rippled/docs/telemetry-runbook.md

xrpld Telemetry Operator Runbook

Overview

xrpld supports OpenTelemetry distributed tracing to provide visibility into RPC requests, transaction processing, and consensus rounds.

This runbook covers operating a running node and querying its traces. For building xrpld with telemetry support and the internal architecture, see build/telemetry.md.

Quick Start

1. Start the observability stack

docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml up -d

This starts:

• OTel Collector on ports 4317 (gRPC), 4318 (HTTP), and 13133 (health)
• Tempo trace storage on http://localhost:3200
• Grafana on http://localhost:3000 (Tempo pre-configured as datasource)

2. Enable telemetry in xrpld

Add to your xrpld.cfg:

[telemetry]
enabled=1
endpoint=http://localhost:4318/v1/traces

3. Build with telemetry support

conan install . --build=missing -o telemetry=True
cmake --preset default -Dtelemetry=ON
cmake --build --preset default

Configuration Reference

Option	Default	Description
enabled	0	Master switch for telemetry
endpoint	http://localhost:4318/v1/traces	OTLP/HTTP endpoint
service_name	xrpld	OpenTelemetry service name resource attribute
service_instance_id	node public key	OpenTelemetry service instance ID resource attribute
trace_rpc	1	Enable RPC request tracing
trace_transactions	1	Enable transaction tracing
trace_consensus	1	Enable consensus tracing
trace_peer	1	Enable peer message tracing (high volume)
trace_ledger	1	Enable ledger tracing
consensus_trace_strategy	deterministic	Consensus trace ID strategy (deterministic or random)
batch_size	512	Max spans per batch export
batch_delay_ms	5000	Delay between batch exports
max_queue_size	2048	Max spans queued before dropping
use_tls	0	Use TLS for exporter connection
tls_ca_cert	(empty)	Path to CA certificate bundle
tls_client_cert	(empty)	Client cert (PEM) for mutual TLS; empty = one-way TLS
tls_client_key	(empty)	Private key (PEM) for tls_client_cert

Span Reference

All spans instrumented in xrpld, grouped by subsystem:

RPC Spans

Span Name	Source File	Attributes	Description
rpc.http_request	ServerHandler.cpp	request_payload_size	Top-level HTTP RPC request
rpc.ws_upgrade	ServerHandler.cpp	—	WebSocket upgrade handshake
rpc.ws_message	ServerHandler.cpp	command	WebSocket RPC message
rpc.process	ServerHandler.cpp	is_batch, batch_size	RPC processing (child of rpc.http_request/ws_message)
rpc.command.<name>	RPCHandler.cpp	command, version, rpc_role, rpc_status, load_type	Per-command span (e.g., rpc.command.server_info)

Transaction Spans

Span Name	Source File	Attributes	Description
tx.process	NetworkOPs.cpp	tx_hash, local, path, tx_type, fee, sequence, ter_result, applied	Transaction submission and processing
tx.receive	PeerImp.cpp	peer_id, tx_hash, tx_type, peer_version, suppressed, tx_status	Transaction received from peer relay

Transaction Queue Spans

Span Name	Source File	Attributes	Description
txq.enqueue	TxQ.cpp	tx_hash, tx_type	Transaction enqueue decision (child of tx.process)
txq.apply_direct	TxQ.cpp	--	Direct apply attempt (bypassing queue)
txq.batch_clear	TxQ.cpp	--	Batch clear of queued transactions for an account
txq.accept	TxQ.cpp	queue_size, ledger_changed	Ledger-close accept loop over queued transactions
txq.accept_tx	TxQ.cpp	tx_hash, retries_remaining, ter_code, txq_status	Per-transaction apply during accept
txq.cleanup	TxQ.cpp	ledger_seq	Post-close cleanup of expired queue entries

