You only need to add the JavaAgent layer — no separate collector layer is required. Trace0 handles ingestion directly.
1. Add the OpenTelemetry Lambda Layer
Find the latest layer-javaagent ARN for your AWS region from the opentelemetry-lambda releases page. Add the JavaAgent layer ARN to your function — do not add the Collector layer.
2. Set Environment Variables
Add the following environment variables to your Lambda function. Replace YOUR_TRACE0_ENV_API_KEY with the API key from your Trace0 environment.
| Variable | Value |
|---|
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT | https://app.trace0hq.com/api |
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS | X-API-KEY=YOUR_TRACE0_ENV_API_KEY |
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL | http/protobuf |
AWS_LAMBDA_EXEC_WRAPPER | /opt/otel-handler |
3. Set HTTP request spans
For lambdas triggered via API Gateway, the HTTP request and response attributes are not set automatically on the lambda invocation span by the OTel Lambda auto-instrumentation.
Therefore, they need to be set manually in your lambda code handler.
First, add the opentelemetry-api dependency to your project:
dependencies {
implementation("io.opentelemetry:opentelemetry-api:1.61.0")
}
<dependency>
<groupId>io.opentelemetry</groupId>
<artifactId>opentelemetry-api</artifactId>
<version>1.61.0</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.Context;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.RequestHandler;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.events.APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent;
import com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.events.APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent;
import io.opentelemetry.api.trace.Span;
import io.opentelemetry.api.trace.StatusCode;
public class Handler implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
@Override
public APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent handleRequest(APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent event, Context context) {
String httpMethod = event.getHttpMethod();
String path = event.getPath();
// Set the http request method and route on the parent span.
Span span = Span.current();
span.setAttribute("http.request.method", httpMethod);
span.setAttribute("http.route", path);
APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent result = processRequest(event)
// Set the HTTP response code and mark the span as failed for 4xx/5xx responses.
span.setAttribute("http.response.status_code", result.getStatusCode());
span.setStatus(result.getStatusCode() < 400 ? StatusCode.OK : StatusCode.ERROR);
return result;
}
}
4. Deploy service
Deploy your service and watch traces, metrics, and logs appear in the Trace0 dashboard within seconds.
Example service
See our Java Lambda example app for a working service you can deploy to your AWS account.