rippled/docker/telemetry/TESTING.md

OpenTelemetry Integration Testing Guide

This document describes how to verify the xrpld OpenTelemetry telemetry pipeline end-to-end, from span generation through the observability stack (otel-collector, Tempo, Prometheus, Grafana).

---

Prerequisites

Build xrpld with telemetry

Build as BUILD.md § Steps describes, adding -o telemetry=True to the conan install line. That is the only change: Conan carries telemetry=ON into the generated CMake toolchain, so no extra CMake flag is needed. For the full telemetry build, including how to turn it off, see docs/build/telemetry.md.

This document assumes the .build/ layout, so the binary is at .build/xrpld and every command below runs from the repo root.

Required tools

• Docker with docker compose (v2)
• curl
• jq (JSON processor)

Verify binary

.build/xrpld --version

---

Test 1: Single-Node Standalone (Quick Verification)

This test verifies RPC and transaction spans in standalone mode, plus the consensus spans that a simulated round still produces. The proposal, voting and peer-facing consensus spans do not fire — see the expected-spans table at the end of this test for which do and which do not.

Step 1: Start the observability stack

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

The xrpld-logdir-init service creates docker/telemetry/data/logs and gives it to uid/gid 1000. If id -u on this host is not 1000, xrpld cannot write its log there and the log pipeline stays empty, so set the ids first:

XRPLD_UID=$(id -u) XRPLD_GID=$(id -g) \
    docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml up -d

Wait for services to be ready:

# otel-collector readiness: the health_check extension answers on 13133, which
# docker-compose.yml publishes.
curl -sf http://localhost:13133/ >/dev/null && echo "collector ready"

# Tempo readiness
curl -sf http://localhost:3200/ready >/dev/null && echo "tempo ready"

Step 2: Start xrpld in standalone mode

xrpld-telemetry.cfg is a Devnet config whose [node_db], [database_path] and [debug_logfile] all resolve under docker/telemetry/data. Standalone builds its own private chain, so pointing it at that store leaves one NuDB holding two unrelated chains. This is the same rule stated for the key-generation node in Test 2, and the reason the sibling mainnet config keeps its store under data/mainnet/. Give standalone its own prefix:

sed -e 's|^path=docker/telemetry/data/nudb$|path=docker/telemetry/data/standalone/nudb|' \
    -e 's|^docker/telemetry/data$|docker/telemetry/data/standalone|' \
    -e 's|^data/logs/xrpld-devnet/debug.log$|data/logs/xrpld-standalone/debug.log|' \
    docker/telemetry/xrpld-telemetry.cfg >/tmp/xrpld-standalone.cfg

.build/xrpld --conf /tmp/xrpld-standalone.cfg -a --start

Wait a few seconds for the node to initialize.

Separating the store is required whether or not --start is passed. --start selects StartUpType::Fresh, but the default Normal reaches startGenesisLedger() through the same branch chain in ApplicationImp::setup, so every standalone run writes a genesis ledger into whichever store the config names. Dropping the flag does not avoid it; only a separate path does. --start additionally seeds the amendments this build desires into that genesis ledger.

Step 3: Exercise RPC spans

# server_info
curl -s http://localhost:5005 \
    -d '{"method":"server_info"}' | jq .result.info.server_state

# server_state
curl -s http://localhost:5005 \
    -d '{"method":"server_state"}' | jq .result.state.server_state

# ledger
curl -s http://localhost:5005 \
    -d '{"method":"ledger","params":[{"ledger_index":"current"}]}' |
    jq .result.ledger_current_index

Step 4: Submit a transaction

Close the ledger to drive a simulated consensus round — that round is what produces the consensus.* spans. It is not required for submit itself: standalone puts the node in OperatingMode::FULL at startup (NetworkOPsImp::setStandAlone()), and the one validated-ledger-age gate on the submit path is skipped when config.standalone() is set (checkTxJsonFields() in src/xrpld/rpc/detail/TransactionSign.cpp).

curl -s http://localhost:5005 -d '{"method":"ledger_accept"}'

Submit a Payment from the genesis account:

curl -s http://localhost:5005 -d '{
  "method": "submit",
  "params": [{
    "secret": "snoPBrXtMeMyMHUVTgbuqAfg1SUTb",
    "tx_json": {
      "TransactionType": "Payment",
      "Account": "rHb9CJAWyB4rj91VRWn96DkukG4bwdtyTh",
      "Destination": "rN7n7otQDd6FczFgLdSqtcsAUxDkw6fzRH",
      "Amount": "10000000"
    }
  }]
}' | jq .result.engine_result

Expected result: "tesSUCCESS".

The destination does not have to exist yet. 10 XRP is exactly the default base reserve (FeeSetup::accountReserve in src/xrpld/core/Config.h), so the payment creates and funds the account. integration-test.sh does not hardcode a destination at all — it calls wallet_propose and uses the account_id that comes back.

Close the ledger again to finalize:

curl -s http://localhost:5005 -d '{"method":"ledger_accept"}'

Step 5: Verify traces in Tempo

Wait 5 seconds for the batch export, then see the "Verification Queries" section below. Its span loop is a superset of what standalone mode produces, so compare its output against the "Expected spans (standalone mode)" table above rather than running a second, narrower set of queries here.

