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| 1 | +# ADK Telemetry and Tracing |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +This package contains classes for capturing and reporting telemetry data within |
| 4 | +the ADK, primarily for tracing agent execution leveraging OpenTelemetry. |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +## Overview |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +The `Tracing` utility class provides methods to trace various aspects of an |
| 9 | +agent's execution, including: |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +* Agent invocations |
| 12 | +* LLM requests and responses |
| 13 | +* Tool calls and responses |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +These traces can be exported and visualized in telemetry backends like Google |
| 16 | +Cloud Trace or Zipkin, or viewed through the ADK Dev Server UI, providing |
| 17 | +observability into agent behavior. |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +## How Tracing is Used |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +Tracing is deeply integrated into the ADK's RxJava-based asynchronous workflows. |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +### Agent Invocations |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +Every agent's `runAsync` or `runLive` execution is wrapped in a span named |
| 26 | +`invoke_agent <agent_name>`. The top-level agent invocation initiated by |
| 27 | +`Runner.runAsync` or `Runner.runLive` is captured in a span named `invocation`. |
| 28 | +Agent-specific metadata like name and description are added as span attributes, |
| 29 | +following OpenTelemetry semantic conventions (e.g., `gen_ai.agent.name`). |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +### LLM Calls |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +Calls to Large Language Models (LLMs) are traced within a `call_llm` span. The |
| 34 | +`traceCallLlm` method attaches detailed attributes to this span, including: |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +* The LLM request (excluding large data like images) and response. |
| 37 | +* Model name (`gen_ai.request.model`). |
| 38 | +* Token usage (`gen_ai.usage.input_tokens`, `gen_ai.usage.output_tokens`). |
| 39 | +* Configuration parameters (`gen_ai.request.top_p`, |
| 40 | + `gen_ai.request.max_tokens`). |
| 41 | +* Response finish reason (`gen_ai.response.finish_reasons`). |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +### Tool Calls and Responses |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +Tool executions triggered by the LLM are traced using `tool_call [<tool_name>]` |
| 46 | +and `tool_response [<tool_name>]` spans. |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +* `traceToolCall` records tool arguments in the |
| 49 | + `gcp.vertex.agent.tool_call_args` attribute. |
| 50 | +* `traceToolResponse` records tool output in the |
| 51 | + `gcp.vertex.agent.tool_response` attribute. |
| 52 | +* If multiple tools are called in parallel, a single `tool_response` span may |
| 53 | + be created for the merged result. |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +### Context Propagation |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +ADK is built on RxJava and heavily uses asynchronous processing, which means |
| 58 | +that work is often handed off between different threads. For tracing to work |
| 59 | +correctly in such an environment, it's crucial that the active span's context |
| 60 | +is propagated across these thread boundaries. If context is not propagated, |
| 61 | +new spans may be orphaned or attached to the wrong parent, making traces |
| 62 | +difficult to interpret. |
| 63 | + |
| 64 | +OpenTelemetry stores the currently active span in a thread-local variable. |
| 65 | +When an asynchronous operation switches threads, this thread-local context is |
| 66 | +lost. To solve this, ADK's `Tracing` class provides functionality to capture |
| 67 | +the context on one thread and restore it on another when an asynchronous |
| 68 | +operation resumes. This ensures that spans created on different threads are |
| 69 | +correctly parented under the same trace. |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | +The primary mechanism for this is the `Tracing.withContext(context)` method, |
