# Introducing OpenTelemetry for Apollo Federation

DevFeed: [Introducing OpenTelemetry for Apollo Federation](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/introducing-open-telemetry-for-apollo-federation-23418.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.apollographql.com/blog/introducing-open-telemetry-for-apollo-federation>)

Author: Lenny Burdette

Published: 2021-08-03T15:01:42Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Apollo Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/apollo-blog.md>)

Topics: [OpenTelemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/opentelemetry.md>), [GraphQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/graphql.md>), [apollo-server](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/apollo-server.md>), [tracing](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/tracing.md>), [Instrumentation](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/instrumentation.md>), [gateway](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/gateway.md>), [Databases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/databases.md>)

Tags: [apollo-federation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apollo-federation.md>), [backend](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backend.md>), [distributed](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/distributed.md>), [gateway](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gateway.md>), [graphql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/graphql.md>), [instrumentation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/instrumentation.md>), [opentelemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/opentelemetry.md>), [server](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/server.md>), [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/telemetry.md>), [trace](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/trace.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains OpenTelemetry basics and describes native OpenTelemetry support in Apollo Gateway for tracing federated GraphQL requests across clients, gateway and subgraph services. It also discusses how Apollo Studio and OpenTelemetry work together to provide visibility into graph performance and reliability.

## Source excerpt

How do you debug or optimize a request as it travels through all the layers of your stack: from the client, through the Apollo Gateway, through your subgraph services, all the way to your databases? First, you need visibility into what your code is doing during that request, regardless of how that work is distributed across machines. Fortunately, this is easier than ever with a Cloud-Native Computing Foundation project called OpenTelemetry!