Or open Grafana Explore with Tempo datasource: http://localhost:3000

Step 6: Teardown

# Kill xrpld (Ctrl+C or)
pkill -f 'xrpld --conf docker/telemetry/xrpld-telemetry\.cfg'

# Stop observability stack
docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml down

# Clean xrpld data
rm -rf docker/telemetry/data/

The pattern is anchored on the whole --conf <path> argument with the . escaped, so it matches this node and not another xrpld run or an editor whose command line happens to name the same file. pkill is also a no-op when nothing matches, where kill $(pgrep ...) errors out with no arguments.

Expected spans (standalone mode)

Span Name	Expected	Notes
rpc.http_request	Yes	Every HTTP RPC call
rpc.process	Yes	Every RPC processing
rpc.command.server_info	Yes	server_info RPC
rpc.command.server_state	Yes	server_state RPC
rpc.command.ledger	Yes	ledger RPC
rpc.command.submit	Yes	submit RPC
rpc.command.ledger_accept	Yes	ledger_accept RPC
rpc.ws_upgrade, rpc.ws_message	No	Need a WebSocket client
tx.process	Yes	Transaction submission
tx.preflight, tx.preclaim, tx.transactor	Yes	Apply stages of the Payment
tx.apply	Yes	Ledger build applies the tx set
tx.receive	No	No peers in standalone
txq.enqueue, txq.apply_direct	Yes	TxQ::apply on the submit path
txq.accept, txq.cleanup	Yes	Run on every ledger close
txq.accept_tx, txq.batch_clear	No	Nothing is ever queued here
ledger.build, ledger.store	Yes	buildLCL builds, then stores
ledger.validate	No	checkAccept is unreachable in standalone
consensus.round, .phase.open, .ledger_close, .accept, .accept.apply	Yes	ledger_accept drives a simulated round
consensus.mode_change	Yes	Fires once per round start
consensus.establish, .update_positions, .check	No	phaseEstablish() never runs
consensus.proposal.send, .validation.send	No	The config carries no validator key
consensus.proposal.receive, .validation.receive	No	No peers
peer.proposal.receive, peer.validation.receive	No	No peers
pathfind.*	No	No path request, no path subscription
grpc.*	No	No [port_grpc] in the config

Four of the "No" rows have a reason worth spelling out.

• ledger.validate belongs to LedgerMaster::checkAccept, and standalone never reaches it: consensusBuilt returns early when standalone, and switchLCL takes its standalone branch instead of calling checkAccept. That getNeededValidations() returns 0 in standalone is therefore not enough on its own.
• consensus.establish, .update_positions and .check are started from phaseEstablish(). simulate does call closeLedger({}) — which is exactly why .phase.open and .ledger_close do fire — and then sets the phase to Accepted itself, so phaseEstablish() is never entered.
• .proposal.send and .validation.send are absent for a different reason again: xrpld-telemetry.cfg carries no validation_seed or validator_token, so preStartRound leaves validating_ false. The node observes rather than proposes, and validate() — the owner of .validation.send — is never called.
• pathfind.update_all is emitted only while at least one path subscription is active, and this test makes no path_find or ripple_path_find call.

.mode_change is in the "Yes" rows because it does not depend on the mode actually changing. startRoundInternal calls mode_.set(), MonitoredMode::set calls onModeChange with no equality test, and onModeChange creates the span before the before != after check — that check guards only the censorship-detector reset.

One consensus.round span reaches Tempo, not two. roundSpan_ is reset only at the top of the next startRoundTracing(), so after the two ledger_accept calls the first round's span has ended and been exported while the second is still open. Only ended spans are exported.

---

Test 2: 6-Node Consensus Network (Full Verification)

This test verifies ALL span categories including consensus and peer transaction relay, using a 6-node validator network.

Automated

Run the integration test script:

bash docker/telemetry/integration-test.sh

It checks prerequisites, clears the previous run, brings up the observability stack, generates six validator key pairs and their node configs, starts the nodes, waits for consensus and then for a validated ledger, exercises RPC and submits a transaction, verifies traces in Tempo and both the span_metrics and the native beast::insight metrics that arrive over OTLP in Prometheus, checks that no StatsD listener is needed, then prints a summary and leaves the stack running.

The authoritative sequence is the 14 # Step N: banner comments in the script source, so read the file rather than the console — none of the script's 48 runtime log lines print a step number. The sequence is not restated here, because a numbered copy of it drifts as soon as a step is added.

Its Tempo checks cover the RPC, transaction, consensus, ledger and peer span categories from a fixed list, which is narrower than the loop in the "Verification Queries" section below.

Manual

If you prefer to run the steps manually:

Step 1: Start observability stack

XRPLD_LOG_DIR=/tmp/xrpld-integration \
    docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml up -d

The override is required here. The collector's log mount defaults to the repo-relative docker/telemetry/data/logs, but this test writes its logs under /tmp/xrpld-integration, so without it the file_log receiver tails the wrong root, no log line reaches Loki, and Test 3 Step 3 finds nothing with no error.

