Configure trace context propagation formats - Managed Service for OpenTelemetry

Managed Service for OpenTelemetry supports multiple trace context propagation formats, including W3C Trace Context, Zipkin B3, and Jaeger. Configure the propagator to maintain end-to-end traces across services that use different tracing libraries.

By default, Managed Service for OpenTelemetry uses tracecontext and baggage (the W3C standards). If your services use other formats, configure the propagator to match.

Supported formats

Format	HTTP header	Description
`tracecontext`	`traceparent: {version}-{trace-id}-{parent-id}-{trace-flags}`	W3C standard. Default format. See W3C Trace Context.
`baggage`	Defined by the W3C Baggage specification	W3C standard for propagating key-value pairs. Default format. See W3C Baggage.
`b3`	`b3: {TraceId}-{SpanId}-{SamplingState}-{ParentSpanId}`	Single-header format for Zipkin-based systems. See OpenZipkin B3.
`b3multi`	`X-B3-TraceId: {TraceId}` `X-B3-SpanId: {SpanId}` `X-B3-ParentSpanId: {ParentSpanId}` `X-B3-Sampled: {SamplingState}`	Multi-header format for Zipkin-based systems. See OpenZipkin B3.
`jaeger`	`uber-trace-id: {trace-id}:{span-id}:{parent-span-id}:{flags}`	For services instrumented with the Jaeger client. See Jaeger propagation format.
`xray`	AWS X-Ray format	For services integrated with AWS X-Ray.
`ottrace`	OpenTracing format	Legacy format for OpenTracing-instrumented services.
`none`	No headers injected or extracted	Disables context propagation entirely.

Configure the propagation format

You can specify the propagation format by using a Java system property or an environment variable.

Use a Java system property

Add -Dotel.propagators to the JVM startup arguments. Separate multiple formats with commas.

java -javaagent:/path/to/opentelemetry-javaagent.jar \
     -Dotel.resource.attributes=service.name=<your-service-name> \
     -Dotel.exporter.otlp.headers=Authentication=<your-token> \
     -Dotel.exporter.otlp.endpoint=<your-endpoint> \
     -Dotel.metrics.exporter=none \
     -Dotel.propagators=tracecontext,baggage,b3 \
     -jar <your-app>.jar

Placeholder	Description
`<your-service-name>`	Name that identifies the service in traces
`<your-token>`	Authentication token for the OTLP endpoint
`<your-endpoint>`	OTLP collector endpoint URL
`<your-app>`	Application JAR filename

Use an environment variable

Set the OTEL_PROPAGATORS environment variable before starting the application. Separate multiple formats with commas.

export OTEL_PROPAGATORS="b3"

Then start the application as usual.

Behavior with multiple formats

When you specify multiple formats (for example, tracecontext,baggage,b3), the propagator injects and extracts headers in all listed formats on every request.

Keep the following in mind:

Default formats: tracecontext and baggage are W3C standards supported by most modern observability platforms. Start with these unless your services require a different format.
Zipkin compatibility: Use b3 (single header) or b3multi (separate headers) for Zipkin-based tracing systems.
Jaeger compatibility: Use jaeger for services instrumented with the Jaeger client.
Disable propagation: Set the format to none to stop injecting and extracting trace context headers.