Send PHP logs and traces to Bronto via OpenTelemetry

This page covers instrumenting a PHP application with the OpenTelemetry SDK to send logs and traces to Bronto over OTLP/HTTP via a local OTel Collector. Both signals are co-equal: logs are bridged via a Monolog handler — no log statement changes needed — and traces are emitted via a tracer provider.

If you don’t have a Collector and want to export directly from your application to Bronto, see Direct export to Bronto at the bottom of this page.

Prerequisites

PHP 8.1 or later
Composer
A running OTel Collector configured to forward logs and traces to Bronto — see Connect Open Telemetry to Bronto
OpenTelemetry PHP SDK documentation

Install dependencies

composer require \
  open-telemetry/api \
  open-telemetry/sdk \
  open-telemetry/exporter-otlp \
  open-telemetry/opentelemetry-logger-monolog \
  monolog/monolog \
  php-http/guzzle7-adapter \
  guzzlehttp/psr7

Package	Purpose
`open-telemetry/api`	Core OTel API
`open-telemetry/sdk`	SDK — `LoggerProvider`, processors, resource
`open-telemetry/exporter-otlp`	OTLP/HTTP exporter
`open-telemetry/opentelemetry-logger-monolog`	Bridges Monolog into OTel
`php-http/guzzle7-adapter`	HTTP client for the exporter

Configure the log bridge

Set up a LoggerProvider with an OTLP exporter and attach the OtelHandler to your Monolog logger.

configure_logging.php

<?php

use Monolog\Logger;
use OpenTelemetry\Contrib\Logs\Monolog\Handler as OtelHandler;
use OpenTelemetry\Contrib\Otlp\LogsExporter;
use OpenTelemetry\Contrib\Otlp\OtlpHttpTransportFactory;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Common\Attribute\Attributes;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Logs\LoggerProvider;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Logs\Processor\BatchLogRecordProcessor;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Resource\ResourceInfo;
use OpenTelemetry\SemConv\ResourceAttributes;

function configureOtelLogging(): Logger
{
    $resource = ResourceInfo::create(Attributes::create([
        ResourceAttributes::SERVICE_NAME      => 'my-service',
        ResourceAttributes::SERVICE_NAMESPACE => 'my-team',
        'deployment.environment'              => 'production',
    ]));

    $transport = (new OtlpHttpTransportFactory())->create(
        'http://localhost:4318/v1/logs',
        'application/x-protobuf'
    );

    $exporter = new LogsExporter($transport);

    $loggerProvider = LoggerProvider::builder()
        ->setResource($resource)
        ->addLogRecordProcessor(new BatchLogRecordProcessor($exporter))
        ->build();

    $handler = new OtelHandler($loggerProvider, Logger::DEBUG);

    $logger = new Logger('my-service');
    $logger->pushHandler($handler);
    $logger->pushHandler(new \Monolog\Handler\StreamHandler('php://stdout', Logger::DEBUG));

    return $logger;
}

Configure the OTLP exporter

The OtlpHttpTransportFactory in the snippet above connects to the OTel Collector on localhost:4318. If your Collector runs on a different host or port, update the URL accordingly.

Set resource attributes

Resource attributes are attached to every log record exported from this process. Two attributes drive how Bronto organises incoming logs:

OTel attribute	Bronto concept	Description
`service.name`	Dataset	Groups logs from one service
`service.namespace`	Collection	Groups related services or a team’s services

These are set via ResourceInfo::create in the setup above.

Complete example

index.php

<?php

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
require __DIR__ . '/configure_logging.php';

$logger = configureOtelLogging();

$logger->info('Application started');
$logger->warning('Low disk space', ['disk_free_gb' => 2.1]);
$logger->error('Database connection failed', ['exception' => 'timeout']);

Existing Monolog log statements require no changes. The OtelHandler is added alongside any existing handlers (console, file, etc.) so both continue to work.

Verify delivery

After running your application, check both signals in Bronto:

Logs: open the Search page and filter by the dataset name you set in service.name — your log records should appear within a few seconds.
Traces: open the Explore Traces page and filter by the same service.name — your spans should appear within a few seconds.

If no logs appear, check:

The OTel Collector is running and reachable at the configured endpoint.
The Collector’s pipeline includes a logs pipeline with an otlp receiver and the Bronto exporter — see Connect Open Telemetry to Bronto.
configureOtelLogging() is called before the first log statement.

Traces

Auto-instrumentation packages are available for Laravel, Symfony, Guzzle, PSR-18 HTTP clients, and more. Install the relevant open-telemetry/opentelemetry-auto-* package via Composer and register the instrumentation — no manual span code needed. See PHP instrumentation libraries for the full list.