Step 2: Generate validator keys

Give the throwaway node a config of its own, under the same temp root the rest of this test uses:

mkdir -p /tmp/xrpld-integration/temp-keygen
cat >/tmp/xrpld-integration/temp-keygen/xrpld.cfg <<'EOCFG'
[server]
port_rpc_temp

[port_rpc_temp]
port = 5099
ip = 127.0.0.1
admin = 127.0.0.1
protocol = http

[node_db]
type=NuDB
path=/tmp/xrpld-integration/temp-keygen/nudb
online_delete=256

[database_path]
/tmp/xrpld-integration/temp-keygen/db

[debug_logfile]
/tmp/xrpld-integration/temp-keygen/debug.log

[ssl_verify]
0
EOCFG

Do not point this node at docker/telemetry/xrpld-telemetry.cfg. That is a Devnet config whose [node_db], [database_path] and [debug_logfile] all resolve under docker/telemetry/data, so --start (a fresh-genesis start) would write a genesis chain into the Devnet store, and deleting that directory afterwards would also destroy the sibling mainnet node's store and every log under data/logs/. Its RPC port is 5005, which is node 1's port later in this test.

Start it and wait for RPC before asking for keys:

.build/xrpld --conf /tmp/xrpld-integration/temp-keygen/xrpld.cfg -a --start &
TEMP_PID=$!
until curl -sf http://localhost:5099 -d '{"method":"server_info"}' >/dev/null; do
    sleep 1
done

Generate 6 key pairs:

for i in $(seq 1 6); do
    curl -s http://localhost:5099 \
        -d '{"method":"validation_create"}' | jq '.result'
done

Record the validation_seed and validation_public_key for each. Stop the temporary node and remove only its own directory:

kill $TEMP_PID
wait $TEMP_PID 2>/dev/null
rm -rf /tmp/xrpld-integration/temp-keygen

Step 3: Create node configs

For each node (1-6), create a config file. Template:

[server]
port_rpc
port_peer

[port_rpc]
port = {5004 + node_number}
ip = 127.0.0.1
admin = 127.0.0.1
protocol = http

[port_peer]
port = {51234 + node_number}
ip = 0.0.0.0
protocol = peer

[network_id]
1025

[node_db]
type=NuDB
path=/tmp/xrpld-integration/Node-{N}/nudb
online_delete=256

[database_path]
/tmp/xrpld-integration/Node-{N}/db

[debug_logfile]
/tmp/xrpld-integration/Node-{N}/debug.log

[validation_seed]
{seed from step 2}

[validators_file]
/tmp/xrpld-integration/validators.txt

[ips_fixed]
{one "127.0.0.1 <port>" line for each port in 51235-51240 except this node's
own 51234 + node_number — a node must not list itself as a fixed peer, so
each config carries five lines, not six}

[peer_private]
1

[telemetry]
enabled=1
service_instance_id=Node-{N}
traces_endpoint=http://localhost:4318/v1/traces
metrics_endpoint=http://localhost:4318/v1/metrics
batch_size=512
batch_delay_ms=2000
max_queue_size=2048
trace_rpc=1
trace_transactions=1
trace_consensus=1
trace_peer=1
trace_ledger=1

[insight]
# server=otel is the only load-bearing key here -- it selects OTelCollector.
# The export endpoint comes from [telemetry] metrics_endpoint, and [insight]'s
# own service_instance_id/service_name keys are ignored.
server=otel

[rpc_startup]
{ "command": "log_level", "severity": "info" }

[ssl_verify]
0

[network_id] has to be a private id (anything other than 0, 1 or 2), because the config default is id 0 and the telemetry resource maps that to mainnet — without the stanza every span and metric this local cluster emits is stamped xrpl.network.type=mainnet and lands on the same dashboard series as real mainnet data. Only 0, 1 and 2 have names, so a private id is stamped xrpl.network.type=unknown. That is the value to select in the dashboards' Network Type filter when looking at this cluster.

The per-node directory name must equal [telemetry] service_instance_id: the collector reads the node name off the log file's path and stamps it as the Loki label service_instance_id, so a mismatch leaves the logs labelled with a node name that no trace or metric shares.

log_level is info, not warning. A log line carries trace context only when it is emitted inside an active span, and the pair that reliably carries it — the CNF Val / CNF buildLCL branches inside the consensus accept span, one of which fires for every accepted ledger — logs at info.

Step 4: Create validators.txt

[validators]
{public_key_1}
{public_key_2}
{public_key_3}
{public_key_4}
{public_key_5}
{public_key_6}

Step 5: Start all 6 nodes

for i in $(seq 1 6); do
    .build/xrpld --conf /tmp/xrpld-integration/node$i/xrpld.cfg --start &
    echo $! >/tmp/xrpld-integration/node$i/xrpld.pid
done

Step 6: Wait for consensus

Poll each node until server_state = "proposing":

for port in 5005 5006 5007 5008 5009 5010; do
    while true; do
        state=$(curl -s http://localhost:$port \
            -d '{"method":"server_info"}' |
            jq -r '.result.info.server_state')
        echo "Port $port: $state"
        [ "$state" = "proposing" ] && break
        sleep 5
    done
done

Step 7: Exercise RPC and submit transaction

# RPC calls
curl -s http://localhost:5005 -d '{"method":"server_info"}'
curl -s http://localhost:5005 -d '{"method":"server_state"}'
curl -s http://localhost:5005 -d '{"method":"ledger","params":[{"ledger_index":"current"}]}'

# Submit transaction
curl -s http://localhost:5005 -d '{
  "method": "submit",
  "params": [{
    "secret": "snoPBrXtMeMyMHUVTgbuqAfg1SUTb",
    "tx_json": {
      "TransactionType": "Payment",
      "Account": "rHb9CJAWyB4rj91VRWn96DkukG4bwdtyTh",
      "Destination": "rN7n7otQDd6FczFgLdSqtcsAUxDkw6fzRH",
      "Amount": "10000000"
    }
  }]
}' | jq .result.engine_result

Expected result: "tesSUCCESS", the same as Test 1 Step 4.