Consensus Spans

Span Name	Source File	Attributes	Description
consensus.round	RCLConsensus.cpp	consensus_ledger_id, ledger_seq, consensus_mode, trace_strategy, consensus_round_id	Root span for a consensus round (deterministic or random trace ID)
consensus.phase.open	Consensus.h	--	Open phase duration (child of round)
consensus.proposal.send	RCLConsensus.cpp	consensus_round, is_bow_out	Consensus proposal broadcast
consensus.ledger_close	RCLConsensus.cpp	ledger_seq, consensus_mode	Ledger close event
consensus.establish	Consensus.h	converge_percent, establish_count, proposers	Establish phase duration (child of round)
consensus.update_positions	Consensus.h	converge_percent, proposers, disputes_count	Position update and dispute resolution (see Events below)
consensus.check	Consensus.h	agree_count, disagree_count, converge_percent, have_close_time_consensus, threshold_percent, consensus_result	Consensus threshold check
consensus.accept	RCLConsensus.cpp	proposers, round_time_ms, quorum, disputes_count, consensus_state	Ledger accepted by consensus
consensus.accept.apply	RCLConsensus.cpp	ledger_seq, close_time, close_time_correct, close_resolution_ms, consensus_state, proposing, round_time_ms, parent_close_time, close_time_self, close_time_vote_bins, resolution_direction, tx_count	Ledger application with close time details (see Events below)
consensus.validation.send	RCLConsensus.cpp	ledger_seq, proposing, ledger_hash, full_validation, validation_sign_time	Validation sent after accept (follows-from link)
consensus.mode_change	RCLConsensus.cpp	mode_old, mode_new	Consensus mode transition
consensus.proposal.receive	PeerImp.cpp	proposal_trusted, consensus_round	Proposal received from peer (extracts parent context from TraceContext when present; falls back to standalone span for older peers)
consensus.validation.receive	PeerImp.cpp	validation_trusted, ledger_seq	Validation received from peer (extracts parent context from TraceContext when present; falls back to standalone span for older peers)

Consensus Span Events

Parent Span	Event Name	Event Attributes	Description
consensus.update_positions	dispute.resolve	tx_id, dispute_our_vote, dispute_yays, dispute_nays	Emitted per dispute when votes are tallied
consensus.accept.apply	tx.included	tx_id	Emitted per transaction included in the accepted ledger

Close Time Queries (Tempo TraceQL)

# Find rounds where validators disagreed on close time
{name="consensus.accept.apply"} | close_time_correct = false

# Find consensus failures (moved_on)
{name="consensus.accept.apply"} | consensus_state = "moved_on"

# Find slow ledger applications (>5s)
{name="consensus.accept.apply"} | duration > 5s

# Find specific ledger's consensus details
{name="consensus.accept.apply"} | ledger_seq = 92345678

# Find all spans in a consensus round (deterministic trace strategy)
{name="consensus.round"} | consensus_round_id = "<round_id>"

# Find dispute resolutions
{name="consensus.update_positions"} >> {event:name="dispute.resolve"}

Insights and Sample Queries

This section shows what questions you can now answer using the enriched span attributes, with example Tempo TraceQL queries.

Transaction Workflow Analysis

# Find all AMM transactions (AMMDeposit, AMMWithdraw, AMMCreate, etc.)
{name="tx.process"} | tx_type =~ "AMM.*"

# Find Payment transactions that failed
{name="tx.process"} | tx_type = "Payment" && ter_result != "tesSUCCESS"

# Compare latency of different transaction types
{name="tx.process"} | tx_type = "OfferCreate"
{name="tx.process"} | tx_type = "Payment"

# Find high-fee transactions (fee > 1 XRP = 1000000 drops)
{name="tx.process"} | fee > 1000000

# Find transactions that were not applied
{name="tx.process"} | applied = false

# Trace a specific transaction by type across the network
{name=~"tx\\..*"} | tx_type = "NFTokenMint"

Transaction Queue Health

# Find transactions rejected from the queue
{name="txq.accept_tx"} | txq_status = "failed"

# Which transaction types get queued most often?
{name="txq.enqueue"} | tx_type = "Payment"
{name="txq.enqueue"} | tx_type = "OfferCreate"

