Zero‑Code Observability for Go Apps with Alibaba's Golang Agent

Background

Traditional monitoring of Golang applications often requires code changes, such as adding OpenTelemetry SDKs, which creates friction between operations and development teams. Alibaba Cloud’s open‑source Golang Agent provides observability without any code modifications, improving efficiency and team satisfaction.

Quick Start

Step 1: Download/Build Golang Agent Binary

Visit the GitHub repository https://github.com/alibaba/opentelemetry-go-auto-instrumentation and download the latest binary, or build it from source:

# Clone the project
git clone https://github.com/alibaba/opentelemetry-go-auto-instrumentation.git
cd opentelemetry-go-auto-instrumentation
make clean && make build
chmod u+x ./otel

Step 2: Compile Go Application with Golang Agent

Replace the standard go build command with the agent binary. For example, to build the demo:

cd ./example/demo
../../otel go build .

This produces a Go binary that includes built‑in observability.

Step 3: Configure Exporter and Run Application

Trace Export

Start required services (MySQL, Redis, Jaeger) using Docker, then set OpenTelemetry environment variables and launch the binary:

docker run -d -p 3306:3306 -e MYSQL_ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes mysql:8.0.36
docker run -d -p 6379:6379 redis:latest
docker run --rm --name jaeger -p 16686:16686 jaegertracing/all-in-one:1.53.0
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="http://127.0.0.1:4318"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_INSECURE=true
export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=demo
./demo

Generate traffic with curl localhost:9000/http-service and view traces at http://localhost:16686/jaeger/ui.

Metric Export

Start the metrics example and its dependencies (Otel Collector and Prometheus) via Docker Compose, then configure the exporter:

cd example/metrics
docker compose up --detach
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT="http://127.0.0.1:4318"
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_INSECURE=true
export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=metrics
./metrics

Query metrics at http://localhost:9090 after invoking curl localhost:9000/gc-metrics and curl localhost:9000/mem-metrics.

Log Correlation

The agent supports automatic log correlation for supported logging frameworks, injecting trace_id and span_id into logs. Example automatic logs:

{"level":"info","msg":"this is info message","trace_id":"d62a8fea...","span_id":"7cb6d692..."}

For manual correlation, use the OpenTelemetry SDK to retrieve IDs and add them to logs:

package main
import (
  "go.opentelemetry.io/otel/sdk/trace"
  "go.uber.org/zap"
  "net/http"
)
func main() {
  http.HandleFunc("/logwithtrace", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    logger := zap.NewExample()
    traceId, spanId := trace.GetTraceAndSpanId()
    logger.Info("this is info message with fields", zap.String("traceId", traceId), zap.String("spanId", spanId))
  })
  http.ListenAndServe(":9999", nil)
}

Build and run the binary, then request curl localhost:9999/logwithtrace to see logs containing the trace identifiers.

Conclusion and Outlook

The Golang Agent eliminates manual instrumentation for Go applications, has been commercialized on Alibaba Cloud, and is now open‑sourced to the OpenTelemetry community, enabling broader use cases such as service governance, code auditing, security, and debugging.