Wait 15 seconds for the consensus round and the trace batch export. Prometheus needs longer: integration-test.sh waits a further 20 s before its span_metrics queries and another 20 s before its StatsD queries, so 35 s and 55 s after the submit. Querying the metrics block at 15 s returns no series, which looks like a broken pipeline and is not one.

Step 8: Verify in Tempo and Prometheus

See the "Verification Queries" section below.

---

Expected Span Catalog

What follows is a trigger catalogue, not an attribute reference: one row per span-name family, saying which config toggle gates it and what you have to do to make it appear. It covers all 41 span-name families the code emits, in eight subsystem groups — RPC (5), gRPC (1), Transaction (6), TxQ (6), Consensus (13), Ledger (4), Peer (2), PathFind (4).

For each span's attributes — span name, source file, full attribute set and description, per subsystem — see docs/telemetry-runbook.md § Span Reference; its § Protocol Span Flow gives the parent/child shape of a trace and calls out where telemetry parenting deliberately differs from the protocol flow. Both are kept in step with the code, so they are the reference to trust. One hole worth knowing: the runbook's Span Reference tables have no row for grpc.<MethodName> (it appears only in Protocol Span Flow). Its attributes are method, grpc_role and grpc_status, emitted from GRPCServer.cpp with the key constants in src/xrpld/app/main/GrpcSpanNames.h.

Span → How to Trigger

"Test" is the section of this file that exercises the family. T1 = Test 1 (standalone), T2 = Test 2 (6-node network).

Span family (count)	Config toggle	How to trigger	Test
RPC (5 total, 3 here): rpc.http_request, rpc.process, rpc.command.<name>	trace_rpc=1	Any HTTP JSON-RPC call: curl -s http://localhost:5005 -d '{"method":"server_info"}'. rpc.command.<name> is one family — the command name is part of the span name.	T1
RPC (cont.): rpc.ws_message, rpc.ws_upgrade	trace_rpc=1	Needs a WebSocket client against [port_ws_public] (6005) or [port_ws_admin_local] (6006). rpc.ws_upgrade covers the handshake — force a failure to see its error path. curl alone will not do it.	—
gRPC (1): grpc.<MethodName>	trace_rpc=1	Call a gRPC method (GetLedger, GetLedgerData, …). Requires a [port_grpc] stanza — the shipped xrpld-telemetry*.cfg files define none, so add one first.	—
Transaction (6 total, 4 here): tx.process, tx.preflight, tx.preclaim, tx.transactor	trace_transactions	Submit any transaction (T1 Step 4). The three apply-stage spans share the tx's deterministic trace id; the stage attribute says where a failing tx stopped.	T1
Transaction (cont.): tx.receive	trace_transactions	A peer relays a transaction. Never appears in standalone — submit on one node of the cluster and look on another.	T2
Transaction (cont.): tx.apply	trace_transactions	Ledger close with a non-empty transaction set: submit, then ledger_accept (T1) or wait for consensus (T2).	T1 / T2
TxQ (6): txq.enqueue, txq.apply_direct, txq.batch_clear, txq.accept, txq.accept_tx, txq.cleanup	trace_transactions	txq.enqueue/apply_direct on every submission; txq.accept/accept_tx/cleanup on every ledger close. To force real queueing, submit faster than ledgers close or with a fee below the required fee level.	T1
Consensus (13 total, 6 here): consensus.round, .phase.open, .mode_change, .ledger_close, .accept, .accept.apply	trace_consensus=1	A standalone ledger_accept drives a whole simulated round, so these six fire in T1 as well as on every real close in T2. Note consensus.round is ended by the next round's start, so a single ledger_accept leaves it open and Tempo will not return it.	T1 / T2
Consensus (cont., 3): .establish, .update_positions, .check	trace_consensus=1	Need the establish phase, which the simulated round skips by jumping straight to Accepted. Bring up T2 and wait for a timer-driven round.	T2
Consensus (cont., 2): .proposal.send, .validation.send	trace_consensus=1	Need the node to propose, which needs a validator key — not peers. The shipped xrpld-telemetry*.cfg set no [validation_seed]/[validator_token], so a standalone node only observes.	T2
Consensus (cont., 2): .proposal.receive, .validation.receive	trace_consensus=1	A peer's consensus message arriving. T2 only.	T2
Ledger (4 total, 2 here): ledger.build, ledger.store	trace_ledger=1	Any ledger close: ledger_accept in standalone, or consensus in T2.	T1 / T2
Ledger (cont.): ledger.validate	trace_ledger=1	Belongs to LedgerMaster::checkAccept, which standalone never reaches — consensusBuilt returns early and switchLCL takes its standalone branch instead. Needs peers or an inbound validation.	T2
Ledger (cont.): ledger.acquire	trace_ledger=1	Node fetches a missing ledger from peers. Start a node with no history against a running cluster, or restart one node after the others have advanced.	T2
Peer (2): peer.proposal.receive, peer.validation.receive	trace_peer=1	Inbound consensus messages from peers; fresh trace roots. T2 only, and high volume.	T2
PathFind (4): pathfind.request, pathfind.compute, pathfind.discover, pathfind.update_all	trace_rpc=1	curl -s http://localhost:5005 -d '{"method":"ripple_path_find","params":[{"source_account":"…","destination_account":"…","destination_amount":"100"}]}'. pathfind.update_all fires on ledger close while a request is active.	T1

