No traces from controllers or services with OpenTelemetry Java agent in Spring Boot Kotlin application

[powerfulsheron]

Describe the bug

Please help identify why no controller/service spans are being generated, and how to get OpenTelemetry auto-instrumentation working for classic Spring Boot controllers in a Kotlin app.

Steps to reproduce

🔁 Steps to Reproduce

1. Generate Kotlin Spring Boot project
   Use [Spring Initializr](https://start.spring.io/) with the following settings:

   • Language: Kotlin

   • Spring Boot version: e.g., 3.2.x

   • Dependencies:

     • Spring Web

2. Create a simple controller

   @RestController
   class HelloController {
   
       @GetMapping("/hello")
       fun hello(): String {
           Thread.sleep(500) // to simulate work and ensure trace is long enough
           return "Hello from controller"
       }
   }

3. Application class

   @SpringBootApplication
   class MyApplication
   
   fun main(args: Array<String>) {
       runApplication<MyApplication>(*args)
   }

4. Download OpenTelemetry Java agent

   curl -O https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/releases/latest/download/opentelemetry-javaagent.jar

5. Run the app with the agent with following args

     -Dotel.service.name=xxx \
     -Dotel.exporter.otlp.endpoint=http://localhost:4317 \
     -Dotel.exporter.otlp.protocol=grpc \
     -Dotel.metrics.exporter=none \
     -Dotel.logs.exporter=none \
     -Dotel.instrumentation.spring-web.enabled=true \
     -Dotel.instrumentation.spring-webmvc.enabled=true \

6. Trigger the endpoint

   curl http://localhost:8080/hello

7. Check for spans

   • No spans from controller or service layer appear in OTLP endpoint or logs.
   • Agent logs show instrumentations were installed, but no controller traces.

Expected behavior

❌ What Should Work

• spans/traces from controller layer (e.g., @RestController)
• spans from service layer (e.g., @Service)

Actual behavior

✅ What Works

• App starts fine with the agent.
• Logs confirm the agent is attached and instrumentation is installed.
• Agent outputs Installed instrumentations: spring-web, spring-webmvc, etc.
• Application responds to HTTP requests.

❌ What Does NOT Work

• No spans/traces from controller layer (e.g., @RestController)
• No spans from service layer (e.g., @Service)
• Tried adding Thread.sleep() in controller to ensure timing isn’t an issue → no change.

Javaagent or library instrumentation version

latest from the website

Environment

🧩 Environment

• Language: Kotlin
• Framework: Spring Boot
• Spring Boot Version: 3.3.4
• OpenTelemetry Java Agent version: Latest (from official site)
• JDK Version: OpenJDK 21.0.1
• App Packaging: Gradle

Additional context

No response

[laurit]

By default we don't generate any spans for controllers or service. There is a flag to enable creating controller spans https://opentelemetry.io/docs/zero-code/java/agent/disable/#suppressing-controller-andor-view-spans

[powerfulsheron]

Thank you for the reactivity and sorry to not have taken enough time to look deeply in the java agent documentation

I've tried otel.instrumentation.common.experimental.controller-telemetry.enabled=true and it does work as expected, I now got my Controllers Spans.

Unfortunately I have found no ways of getting spans for my Service Layer

I've tried :

-Dotel.instrumentation.common.experimental.view-telemetry.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.methods.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.hibernate.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.jdbc.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.jdbc-datasource.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.servlet.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.spring-batch.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.spring-batch.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.spring-core.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.spring-data.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.spring-integration.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.spring-web.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.spring-webmvc.enabled=true
-Dotel.instrumentation.spring-ws.enabled=true

Maybe it's a feature request ?

[laurit]

Maybe it's a feature request ?

There is no flag for this, but you can probably implement it yourself using the spring aop facilities.