# Find ledger closes that applied queued transactions
{name="txq.accept"} | ledger_changed = true

# Find transactions that exhausted retries
{name="txq.accept_tx"} | txq_status = "retried" && retries_remaining = 0

RPC Debugging

# Find batch RPC requests
{name="rpc.process"} | is_batch = true

# Find large RPC payloads (>100KB)
{name="rpc.http_request"} | request_payload_size > 100000

# Find resource-heavy RPC commands (by load_type)
{name=~"rpc.command.*"} | load_type = "exception_rpc"

# Find a specific WebSocket command
{name="rpc.ws_message"} | command = "subscribe"

# Find slow pathfinding with many source assets
{name="pathfind.discover"} | pathfind_num_source_assets > 10

PathFinding Performance

# Find pathfinding for specific currencies
{name="pathfind.compute"} | pathfind_dest_currency = "USD"

# Find expensive pathfinding (many source assets to explore)
{name="pathfind.discover"} | pathfind_num_source_assets > 20

# Find large pathfinding requests
{name="pathfind.compute"} | duration > 1s

Consensus Health

# Find rounds where consensus timed out (expired)
{name="consensus.accept"} | consensus_state = "expired"

# Find rounds where we moved on without full agreement
{name="consensus.accept"} | consensus_state = "moved_on"

# Find rounds with many disputes
{name="consensus.accept"} | disputes_count > 5

# Find bow-out proposals (node resigned from round)
{name="consensus.proposal.send"} | is_bow_out = true

# Correlate validation with its ledger
{name="consensus.validation.send"} | ledger_hash = "<hash>"

# Find rounds where validators disagreed on close time
{name="consensus.accept.apply"} | close_time_correct = false

Cross-Subsystem Correlation

# Follow a transaction from receive through queue to ledger
{name=~"tx\\..*|txq\\..*"} | tx_type = "Payment" && duration > 500ms

# Find all NFT-related activity
{name=~"tx\\..*|txq\\..*"} | tx_type =~ "NFToken.*"

# Find consensus rounds with slow transactions
{name="consensus.accept"} | round_time_ms > 5000

Where to Look (Quick Reference)

Question	Span	Key Attributes
"Which tx type is slowest?"	tx.process	tx_type + duration
"Why was my tx rejected?"	tx.process	ter_result, applied
"Is the TxQ backing up?"	txq.accept	queue_size, ledger_changed
"Why was my tx dropped from queue?"	txq.accept_tx	txq_status, ter_code
"Are batch requests a problem?"	rpc.process	is_batch, batch_size
"Which RPC is expensive?"	rpc.command.*	load_type, duration
"Did consensus stall?"	consensus.check	consensus_stalled
"Was consensus outcome normal?"	consensus.accept	consensus_state
"Did a validator bow out?"	consensus.proposal.send	is_bow_out
"Which ledger was validated?"	consensus.validation.send	ledger_hash

---

Cross-Node Trace Propagation

xrpld propagates trace context across nodes via protobuf TraceContext fields embedded in peer-to-peer messages. When Node A sends a transaction, proposal, or validation, it injects its active span's trace/span IDs into the protobuf message. Node B extracts that context on receipt and creates a child span, linking the two nodes into a single distributed trace.

How It Works

Node A (sender)                          Node B (receiver)
+-----------------------------+          +-------------------------------+
| tx.process / consensus.*    |          | PeerImp::onMessage()          |
|   |                         |          |   |                           |
|   v                         |          |   v                           |
| SpanGuard::getTraceBytes()  |          | extract TraceContext from      |
|   |                         |          | protobuf message               |
|   v                         |   send   |   |                           |
| injectSpanContext() --------|--------->|   v                           |
| sets TraceContext fields    |  proto   | txReceiveSpan()               |
| (trace_id, span_id, flags) |  msg     | proposalReceiveSpan()         |
+-----------------------------+          | validationReceiveSpan()       |
                                         |   |                           |
                                         |   v                           |
                                         | child span with parent link   |
                                         +-------------------------------+

Send-Side Injection

Message Type	Injection Point	Mechanism
TMTransaction	NetworkOPs::apply()	Injects tx.process span into relay msg
TMProposeSet	RCLConsensus::propose()	Injects active context into proposal msg
TMValidation	RCLConsensus::validate()	Injects active context into validation msg