Notes that matter when a span you expect is missing:

• Toggles are per-subsystem and all default to on (trace_rpc, trace_transactions, trace_consensus, trace_peer, trace_ledger), but [telemetry] enabled defaults to 0 — nothing is emitted until it is 1.
• peer.* cannot be produced in standalone mode. Both peer spans are created in inbound message handlers, and -a turns peerfinder's autoConnect off, so the node opens no outbound peer connections and receives nothing. If Test 1 shows none, that is correct behaviour, not a regression.
• consensus.* is only partly absent in standalone. consensus.round, .phase.open, .mode_change, .ledger_close, .accept and .accept.apply all fire on a ledger_accept; the other seven need the establish phase, a validator key, or a peer — see the Consensus rows above.
• rpc.ws_* and grpc.* need a client and a port the quick tests do not use. Absence in T1/T2 is expected.
• Trace ids are deterministic for transactions (from txID) and consensus rounds (from prevLedgerHash): the trace id is the hash's first 16 bytes, so from a hex-printed hash take the first 32 characters. This holds under the default consensus_trace_strategy=deterministic; set it to random and each node gives its round a random trace id instead, joinable only by the consensus_ledger_id attribute.

---

Verification Queries

Tempo API

Base URL: http://localhost:3200

Run RUN_START=$(date +%s) before starting xrpld (Test 1 Step 2, Test 2 Step 5), in the same shell you will run the block below in. Tempo keeps blocks for block_retention (tempo.yaml, 1h) on a named volume, so a search with no time bound is answered by the previous run's traces.

TEMPO="http://localhost:3200"

# Refuse to run unbounded rather than report a previous run's traces.
: "${RUN_START:?record RUN_START=\$(date +%s) before starting xrpld}"

# List all services
curl -s "$TEMPO/api/v2/search/tag/resource.service.name/values" | jq '.tagValues[].value'

# Count traces per span name. Test 1 produces a subset of this list — read it
# against the "Expected spans (standalone mode)" table above, not as pass/fail.
#
# -G is required: it moves the urlencoded parameters into the query string.
# Without it curl POSTs them as a request body, Tempo answers 200 and ignores
# the query, and every span name comes back non-zero. start/end bound the
# search to this run; the end margin covers spans exported while the query is
# in flight.
for op in "rpc.http_request" "rpc.process" \
    "rpc.command.server_info" "rpc.command.server_state" "rpc.command.ledger" \
    "rpc.command.submit" "rpc.command.ledger_accept" \
    "tx.process" "tx.receive" "tx.apply" \
    "tx.preflight" "tx.preclaim" "tx.transactor" \
    "txq.enqueue" "txq.apply_direct" "txq.accept" "txq.cleanup" \
    "consensus.round" "consensus.phase.open" "consensus.ledger_close" \
    "consensus.establish" "consensus.update_positions" "consensus.check" \
    "consensus.accept" "consensus.accept.apply" \
    "consensus.proposal.send" "consensus.validation.send" \
    "consensus.mode_change" \
    "consensus.proposal.receive" "consensus.validation.receive" \
    "ledger.build" "ledger.validate" "ledger.store" \
    "peer.proposal.receive" "peer.validation.receive"; do
    count=$(curl -sfG "$TEMPO/api/search" \
        --data-urlencode "q={resource.service.name=\"xrpld\" && name=\"$op\"}" \
        --data-urlencode "start=$RUN_START" \
        --data-urlencode "end=$(($(date +%s) + 60))" \
        --data-urlencode "limit=5" |
        jq '.traces | length')
    printf "%-35s %s traces\n" "$op" "$count"
done

Eight more span families exist but need a trigger neither test performs, so they are counted separately — a zero here is the expected answer, not a failure. rpc.ws_* need a WebSocket client, the pathfind.* family needs a path_find or ripple_path_find call, and the two txq names need a transaction sitting in the queue.

for op in "rpc.ws_upgrade" "rpc.ws_message" \
    "pathfind.request" "pathfind.compute" "pathfind.discover" "pathfind.update_all" \
    "txq.accept_tx" "txq.batch_clear"; do
    count=$(curl -sfG "$TEMPO/api/search" \
        --data-urlencode "q={resource.service.name=\"xrpld\" && name=\"$op\"}" \
        --data-urlencode "start=$RUN_START" \
        --data-urlencode "end=$(($(date +%s) + 60))" \
        --data-urlencode "limit=5" |
        jq '.traces | length')
    printf "%-35s %s traces\n" "$op" "$count"
done

The remaining family is grpc.<method>, whose span name is the gRPC method, so it has no fixed string to query and needs a [port_grpc] stanza neither test configures.

