---
title: "Traces"
description: "Send OpenTelemetry traces directly to Sentry without a Sentry SDK."
url: https://docs.sentry.io/concepts/otlp/direct/traces/
---

# Direct OTLP Traces

This feature is currently in open beta. Please reach out to <feedback-tracing@sentry.io> if you have feedback or questions. Features in beta are still in-progress and may have bugs. We recognize the irony.

Send traces directly from your OpenTelemetry SDK to Sentry's OTLP endpoint. You can find your endpoint URL and auth key in [Project settings > Client Keys (DSN)](https://sentry.io/orgredirect/organizations/:orgslug/settings/projects/:projectId/keys/).

## [Environment Variables](https://docs.sentry.io/concepts/otlp/direct/traces.md#environment-variables)

The simplest way to configure your OTel SDK:

`.env`

```bash
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_ENDPOINT="___OTLP_TRACES_URL___"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_HEADERS="x-sentry-auth=sentry sentry_key=___PUBLIC_KEY___"
```

## [SDK Configuration](https://docs.sentry.io/concepts/otlp/direct/traces.md#sdk-configuration)

You can also configure the exporter directly in your application code. Here's an example with the OTel Node SDK:

`app.ts`

```typescript
import { NodeSDK } from "@opentelemetry/sdk-node";
import { OTLPTraceExporter } from "@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http";

const sdk = new NodeSDK({
  traceExporter: new OTLPTraceExporter({
    url: "___OTLP_TRACES_URL___",
    headers: {
      "x-sentry-auth": "sentry sentry_key=___PUBLIC_KEY___",
    },
  }),
});

sdk.start();
```

## [Known Limitations](https://docs.sentry.io/concepts/otlp/direct/traces.md#known-limitations)

* Span events are not supported. All span events are dropped during ingestion.
* Span links are partially supported. We ingest and display span links, but they cannot be searched, filtered, or aggregated. Links are shown in the [Trace View](https://docs.sentry.io/concepts/key-terms/tracing/trace-view.md).
* Array attributes are partially supported. We ingest and display array attributes, but they cannot be searched, filtered, or aggregated. Array attributes are shown in the [Trace View](https://docs.sentry.io/concepts/key-terms/tracing/trace-view.md).

## [Using a Collector Instead](https://docs.sentry.io/concepts/otlp/direct/traces.md#using-a-collector-instead)

If you need to process traces before sending them to Sentry (sampling, transforming, routing to multiple projects), see the [OpenTelemetry Collector](https://docs.sentry.io/concepts/otlp/forwarding/pipelines/collector.md) guide.