# Behind the Scenes: How the OpenTelemetry Plugin Maps Your Microservices in Real-Time

DevFeed: [Behind the Scenes: How the OpenTelemetry Plugin Maps Your Microservices in Real-Time](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/behind-the-scenes-how-the-opentelemetry-plugin-maps-your-microservices-in-real-time-30919.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.jetbrains.com/platform/2026/09/how-to-service-map-with-opentelemetry/>)

Author: Egor Klimov

Published: 2026-09-16T12:34:47Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [The JetBrains Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/the-jetbrains-blog.md>)

Topics: [OpenTelemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/opentelemetry.md>), [Microservices](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/microservices.md>), [observability](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/observability.md>), [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/telemetry.md>), [Traces](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/traces.md>), [ide](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ide.md>)

Tags: [all-things-web](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/all-things-web.md>), [backstage](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backstage.md>), [environment-variables](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/environment-variables.md>), [goland](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/goland.md>), [ide](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ide.md>), [idea](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/idea.md>), [intellij-idea](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/intellij-idea.md>), [intellij-platform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/intellij-platform.md>), [jetbrains](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/jetbrains.md>), [microservices](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/microservices.md>), [observability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/observability.md>), [opentelemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/opentelemetry.md>), [performance-optimization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance-optimization.md>), [plugin-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/plugin-development.md>), [plugin-highlights](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/plugin-highlights.md>), [plugins](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/plugins.md>), [pycharm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pycharm.md>), [research](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/research.md>), [rider](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rider.md>), [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/telemetry.md>), [traces](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/traces.md>), [webstorm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/webstorm.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains how the JetBrains OpenTelemetry Plugin generates a service map from runtime telemetry. It describes using logs, metrics, and especially standardized trace spans to visualize how microservices communicate, along with the plugin's lightweight local OpenTelemetry backend.

## Source excerpt

We've all been there: you join a new project, and the first thing you ask for is the architecture diagram. You're handed a diagram that looks great, but after a week of debugging, you realize it's six months out of date. Service A hasn't talked to Service B since the spring, and there's a new [...]