Prometheus API

Base URL: http://localhost:9090

PROM="http://localhost:9090"

# Span call counts (from the span_metrics connector). The span_ prefix is the
# connector's `namespace: "span"` in otel-collector-config.yaml; drop that
# setting and these become traces_span_metrics_*.
curl -s "$PROM/api/v1/query?query=span_calls_total" |
    jq '.data.result[] | {span: .metric.span_name, count: .value[1]}'

# Latency histogram
curl -s "$PROM/api/v1/query?query=span_duration_milliseconds_count" |
    jq '.data.result[] | {span: .metric.span_name, count: .value[1]}'

# RPC calls by command
curl -s "$PROM/api/v1/query?query=span_calls_total{span_name=~\"rpc.command.*\"}" |
    jq '.data.result[] | {command: .metric["command"], count: .value[1]}'

# Deployment-tier labels present on metrics (set by the collector's
# resource/tier processor and promoted via resource_to_telemetry_conversion).
# Expect deployment_environment and xrpl_network_type on each series.
curl -s "$PROM/api/v1/query?query=span_calls_total" |
    jq '.data.result[0].metric | {deployment_environment, xrpl_network_type, service_name}'

Grafana

Open http://localhost:3000 (anonymous admin access enabled).

Pre-configured dashboards: every .json under docker/telemetry/grafana/dashboards/ is provisioned into the xrpld folder — provisioning/dashboards/dashboards.yaml points the file provider at /var/lib/grafana/dashboards, which docker-compose.yml bind-mounts from that directory. Adding a file there is all that is needed; there is no per-dashboard registration.

For what each dashboard covers, see docs/telemetry-runbook.md § Grafana Dashboards. That reference is partial: 9 of the 15 provisioned dashboards have a section there, and six — fee-market, job-queue, ledger-data-sync, overlay-traffic-detail, peer-quality and validator-health — do not. For those, open a panel's info icon in Grafana; the panel descriptions carry the same reference format.

Pre-configured datasources:

• Tempo: Trace data at http://tempo:3200
• Prometheus: Metrics at http://prometheus:9090
• Loki: Log data at http://loki:3100 (via Grafana Explore)

---

Exporting to Grafana Cloud

Instead of (or alongside) the local backends, the collector can forward traces, metrics, and logs to a hosted Grafana Cloud stack. This is a runtime choice layered on top of the base stack — xrpld and the base docker-compose.yml are unchanged.

Step 1: Get Grafana Cloud OTLP credentials

From Grafana Cloud → Connections → OpenTelemetry (OTLP), note the OTLP gateway endpoint (ends in /otlp), the numeric instance id, and an access-policy token with metrics:write, traces:write, and logs:write.

Step 2: Fill in the env file

cp docker/telemetry/.env.grafanacloud.example docker/telemetry/.env.grafanacloud
# edit .env.grafanacloud:
#   GRAFANA_CLOUD_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://otlp-gateway-<zone>.grafana.net/otlp
#   GRAFANA_CLOUD_INSTANCE_ID=<instance id>
#   GRAFANA_CLOUD_API_TOKEN=<token>

.env.grafanacloud is gitignored — never commit real tokens.

Step 3: Start the stack with cloud export enabled

docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml \
    -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.grafanacloud.yaml up -d

The override swaps the collector onto otel-collector-config.grafanacloud.yaml. It keeps the local Tempo/Prometheus/Loki exporters and adds an otlphttp/grafanacloud exporter, but it is not the base config plus one exporter — it restructures the pipelines. Bring the stack up with just the base file to return to local-only.

Differences that change what you will see:

	Base (otel-collector-config.yaml)	Cloud override
Pipelines	3: traces, metrics, logs	5: traces/metrics, traces/store, metrics/local, metrics/cloud, logs
Trace sampling	none — 100% of spans reach Tempo	tail_sampling keeps 0.5% (one probabilistic policy, decision_wait: 10s) on traces/store
debug exporter	present on traces	dropped
attributes/hash	present on traces	omitted
Cloud metric labels	n/a	transform/cloudlabels on metrics/cloud only

Consequences worth knowing before you debug against the cloud stack:

• Traces are sampled, span metrics are not. Sampling sits only on traces/store (the pipeline feeding Tempo and Grafana Cloud). The spanmetrics connector is fed by the separate, unsampled traces/metrics pipeline, so span_* rates stay exact while only ~1 trace in 200 is retrievable by trace ID. A trace you can see in a metric may not exist in Tempo.
• The same account carries a different token on each config. No raw account address leaves the node: the path-finding handlers under src/xrpld/rpc/handlers/orderbook/ pass both accounts through redactAccount() first, which is a prefix of the address's SHA-512Half digest (contract in include/xrpl/telemetry/Redaction.h). The base config's attributes/hash processor then hashes that token a second time; no cloud pipeline has it. The token is deterministic, so one account stays correlatable across nodes and restarts — but only within one config. A trace stored while the collector ran the base config must not be joined against a trace stored under the cloud config, because the same account appears under two different tokens.

