Instrumentation and Monitoring

Using the instrumentation file and OpenTelemetry to monitor Next.js application performance and errors.

Edit Concept ✏️

Next.js Instrumentation and Monitoring

Instrumentation is the process of using code to integrate monitoring and logging tools into your application.

The instrumentation.ts File

Next.js provides a special instrumentation.ts file in the root directory (or src/) that runs once when a new Next.js server instance is started. This is the place to:

  • Initialize monitoring tools (Sentry, New Relic, etc.).
  • Configure OpenTelemetry (OTEL) for distributed tracing.
  • Run any necessary side effects on server startup.

OpenTelemetry

Next.js has built-in support for OpenTelemetry, allowing you to export spans and traces to observability platforms. This helps in debugging slow database queries or API calls across different services.