GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot CLI exports OpenTelemetry traces for agent sessions. Each trace connects an invoke_agent root span to model calls and tool executions. Disable metric export and send the traces to Parseable.

GitHub Copilot CLI
  | OTLP/HTTP
  v
Parseable: copilot-traces

GitHub documents the emitted spans, attributes and supported environment variables in the Copilot CLI command reference.

Prerequisites

• GitHub Copilot CLI installed and authenticated
• A Parseable instance reachable from the developer machine
• A Parseable API key with ingest access

Enable Copilot traces

Set the Parseable OTLP endpoint and headers before starting Copilot CLI:

export PARSEABLE_URL="https://<your-parseable-host>:8000"
export PARSEABLE_API_KEY="<parseable-api-key>"

export COPILOT_OTEL_ENABLED=true
export OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER=none
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="${PARSEABLE_URL}"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/json
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="X-P-API-Key=${PARSEABLE_API_KEY},X-P-Stream=copilot-traces,X-P-Log-Source=otel-traces"
export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=github-copilot

copilot

Copilot appends /v1/traces to OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT, so use the Parseable base URL. OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER=none prevents metrics from using the trace dataset headers.

For a self-hosted deployment that uses basic authentication, replace X-P-API-Key=${PARSEABLE_API_KEY} with Authorization=Basic <base64-encoded-username-and-password> in OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS.

Copilot CLI supports http/json and http/protobuf. Parseable accepts the http/json configuration above.

Verify ingestion

Start Copilot CLI and submit a request that causes one model call and one tool call. In Parseable:

1. Open copilot-traces in the Traces view.
2. Find an invoke_agent GitHub Copilot Chat root span.
3. Open the trace and confirm it contains chat and execute_tool child spans.

Useful trace fields include:

• span_trace_id, span_span_id and span_parent_span_id
• span_name, span_duration_ns and span_status_code
• gen_ai.request.model and gen_ai.response.model
• gen_ai.usage.input_tokens and gen_ai.usage.output_tokens
• gen_ai.tool.name
• github.copilot.git.repository and github.copilot.git.branch

Import the dashboard

Download the GitHub Copilot Observability dashboard and import its JSON file in Parseable. Map Traces Dataset to copilot-traces.

Use the dashboard to track trace volume, sessions, model and token usage, tools, latency, errors, repositories and recent traces.

Configure the Copilot SDK

If you use the Copilot SDK, pass the Parseable base URL to TelemetryConfig. For TypeScript:

import { CopilotClient } from "@github/copilot-sdk";

const client = new CopilotClient({
  telemetry: {
    otlpEndpoint: "https://<your-parseable-host>:8000",
    otlpProtocol: "http/json",
    captureContent: false,
  },
});

Set OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER=none and OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS in the SDK process environment. GitHub provides equivalent options for Python, Go, .NET, Java and Rust in OpenTelemetry instrumentation for Copilot SDK.

Protect sensitive content

Copilot excludes prompts, responses and tool arguments by default. Keep content capture disabled for shared or production environments.

Enable full message capture with:

export OTEL_INSTRUMENTATION_GENAI_CAPTURE_MESSAGE_CONTENT=true

Content capture can include source code, file contents, user prompts, model responses and tool arguments. Apply Parseable access controls before enabling it. GitHub's OpenTelemetry agent monitoring guide describes the privacy behavior.

Troubleshooting

• No spans arrive: confirm Copilot CLI can reach Parseable, verify the API key and set OTEL_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG to inspect exporter diagnostics.
• The trace has no child spans: generate a new session after setting the environment variables. Existing Copilot processes do not inherit later shell changes.
• Metrics appear in the trace dataset: set OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER=none in the Copilot process environment.
• Parseable rejects exports: use the Parseable ingestor base URL and verify X-P-Stream=copilot-traces and X-P-Log-Source=otel-traces.
• The dashboard is empty: map Traces Dataset to copilot-traces and choose a time range that includes the test session.