Step 4: Verify data reaches Grafana Cloud

After exercising RPC/transaction workflows (Tests 1 or 2), open your Grafana Cloud instance and confirm:

• Traces: Explore → hosted Tempo datasource → search {resource.service.name="xrpld"}
• Metrics: Explore → hosted Prometheus/Mimir → query span_calls_total
• Logs: Explore → hosted Loki → query {service_name="xrpld"} (requires file logging, at a level low enough to keep the correlated lines — the shipped devnet config's debug does, the mainnet config's warning suppresses them). Not {job="xrpld"} — see the note under Test 3 Step 3.

If nothing appears, check the collector logs for auth/export errors:

docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml \
    -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.grafanacloud.yaml \
    logs otel-collector | grep -iE 'grafanacloud|401|403|export'

A 401/403 means the instance id or token is wrong; a connection error means the endpoint URL is wrong or missing the /otlp path.

---

Test 3: Log-Trace Correlation

xrpld injects trace_id and span_id into its log output when a log line is emitted within an active OTel span. This test verifies the end-to-end log-trace correlation pipeline.

Step 1: Verify trace_id in log output

After running Test 1 or Test 2 (which generate RPC spans), check the xrpld debug.log for trace context. A Test 1 run writes docker/telemetry/data/logs/xrpld-devnet/debug.log; the mainnet config writes docker/telemetry/data/logs/mainnet/debug.log instead.

grep 'trace_id=[a-f0-9]\{32\} span_id=[a-f0-9]\{16\}' \
    docker/telemetry/data/logs/xrpld-devnet/debug.log

Expected: log lines with trace_id=<32hex> span_id=<16hex> between the severity code and the message. Example:

2024-Jan-15 10:30:45.123456789 UTC RPCHandler:DBG trace_id=abc123def456789012345678abcdef01 span_id=0123456789abcdef RPC call server_info completed in 0.000123seconds

That example is a Test 1 line. xrpld-telemetry.cfg logs at debug, so the in-span RPC statement above appears. Test 2's nodes log at info, which suppresses it — there, look for the CNF Val / CNF buildLCL lines from the consensus accept span instead. Either carries trace context; only the message differs.

Lines emitted outside of an active span (background tasks, startup) will NOT have trace context — this is expected.

Step 2: Cross-check trace_id in Tempo

Extract a trace_id from the log and verify it exists in Tempo:

TRACE_ID=$(grep -m1 -o 'trace_id=[a-f0-9]\{32\}' \
    docker/telemetry/data/logs/xrpld-devnet/debug.log | cut -d= -f2)
echo "Checking trace: $TRACE_ID"
curl -s "http://localhost:3200/api/traces/$TRACE_ID" | jq '.batches | length'

Expected result: > 0 (the trace exists in Tempo). Tempo returns the trace in OTLP shape, so the array is batches, not data, and one trace can arrive as several batches.

Step 3: Verify Loki log ingestion

The OTel Collector's file_log receiver tails xrpld's debug.log and exports parsed entries to Loki. Verify Loki has received entries:

# Query Loki for any xrpld logs in the last 10 minutes
NOW_NS=$(($(date +%s) * 1000000000))
curl -sG "http://localhost:3100/loki/api/v1/query_range" \
    --data-urlencode 'query={service_name="xrpld"}' \
    --data-urlencode "start=$((NOW_NS - 600000000000))" \
    --data-urlencode "end=${NOW_NS}" \
    --data-urlencode 'limit=5' \
    --data-urlencode 'direction=backward' |
    jq '[.data.result[].values | length] | add // 0'

Expected: > 0 log lines.

Use query_range, not query. Loki rejects a bare log selector on the instant /query endpoint with HTTP 400 and a text/plain body ("log queries are not supported as an instant query type"), so jq fails to parse it and the step never prints a number — even when ingestion is working. Only metric queries such as sum(count_over_time(...)) are allowed there, so a check that needs a count rather than the lines themselves can use the instant endpoint. query_range timestamps are unix nanoseconds. Counting .data.result | length would count streams, not log lines.

Use service_name, not job. The local stack's resource/logs processor sets one key, service.name=xrpld, in otel-collector-config.yaml; its comment there explains that a custom job attribute is not promoted to a stream label and tells you to select on service_name. Only the Grafana Cloud variant also sets job=xrpld, in otel-collector-config.grafanacloud.yaml. Either way {job="xrpld"} does not work as a selector: on OTLP ingest Loki promotes only an allow-listed set of resource attributes to indexed stream labels. On the pinned grafana/loki:3.7.6 that list is a fixed 18 keys, including service.name → service_name, service.namespace, service.instance.id, deployment.environment and container.name. k8s.* and cloud.* are enumerated key lists (ten and two entries), not wildcards. job is not on the list. This repo mounts no Loki config override — the loki service runs the image's built-in /etc/loki/local-config.yaml named in docker-compose.yml — so job lands in structured metadata, which cannot be a stream selector. {job="xrpld"} therefore returns zero results with no error, which reads exactly like "logs are not being ingested". If this query is empty, check {service_name="xrpld"} before debugging the pipeline. All 35 Loki queries in the shipped dashboards select on service_name; none uses job.

