OTLP Endpoint Inspector
Point an OpenTelemetry exporter at a temporary WebUtilsPro endpoint and inspect decoded spans, resources, attributes, headers, and auth shape in real time.
Create a temporary OTLP endpoint
OpenTelemetry creates spans inside your app. This tool receives the exported spans and turns OTLP payloads into a readable trace explorer.
Open an existing endpoint
Paste a saved bucket ID or a full OTLP traces URL to reopen the same capture room instead of creating a new one.
Best fit
- OTLP/HTTP JSON traces from local apps and SDKs.
- Basic/Bearer auth header visibility without exposing secrets in the decoded span view.
- OTLP/gRPC needs a collector or gRPC bridge because browsers/Express do not terminate native gRPC here.
How OpenTelemetry Spans Are Created
1. Instrument your app
OpenTelemetry SDKs wrap HTTP requests, database calls, framework handlers, or manual code sections. Each timed operation becomes a span.
2. Export spans
The OTLP exporter batches spans and sends them to the endpoint configured in your app environment variables.
3. Inspect here
WebUtilsPro receives the OTLP export, decodes spans, and shows service name, trace IDs, attributes, events, errors, and headers.
Minimal Node.js setup
npm install @opentelemetry/api \ @opentelemetry/sdk-node \ @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http \ @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node
// tracing.js
const { NodeSDK } = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-node');
const { OTLPTraceExporter } = require('@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http');
const { getNodeAutoInstrumentations } = require('@opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node');
const sdk = new NodeSDK({
traceExporter: new OTLPTraceExporter(),
instrumentations: [getNodeAutoInstrumentations()],
});
sdk.start();Where to use the endpoint
Use these env vars in the app you want to inspect, then start that app from the same terminal.
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_ENDPOINT="/v1/traces" \ OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL="http/json" \ OTEL_SERVICE_NAME="my-local-app" \ node --require ./tracing.js server.js