Receive-Side Extraction

Message Type	Extraction Point	Helper Function
TMTransaction	PeerImp::onMessage(TMTransaction)	TxTracing::txReceiveSpan()
TMProposeSet	PeerImp::onMessage(TMProposeSet)	ConsensusReceiveTracing::proposalReceiveSpan()
TMValidation	PeerImp::onMessage(TMValidation)	ConsensusReceiveTracing::validationReceiveSpan()

Key Files

File	Role
src/xrpld/telemetry/PropagationHelpers.h	injectSpanContext() — SpanGuard to protobuf
include/xrpl/telemetry/TraceContextPropagator.h	OTel context <-> protobuf conversion primitives
src/xrpld/telemetry/ConsensusReceiveTracing.h	Proposal/validation receive span factories
src/xrpld/telemetry/TxTracing.h	Transaction receive span factory

Backwards Compatibility

Older peers that do not populate TraceContext fields in their messages will simply produce empty trace bytes on the receive side. The extraction helpers detect this and create standalone (root) spans instead of child spans. No errors are logged and no data is lost — the receive span is still created with all its normal attributes, it just lacks a cross-node parent link.

Example Tempo Queries

# Find cross-node transaction traces (tx.process -> tx.receive across nodes)
{name="tx.receive"} && status != error

# Find proposals received with cross-node parent context
{name="consensus.proposal.receive"} && nestedSetParent > 0

# Trace a transaction across the network by its hash
{name=~"tx\\..*"} | tx_hash = "<hash>"

# Find all spans in a cross-node consensus trace
{rootServiceName="xrpld"} | consensus_round_id = "<round_id>"

# Compare latency between sender and receiver for validations
{name="consensus.validation.send" || name="consensus.validation.receive"}

Prometheus Metrics (Spanmetrics)

The OTel Collector's spanmetrics connector automatically derives RED (Rate, Errors, Duration) metrics from every span. No custom metrics code is needed in xrpld.

Generated Metric Names

Prometheus Metric	Type	Description
traces_span_metrics_calls_total	Counter	Total span invocations
traces_span_metrics_duration_milliseconds_bucket	Histogram	Latency distribution buckets
traces_span_metrics_duration_milliseconds_count	Histogram	Latency observation count
traces_span_metrics_duration_milliseconds_sum	Histogram	Cumulative latency

Metric Labels

Every metric carries these standard labels:

Label	Source	Example
span_name	Span name	rpc.command.server_info
status_code	Span status	STATUS_CODE_UNSET, STATUS_CODE_ERROR
service_name	Resource attribute	xrpld
span_kind	Span kind	SPAN_KIND_INTERNAL

Additionally, span attributes configured as dimensions in the collector become metric labels (dots → underscores):

Span Attribute	Metric Label	Applies To
command	xrpl_rpc_command	rpc.command.* spans
rpc_status	xrpl_rpc_status	rpc.command.* spans
consensus_mode	xrpl_consensus_mode	consensus.ledger_close spans
local	xrpl_tx_local	tx.process spans

Histogram Buckets

Configured in otel-collector-config.yaml:

1ms, 5ms, 10ms, 25ms, 50ms, 100ms, 250ms, 500ms, 1s, 5s

Deployment Tiers

Multiple xrpld instances can send telemetry to per-tier collectors that all forward to one Grafana stack. Four resource attributes segregate the data so one dashboard set serves every deployment:

Dimension	Attribute	Set by	Example values
Node	service.instance.id	xrpld cfg	alice-laptop, ci-runner-7
Service	service.name	xrpld cfg	xrpld, xrpld-validator
Network	xrpl.network.type	xrpld node	mainnet, testnet, devnet
Environment	deployment.environment	collector	local, test, ci, prod

Dashboards expose these as the template variables $node, $service_name, $xrpl_network_type, and $deployment_environment (each variable name matches its Prometheus label). Select them top-down — environment → network → service → node. Selecting All matches every value, including series lacking the label, so mixed old/new data never disappears.

Who owns which attribute

• Node and service come from xrpld config (service_instance_id, service_name). Unique per process.
• Network is a property of the chain the node joined; the node derives it from [network_id] and stamps xrpl.network.type on all three signals.
• Environment is a property of where the collector runs; each collector serves one environment and stamps it.

