OpenTelemetry environment variables#
File-based configuration
You can add _FILE to individual variables to provide their configuration in a separate file. Refer to Keeping sensitive data in separate files for more details.
n8n can export workflow and node execution traces over OTLP to an OpenTelemetry collector. Refer to OpenTelemetry tracing for details.
| Variable | Type | Default | Description | Available from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
N8N_OTEL_ENABLED |
Boolean | false |
Whether to enable OpenTelemetry tracing. When set to false, n8n doesn't load the OpenTelemetry SDK. |
2.19.0 |
N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT |
String | http://localhost:4318 |
Base URL of the OTLP HTTP endpoint to export traces to. n8n appends the value of N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACING_PATH to this URL. |
2.19.0 |
N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACING_PATH |
String | /v1/traces |
Path appended to N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT for exporting traces. |
2.19.0 |
N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS |
String | - | Comma-separated list of key=value pairs to send as HTTP headers with each OTLP request. Use this for authentication tokens or tenant headers. For example: authorization=Bearer <token>,x-tenant=acme. |
2.19.0 |
N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_SERVICE_NAME |
String | n8n |
Value of the service.name resource attribute on exported spans. |
2.19.0 |
N8N_OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATE |
Number | 1.0 |
Fraction of traces to export, between 0 and 1. n8n uses a trace ID ratio sampler, so all spans in a trace are either sampled or dropped together. |
2.19.0 |
N8N_OTEL_TRACES_INCLUDE_NODE_SPANS |
Boolean | true |
Whether to emit a node.execute span for each node execution. Set to false to export workflow-level spans only. |
2.19.0 |
N8N_OTEL_TRACES_INJECT_OUTBOUND |
Boolean | true |
Whether to inject the W3C traceparent/tracesstate headers into outbound HTTP requests made by nodes that use n8n's HTTP helpers. |
2.19.0 |
N8N_OTEL_STARTUP_CONNECTIVITY_TIMEOUT_MS |
Number | 2000 |
Timeout (in milliseconds) for the startup connectivity check against the OTLP endpoint. n8n logs a warning if the endpoint isn't reachable within this period. | 2.19.0 |
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