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Enterprise administrators enable OpenTelemetry (OTel) export for the GitHub Copilot app through enterprise-managed settings. You add a telemetry property to the enterprise managed-settings.json file, set a receiving endpoint, and the app sends agent-session telemetry to a backend your organization controls. GitHub announced the app support in a changelog entry dated September 22, 2026. Prompt, response, and tool-argument content is excluded by default, so content capture is a separate policy decision you make on purpose.

What the feature gives your team

The configuration lets platform and security teams analyze agent sessions and investigate unexpected behavior through traces, and manage monitoring centrally across teams rather than setting it up per developer machine. GitHub’s announcement uses Splunk Observability Cloud to illustrate trace analysis. That is an example of a compatible destination, not a requirement; any backend that can receive OTLP export fits the same pattern.

Before you configure anything

Settle three decisions first, because the settings file reflects them directly.

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  • Destination. Choose a secure OTLP-compatible backend. If the backend cannot receive OTLP directly, deploy an OpenTelemetry Collector to receive, process, and forward the telemetry. GitHub’s monitoring guidance describes both paths (OpenTelemetry for agent monitoring).
  • Content policy. Decide whether prompts, responses, and tool arguments may leave the developer environment. Involve your security and privacy owners. The sources do not prescribe a retention period or a legal basis for this data, so those belong in your own governance review.
  • Authentication. Confirm the endpoint, protocol, and any authorization header your organization requires.

Step-by-step: enabling export

  1. Confirm that the Copilot app version and enterprise policy in your environment support the setting. The announcement does not state a minimum app version or a phased rollout schedule, so check these before broad deployment.
  2. Open the enterprise managed-settings.json file that governs your Copilot app policy and add a telemetry object.
  3. Set enabled to true, and set endpoint and protocol to match your receiving backend or Collector.
  4. Set captureContent to false unless your content policy explicitly allows capture. If your policy requires users not to change this, set lockCaptureContent to true.
  5. Add serviceName, resourceAttributes, and headers as your monitoring team requires. Use values from your own environment, never sample credentials.
  6. Run a test agent session and confirm that traces and metrics arrive in the backend before you expand the rollout.

The following schematic follows the structure of GitHub’s settings example. The endpoint and token are placeholders, not working values:

{
  "telemetry": {
    "enabled": true,
    "endpoint": "https://otel-collector.example.com",
    "protocol": "http/protobuf",
    "captureContent": false,
    "lockCaptureContent": true,
    "serviceName": "copilot",
    "resourceAttributes": {
      "deployment.environment": "production"
    },
    "headers": {
      "Authorization": "Bearer TOKEN"
    }
  }
}

Telemetry fields reference

The telemetry object supports the fields below. Descriptions come from the field names and GitHub’s example values in the enterprise managed settings reference.

Field What it controls Value in GitHub’s example
enabled Turns export on or off true
endpoint Receiving endpoint for exported telemetry Organization-approved endpoint (example domain only)
protocol Transport protocol for export http/protobuf
captureContent Whether prompts, responses, and tool arguments are included false
lockCaptureContent Prevents users from changing the content-capture setting true
serviceName Service name attached to exported telemetry copilot
resourceAttributes Metadata attached to exported telemetry deployment.environment set to production
headers HTTP headers sent with export requests An Authorization header (placeholder)

What the telemetry contains

GitHub describes three signal types. Know which ones your backend will display before you design dashboards.

Traces

Traces show the sequence of an agent session and connect model calls with tool use. This is the signal GitHub highlights for step-by-step investigation of unexpected behavior.

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Metrics

Metrics are numeric measurements. Input and output token usage is the example GitHub gives.

Events

Events record individual point-in-time actions, such as whether a user accepted or rejected an edit.

Privacy and content capture

By default, the exported payload excludes prompts, responses, and tool arguments. GitHub warns that optional content capture can send sensitive material, including code, file contents, and user prompts. The release announcement tells administrators to review content-capture settings before enabling capture.

Treat captureContent as the most consequential setting in the block. Pair it with lockCaptureContent if the policy is that only administrators decide. Locking prevents individual users from changing the setting; it does not replace review of what your backend stores.

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Which clients the setting covers

The dated release announcement states that the GitHub Copilot app now supports OTel configuration through enterprise-managed settings. The general managed-settings reference describes the telemetry property in detail, but its prose names Copilot CLI and VS Code as supported clients. Verify behavior in the app version you deploy rather than assuming identical settings behavior across clients.

Two related GitHub documents cover different paths. The Copilot CLI command reference notes that CLI OpenTelemetry is off by default and can be activated with environment variables or file export settings. The OpenTelemetry instrumentation guide for the Copilot SDK covers OTLP configuration and W3C trace-context propagation for applications you build with the SDK. Neither replaces the app’s managed-settings procedure.

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Repository configuration is a different file

Do not confuse the enterprise telemetry setting with the app’s repository file. .github/github-app.yml defines project instructions, scripts, and automation for a repository. GitHub’s repository configuration reference says repository settings are reviewed and accepted before use and warns that configured scripts receive GitHub credentials. OpenTelemetry export is not configured there.

If data does not arrive

  • Check that enabled is true and that the app version you run supports the managed setting.
  • Confirm the protocol matches what your backend or Collector expects.
  • Verify the endpoint is reachable from developer machines and that the headers authorization value is current.
  • If the backend cannot receive OTLP directly, confirm the Collector is running and forwarding to the destination.

Read the release announcement and the managed-settings reference together before rollout. The announcement is the dated source for app support, and the reference is the field-level guide to what you configure.

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Sources: GitHub Changelog, “OpenTelemetry in the GitHub Copilot app” (September 22, 2026).

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