Step 4: Verify Grafana Tempo-to-Loki correlation

1. Open Grafana at http://localhost:3000
2. Navigate to Explore -> select Tempo datasource
3. Search for a trace (e.g., operation rpc.command.server_info)
4. Expand a span and click "Logs for this span" in its Links row
5. Verify that Loki log lines appear, filtered by the trace's trace_id

Step 5: Verify Grafana Loki-to-Tempo correlation

1. In Grafana Explore, select Loki datasource
2. Query: {service_name="xrpld"} |= "trace_id="
3. In the log results, click the TraceID derived field link
4. Verify it navigates to the full trace in Tempo

Expected results

Check	Expected
trace_id= in debug.log	Present in log lines within active spans
span_id= in debug.log	Present alongside trace_id
Logs without active span	No trace_id/span_id fields
trace_id in Tempo	Matches a valid trace
Loki log ingestion	Logs visible via LogQL
Tempo -> Loki span log link	Shows correlated log lines
Loki -> Tempo TraceID link	Navigates to correct trace

---

Troubleshooting

No traces in Tempo

1. Check otel-collector logs:

   docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml logs otel-collector
   

2. Verify xrpld telemetry config has enabled=1 and correct endpoint
3. Check the collector is up — the readiness check in Test 1 Step 1. Probe health_check on 13133, not the OTLP/HTTP port 4318, which answers 404 to a GET /
4. Increase batch_delay_ms or decrease batch_size in xrpld config

Nodes not reaching "proposing" state

1. Check that all peer ports (51235-51240) are not in use:

   for p in 51235 51236 51237 51238 51239 51240; do
       ss -tlnp | grep ":$p " && echo "port $p in use"
   done
   

2. Verify [ips_fixed] lists the 5 other peer ports, and not the node's own
3. Verify validators.txt has all 6 public keys
4. Check node debug logs: tail -50 /tmp/xrpld-integration/Node-1/debug.log
5. Ensure [peer_private] is set to 1. In src/libxrpl/peerfinder/Config.cpp it sets both autoConnect = !standalone && !peerPrivate and wantIncoming = (!config.peerPrivate) && (port != 0), so it stops the node reaching out to the public network and stops it accepting inbound peers. The nodes here find each other through [ips_fixed], which is unaffected.

Transaction not processing

1. Verify genesis account exists:

   curl -s http://localhost:5005 \
       -d '{"method":"account_info","params":[{"account":"rHb9CJAWyB4rj91VRWn96DkukG4bwdtyTh"}]}' |
       jq .result.account_data.Balance
   

2. Check submit response for error codes
3. In standalone mode, remember to call ledger_accept after submitting

No trace_id in log output

1. Verify xrpld was built with telemetry=ON (-Dtelemetry=ON in CMake)
2. Verify enabled=1 in the [telemetry] config section
3. Log lines only contain trace context when emitted inside an active span. Background logs (startup, periodic tasks outside spans) will not have trace_id/span_id.
4. Ensure the trace category is enabled (e.g., trace_rpc=1 for RPC logs)

No logs in Loki

1. Verify the log file mount in docker-compose.yml:

   volumes:
     - ${XRPLD_LOG_DIR:-./data/logs}:/var/log/xrpld:ro
   

   The mount source defaults to the repo-relative docker/telemetry/data/logs (where the telemetry configs write). Override XRPLD_LOG_DIR to tail logs from another root.
2. Check OTel Collector logs for file_log receiver errors:

   docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml logs otel-collector | grep -i "file_log\|loki\|error"
   

3. Verify Loki is running:

   curl -s http://localhost:3100/ready
   

4. Verify the file_log receiver glob pattern matches your log files: The default pattern is /var/log/xrpld/*/debug.log

Grafana trace-log links not working

1. Verify tracesToLogs is configured in the Tempo datasource provisioning (docker/telemetry/grafana/provisioning/datasources/tempo.yaml)
2. Verify derivedFields is configured in the Loki datasource provisioning (docker/telemetry/grafana/provisioning/datasources/loki.yaml)
3. Restart Grafana after changing provisioning files:

   docker compose -f docker/telemetry/docker-compose.yml restart grafana
   

Spanmetrics not appearing in Prometheus

1. Verify otel-collector config has span_metrics connector
2. Check that the metrics pipeline matches otel-collector-config.yaml verbatim:

   service:
     pipelines:
       metrics:
         receivers: [otlp, span_metrics]
         processors: [resource/tier, resource/stripsdk, batch]
         exporters: [prometheus]
   

   Both receivers are required. span_metrics carries the span-derived span_* series; otlp carries the node's native beast::insight / MetricsRegistry metrics, which arrive on the same OTLP port. Dropping otlp silently removes every native metric while the span_* ones keep working — so the dashboards only half-break. (The cloud config, otel-collector-config.grafanacloud.yaml, spells the same connector spanmetrics; both are valid ids for it.)
3. Verify Prometheus can reach collector:

   curl -s http://localhost:9090/api/v1/targets | jq '.data.activeTargets'