The upsert vs insert rule

The collector's resource/tier processor uses two actions on purpose:

• deployment.environment → upsert (overwrite). The collector is the environment, so it is authoritative.
• xrpl.network.type → insert (fill only if absent). The node knows its real network, so the collector must not overwrite it — insert only supplies a value when the source did not (e.g. an older xrpld build). This is what lets a local node connected to mainnet report network=mainnet, not the collector's default.

Configuring a collector for a tier

Each tier runs its own collector. Set the two values in the resource/tier processor of the collector config (otel-collector-config.yaml for local backends, otel-collector-config.grafanacloud.yaml for Grafana Cloud):

processors:
  resource/tier:
    attributes:
      - key: deployment.environment
        value: <tier> # local | test | ci | prod
        action: upsert
      - key: xrpl.network.type
        value: <network> # mainnet | testnet | devnet (fallback only)
        action: insert

Suggested per-tier values:

Collector	deployment.environment	xrpl.network.type (fallback)
Developer laptop	local	devnet
Test machines	test	testnet
CI runs	ci	testnet
Production observer	prod	mainnet

The xrpl.network.type value is only a fallback: when the node stamps its own network (all current builds do), the node's value wins. Set it to the network the collector most commonly serves.

How the tier labels reach metrics

Resource attributes do not become Prometheus labels automatically. Two collector settings make it work, both already enabled:

• prometheus.resource_to_telemetry_conversion: enabled: true promotes resource attributes to metric labels on the local scrape surface.
• spanmetrics.resource_metrics_key_attributes lists the tier attributes so span-derived series stay grouped per node and tier.

Traces and logs carry resource attributes natively; Grafana Cloud ingests all three signals' attributes over OTLP directly.

Grafana Dashboards

Three dashboards are pre-provisioned in docker/telemetry/grafana/dashboards/:

RPC Performance (rpc-performance)

Panel	Type	PromQL	Labels Used
RPC Request Rate by Command	timeseries	sum by (xrpl_rpc_command) (rate(traces_span_metrics_calls_total{span_name=~"rpc.command.*"}[5m]))	xrpl_rpc_command
RPC Latency p95 by Command	timeseries	histogram_quantile(0.95, sum by (le, xrpl_rpc_command) (rate(traces_span_metrics_duration_milliseconds_bucket{span_name=~"rpc.command.*"}[5m])))	xrpl_rpc_command
RPC Error Rate	bargauge	Error spans / total spans × 100, grouped by xrpl_rpc_command	xrpl_rpc_command, status_code
RPC Latency Heatmap	heatmap	sum(increase(traces_span_metrics_duration_milliseconds_bucket{span_name=~"rpc.command.*"}[5m])) by (le)	le (bucket boundaries)

Transaction Overview (transaction-overview)

Panel	Type	PromQL	Labels Used
Transaction Processing Rate	timeseries	rate(traces_span_metrics_calls_total{span_name="tx.process"}[5m]) and tx.receive	span_name
Transaction Processing Latency	timeseries	histogram_quantile(0.95 / 0.50, ... {span_name="tx.process"})	—
Transaction Path Distribution	piechart	sum by (xrpl_tx_local) (rate(traces_span_metrics_calls_total{span_name="tx.process"}[5m]))	xrpl_tx_local
Transaction Receive vs Suppressed	timeseries	rate(traces_span_metrics_calls_total{span_name="tx.receive"}[5m])	—

Consensus Health (consensus-health)

Panel	Type	PromQL	Labels Used
Consensus Round Duration	timeseries	histogram_quantile(0.95 / 0.50, ... {span_name="consensus.accept"})	—
Consensus Proposals Sent Rate	timeseries	rate(traces_span_metrics_calls_total{span_name="consensus.proposal.send"}[5m])	—
Ledger Close Duration	timeseries	histogram_quantile(0.95, ... {span_name="consensus.ledger_close"})	—
Validation Send Rate	stat	rate(traces_span_metrics_calls_total{span_name="consensus.validation.send"}[5m])	—
Ledger Apply Duration	timeseries	histogram_quantile(0.95 / 0.50, ... {span_name="consensus.accept.apply"})	—
Close Time Agreement	timeseries	rate(traces_span_metrics_calls_total{span_name="consensus.accept.apply"}[5m])	—