| 72 | +which returns an RxJava transformer. When applied to an RxJava stream via |
| 73 | +`.compose()`, this transformer ensures that the provided `Context` (containing |
| 74 | +the parent span) is re-activated before any `onNext`, `onError`, `onComplete`, |
| 75 | +or `onSuccess` signals are propagated downstream. It achieves this by wrapping |
| 76 | +the downstream observer with a `TracingObserver`, which uses |
| 77 | +`context.makeCurrent()` in a try-with-resources block around each callback, |
| 78 | +guaranteeing that the correct span is active when downstream operators execute, |
| 79 | +regardless of the thread. |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +### RxJava Integration |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | +ADK integrates OpenTelemetry with RxJava streams to simplify span creation and |
| 84 | +ensure context propagation: |
| 85 | + |
| 86 | +* **Span Creation**: The `Tracing.trace(spanName)` method returns an RxJava |
| 87 | + transformer that can be applied to a `Flowable`, `Single`, `Maybe`, or |
| 88 | + `Completable` using `.compose()`. This transformer wraps the stream's |
| 89 | + execution in a new OpenTelemetry span. |
| 90 | +* **Context Propagation**: The `Tracing.withContext(context)` transformer is |
| 91 | + used with `.compose()` to ensure that the correct OpenTelemetry `Context` |
| 92 | + (and thus the correct parent span) is active when stream operators or |
| 93 | + subscriptions are executed, even across thread boundaries. |
| 94 | + |
| 95 | +## Trace Hierarchy Example |
| 96 | + |
| 97 | +A typical agent interaction might produce a trace hierarchy like the following: |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | +``` |
| 100 | +invocation |
| 101 | +└── invoke_agent my_agent |
| 102 | + ├── call_llm |
| 103 | + │ ├── tool_call [search_flights] |
| 104 | + │ └── tool_response [search_flights] |
| 105 | + └── call_llm |
| 106 | +``` |
| 107 | + |
| 108 | +This shows: |
| 109 | + |
| 110 | +1. The overall `invocation` started by the `Runner`. |
| 111 | +2. The invocation of `my_agent`. |
| 112 | +3. The first `call_llm` made by `my_agent`. |
| 113 | +4. A `tool_call` to `search_flights` and its corresponding `tool_response`. |
| 114 | +5. A second `call_llm` made by `my_agent` to generate the final user response. |
| 115 | + |
| 116 | +### Nested Agents |
| 117 | + |
| 118 | +ADK supports nested agents, where one agent invokes another. If an agent has |
| 119 | +sub-agents, it can transfer control to one of them using the built-in |
| 120 | +`transfer_to_agent` tool. When `AgentA` calls `transfer_to_agent` to transfer |
| 121 | +control to `AgentB`, the `invoke_agent AgentB` span will appear as a child of |
| 122 | +the `invoke_agent AgentA` span, like so: |
| 123 | + |
| 124 | +``` |
| 125 | +invocation |
| 126 | +└── invoke_agent AgentA |
| 127 | + ├── call_llm |
| 128 | + │ ├── tool_call [transfer_to_agent] |
| 129 | + │ └── tool_response [transfer_to_agent] |
| 130 | + └── invoke_agent AgentB |
| 131 | + ├── call_llm |
| 132 | + └── ... |
| 133 | +``` |
| 134 | + |
| 135 | +This structure allows you to see how `AgentA` delegated work to `AgentB`. |
| 136 | + |
| 137 | +## Span Creation References |
| 138 | + |
| 139 | +The following classes are the primary places where spans are created: |
| 140 | + |
| 141 | +* **`com.google.adk.runner.Runner`**: Initiates the top-level `invocation` |
| 142 | + span for `runAsync` and `runLive`. |
| 143 | +* **`com.google.adk.agents.BaseAgent`**: Creates the `invoke_agent |
| 144 | + <agent_name>` span for each agent execution. |
| 145 | +* **`com.google.adk.flows.llmflows.BaseLlmFlow`**: Creates the `call_llm` span |
| 146 | + when the LLM is invoked. |
| 147 | +* **`com.google.adk.flows.llmflows.Functions`**: Creates `tool_call [...]` and |
| 148 | + `tool_response [...]` spans when handling tool calls and responses. |
| 149 | + |
| 150 | +## Configuration |
| 151 | + |
| 152 | +**ADK_CAPTURE_MESSAGE_CONTENT_IN_SPANS**: This environment variable controls |
| 153 | +whether LLM request/response content and tool arguments/responses are captured |
| 154 | +in span attributes. It defaults to `true`. Set to `false` to exclude potentially |
| 155 | +large or sensitive data from traces, in which case a `{}` JSON object will be |
| 156 | +recorded instead. |
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