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A lightweight, local OpenTelemetry trace viewer

140 starsTypeScript

Otel-GUI – an open source OpenTelemetry viewer for dev and debug

by nesk_·Apr 9, 2026·4 points·0 comments
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AI Analysis

●●SolidSolve My ProblemCozy

Zero-config OTLP listener beats Jaeger for local trace debugging sessions.

Strengths
  • •PGlite persistence option enables trace recovery across restarts without full database setup
  • •Honeycomb-style waterfall with keyboard navigation speeds up span inspection workflows
  • •Incremental ingestion handles out-of-order spans from distributed services correctly
Weaknesses
  • •In-memory default means traces lost on restart unless PGlite configured
  • •No production deployment guidance or clustering support for team use
Target Audience

Backend developers debugging distributed systems locally

Similar To

Jaeger UI · Tempo · Honeycomb

Post Description

(The author is a work colleague, I'm posting on he's behalf due to "Show HN" limitations for new accounts)

During my recent projects with OpenTelemetry, I was looking for a truly practical tool for local development.

I found several existing solutions —some very powerful— but for my day-to-day local use, they were often too heavy, not simple enough to install, or not quick enough to get started with.

So I decided to build my own dedicated tool: otel-gui.

This is not a complete observability suite nor a telemetry backend designed for large-scale production or long-term retention. It's a tool designed for developers who want to debug efficiently locally.

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