• db.query.has_order_by: Whether query has ORDER BY clause
• db.query.has_limit: Whether query has LIMIT clause
• db.query.complexity: Estimated query complexity (low/medium/high)
• db.query.type: Query type (read/write/schema/unknown)
• db.result.row_count: Number of rows returned (for arrays)

Query Parameters (when enabled)

• db.query.parameter.0, db.query.parameter.1, etc.: Individual query parameters (sanitized)

Metrics

• db.client.operations.duration: Histogram of query durations
• db.client.requests: Counter of total queries
• db.client.errors: Counter of failed queries
• db.client.connections: Counter of database connections
• db.client.connections.duration: Histogram of connection durations

Advanced Usage

Custom Parameter Sanitization

const instrumentation = new PostgresInstrumentation({
  parameterSanitizer: (param, index) => {
    // Redact sensitive data
    if (typeof param === "string") {
      if (param.match(/^\d{4}-\d{4}-\d{4}-\d{4}$/)) {
        return "****-****-****-" + param.slice(-4); // Credit card
      }
      if (param.includes("@")) {
        return "[EMAIL]"; // Email addresses
      }
    }
    
    // Truncate long values
    const str = String(param);
    return str.length > 50 ? str.substring(0, 50) + "..." : str;
  },
});

Custom Hooks

const instrumentation = new PostgresInstrumentation({
  serviceName: "user-service",
  collectQueryParameters: true,
  
  // Add custom attributes before span creation
  beforeSpan: (span, event) => {
    span.setAttribute("user.id", getCurrentUserId());
    span.setAttribute("request.id", getRequestId());
  },
  
  // Monitor slow queries
  afterSpan: (span, event) => {
    if (event.durationMs > 1000) {
      console.warn(`Slow query detected: ${event.sql} (${event.durationMs}ms)`);
    }
  },
  
  // Analyze query results
  responseHook: (span, result) => {
    if (Array.isArray(result)) {
      span.setAttribute("db.result.count", result.length);
      
      if (result.length === 0) {
        span.setAttribute("db.result.empty", true);
      }
    }
  },
});

Query Analysis Examples

The library automatically analyzes your SQL queries:

// This query will generate:
// - operation: "SELECT"
// - table: "users"
// - has_where: true
// - has_order_by: true
// - has_limit: true
// - complexity: "medium"
// - type: "read"
const users = await instrumentedSql`
  SELECT * FROM users
  WHERE active = ${true}
  ORDER BY created_at DESC
  LIMIT 10
`;

// This query will generate:
// - operation: "INSERT"
// - table: "users"
// - has_where: false
// - complexity: "low"
// - type: "write"
await instrumentedSql`
  INSERT INTO users (name, email)
  VALUES (${name}, ${email})
`;

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/wataruoguchi/otel-instrumentation-postgres.git
cd otel-instrumentation-postgres

# Install dependencies
cd lib && npm install
cd ../example && npm install

# Run tests
cd ../lib && npm test

# Build the package
npm run build

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Postgres.js - The excellent PostgreSQL client
• OpenTelemetry - The observability framework