Configure the tracer provider

No additional packages are needed — open-telemetry/sdk and open-telemetry/exporter-otlp already include tracing support.

configure_tracing.php

<?php

use OpenTelemetry\Contrib\Otlp\SpanExporter;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Trace\SpanProcessor\BatchSpanProcessor;
use OpenTelemetry\SDK\Trace\TracerProvider;

function configureOtelTracing(ResourceInfo $resource): TracerProvider
{
    $transport = (new OtlpHttpTransportFactory())->create(
        'http://localhost:4318/v1/traces',
        'application/x-protobuf'
    );

    $spanExporter = new SpanExporter($transport);

    $tracerProvider = TracerProvider::builder()
        ->setResource($resource)
        ->addSpanProcessor(new BatchSpanProcessor($spanExporter))
        ->build();

    \OpenTelemetry\API\Globals::registerInitializer(function (Configurator $configurator) use ($tracerProvider) {
        $configurator->withTracerProvider($tracerProvider);
    });

    return $tracerProvider;
}

Pass the same $resource used for logging so both signals share service.name and service.namespace.

Creating spans

$tracer = $tracerProvider->getTracer('my-service');

$span = $tracer->spanBuilder('process-payment')->startSpan();
$scope = $span->activate();
try {
    $span->setAttribute('payment.amount', 99.99);
    $logger->info('Processing payment');  // trace_id and span_id injected automatically
} finally {
    $scope->detach();
    $span->end();
}

GenAI semantic conventions

If your application calls an LLM, OpenTelemetry defines GenAI semantic conventions. PHP contrib has OpenAI client instrumentation, but it currently emits openai.* rather than standard gen_ai.* fields. For portable GenAI fields, set the attributes yourself around each LLM call:

This page was verified on July 17, 2026. GenAI libraries and semantic conventions are evolving rapidly, so package configuration and emitted attributes can change between releases. Keep your instrumentation current and verify the fields emitted by the version you deploy.

$tracer = $tracerProvider->getTracer('my-service');

$span = $tracer->spanBuilder('chat gpt-4o-mini')->startSpan();
$scope = $span->activate();
try {
    $span->setAttribute('gen_ai.provider.name', 'openai');
    $span->setAttribute('gen_ai.request.model', 'gpt-4o-mini');
    $span->setAttribute('gen_ai.usage.input_tokens', 33);
    $span->setAttribute('gen_ai.usage.output_tokens', 74);
    $span->setAttribute('gen_ai.response.finish_reasons', ['stop']);
} finally {
    $scope->detach();
    $span->end();
}

Message content (gen_ai.input.messages / gen_ai.output.messages) is opt-in by convention in languages with auto-instrumentation, off by default. Since you’re setting attributes by hand here, apply the same discipline — gate prompt/response content behind your own config flag rather than always sending it.

See LLM Observability for the full recommended attribute set and how to search and aggregate GenAI fields in Bronto.

Direct export to Bronto

If you are not using an OTel Collector, export directly to Bronto by replacing the transport configurations with the Bronto OTLP endpoints and your API key:

// Logs
$logTransport = (new OtlpHttpTransportFactory())->create(
    'https://ingestion.eu.bronto.io/v1/logs', // or ingestion.us.bronto.io
    'application/x-protobuf',
    ['x-bronto-api-key' => '<YOUR_API_KEY>']
);

// Traces
$traceTransport = (new OtlpHttpTransportFactory())->create(
    'https://ingestion.eu.bronto.io/v1/traces', // or ingestion.us.bronto.io
    'application/x-protobuf',
    ['x-bronto-api-key' => '<YOUR_API_KEY>']
);

Region	Logs endpoint	Traces endpoint
EU	`https://ingestion.eu.bronto.io/v1/logs`	`https://ingestion.eu.bronto.io/v1/traces`
US	`https://ingestion.us.bronto.io/v1/logs`	`https://ingestion.us.bronto.io/v1/traces`

See API Keys for how to create a key with ingestion permissions. No other changes to the rest of the setup are required.

Overview

Ingest with agents

Ingest from AWS

Ingest from Azure

Ingest from CDN and edge

Ingest from apps and platforms

Ingest from infrastructure and databases

Ingest OpenTelemetry data

Send PHP logs and traces to Bronto via OpenTelemetry

Prerequisites

Install dependencies

Configure the log bridge

Configure the OTLP exporter

Set resource attributes

Complete example

Verify delivery

Traces

Configure the tracer provider

Creating spans

GenAI semantic conventions

Direct export to Bronto

​Prerequisites

​Install dependencies

​Configure the log bridge

​Configure the OTLP exporter

​Set resource attributes

​Complete example

​Verify delivery

​Traces

​Configure the tracer provider

​Creating spans

​GenAI semantic conventions

​Direct export to Bronto

Prerequisites

Install dependencies

Configure the log bridge

Configure the OTLP exporter

Set resource attributes

Complete example

Verify delivery

Traces

Configure the tracer provider

Creating spans

GenAI semantic conventions

Direct export to Bronto