Span → Metric → Dashboard Summary

Span Name	Prometheus Metric Filter	Grafana Dashboard
rpc.http_request	{span_name="rpc.http_request"}	-- (available but not paneled)
rpc.ws_upgrade	{span_name="rpc.ws_upgrade"}	-- (available but not paneled)
rpc.ws_message	{span_name="rpc.ws_message"}	-- (available but not paneled)
rpc.process	{span_name="rpc.process"}	-- (available but not paneled)
rpc.command.*	{span_name=~"rpc.command.*"}	RPC Performance (all 4 panels)
tx.process	{span_name="tx.process"}	Transaction Overview (3 panels)
tx.receive	{span_name="tx.receive"}	Transaction Overview (2 panels)
txq.enqueue	{span_name="txq.enqueue"}	-- (available but not paneled)
txq.apply_direct	{span_name="txq.apply_direct"}	-- (available but not paneled)
txq.batch_clear	{span_name="txq.batch_clear"}	-- (available but not paneled)
txq.accept	{span_name="txq.accept"}	-- (available but not paneled)
txq.accept_tx	{span_name="txq.accept_tx"}	-- (available but not paneled)
txq.cleanup	{span_name="txq.cleanup"}	-- (available but not paneled)
consensus.round	{span_name="consensus.round"}	-- (available but not paneled)
consensus.phase.open	{span_name="consensus.phase.open"}	-- (available but not paneled)
consensus.establish	{span_name="consensus.establish"}	-- (available but not paneled)
consensus.update_positions	{span_name="consensus.update_positions"}	-- (available but not paneled)
consensus.check	{span_name="consensus.check"}	-- (available but not paneled)
consensus.accept	{span_name="consensus.accept"}	Consensus Health (Round Duration)
consensus.proposal.send	{span_name="consensus.proposal.send"}	Consensus Health (Proposals Rate)
consensus.ledger_close	{span_name="consensus.ledger_close"}	Consensus Health (Close Duration)
consensus.validation.send	{span_name="consensus.validation.send"}	Consensus Health (Validation Rate)
consensus.accept.apply	{span_name="consensus.accept.apply"}	Consensus Health (Apply Duration, Close Time)
consensus.mode_change	{span_name="consensus.mode_change"}	-- (available but not paneled)
consensus.proposal.receive	{span_name="consensus.proposal.receive"}	-- (available but not paneled)
consensus.validation.receive	{span_name="consensus.validation.receive"}	-- (available but not paneled)

Troubleshooting

No traces appearing in Tempo

1. Check xrpld logs for Telemetry starting message
2. Verify enabled=1 in the [telemetry] config section
3. Test collector connectivity: curl -v http://localhost:4318/v1/traces
4. Check collector logs: docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml logs otel-collector
5. Verify Tempo is receiving data: open Grafana → Explore → select Tempo datasource → search by service.name = xrpld
6. Check Tempo logs: docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml logs tempo

High memory usage

• Reduce trace volume with collector-side tail sampling (xrpld head sampling is fixed at 1.0 and is not configurable)
• Reduce max_queue_size and batch_size
• Disable high-volume trace categories: trace_peer=0

Collector connection failures

• Verify endpoint URL matches collector address
• Check firewall rules for ports 4317/4318
• If using TLS, verify certificate path with tls_ca_cert

Performance Tuning

Scenario	Recommendation
Production mainnet	trace_peer=0; reduce volume via collector tail sampling
Testnet/devnet	Full tracing (head sampling fixed at 1.0)
Debugging specific issue	Full tracing (head sampling fixed at 1.0)
High-throughput node	Increase batch_size=1024, max_queue_size=4096

Disabling Telemetry

Set enabled=0 in config (runtime disable) or build without the flag:

cmake --preset default -Dtelemetry=OFF

When telemetry is compiled out, all trace macros expand to no-ops with zero overhead.