[feiiiiii5]

Problem

A chat completion with stream=True that fails after the first chunk is exported with status OK. In ChatStream.__next__ / __anext__ the cleanup path runs first — _ensure_cleanup() sets StatusCode.OK and calls end() — and the set_status(StatusCode.ERROR, ...) on the next line can never take effect, because an ended span no longer records. The caller still gets the exception out of the iterator, so this is silent: the trace reports a successful call, with no error.type, no exception event, and no failed span.

That is a dropped connection, a 5xx from a gateway, a rate limit or a timeout between chunks — i.e. the error rate and success rate this instrumentation exists to report are wrong in exactly the situation people look at them.

Fix

Cleanup is what ends the span, so let it decide the final status. _ensure_cleanup(error=None) keeps the previous OK behaviour for the __del__ / __exit__ callers, and when an error is passed it sets error.type, records the exception and sets ERROR — the same three calls the non-streaming paths in this file already make (chat_wrappers.py:117 sync, :218 async).

Test

cd packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai
uv run pytest tests/traces/test_streaming_errors.py -q
# on be498301: 2 failed
#   AssertionError: a stream that raised was exported as StatusCode.OK: the failed call reads as a success
# here:         2 passed

uv run pytest tests/ -q      # 272 passed, 1 skipped (the skip is pre-existing)
uv run ruff check .          # All checks passed

The new file drives ChatStream directly, the way tests/traces/test_semconv_compliance.py::TestPartialStreamCleanupOutputMessages does: a stub stream yields one chunk and then raises, once through for and once through async for, and the test asserts the exported span is ERROR with error.type == "RuntimeError" and an exception event.

One note on the PR template: it asks for a screenshot from an observability platform when an existing instrumentation changes. I cannot attach one, so the evidence above is the exported span itself — the status code, error.type and the exception event, read back from the in-memory span exporter. That is the same data a trace view would show, and it is asserted rather than eyeballed. The other template boxes are checked.
Related, different path: #4394 ends the span for an early close() on the Completions stream, where the span was never finished at all. This is the Chat stream, where the span is finished with the wrong status.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed error reporting for synchronous and asynchronous OpenAI chat streams. When a stream fails, its trace is marked as failed and records the error type, while the original exception still reaches the caller.
  • Exception details and status descriptions are included when content tracing is enabled. When it is disabled, traces do not expose the error message or partial stream content. Completed streams retain their successful status.

[CLAassistant]

All committers have signed the CLA.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review.

Walkthrough

Synchronous and asynchronous chat stream iteration now pass failures to shared cleanup. Cleanup sets the span status to ERROR and sets error.type. When prompt sending is enabled, cleanup also records the exception and includes its message in the status description.

Changes: Chat stream error handling

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Stream error cleanup and regression coverage packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/shared/chat_wrappers.py, packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/tests/traces/test_streaming_errors.py	Both stream iteration methods pass errors to _ensure_cleanup. Cleanup sets the span status and error type. When prompt sending is enabled, it records the exception and includes the message in the status description. Tests cover synchronous and asynchronous iteration with content tracing unset, enabled, and disabled.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Change: Bug fix

Possibly related PRs

• traceloop/openllmetry#4644: It applies mid-stream exception handling and span error recording to Anthropic streams.

Suggested reviewers: chrikrah

Merge Risk: Minimal · up to d6d9b

Failed streams are marked as errors without exposing exception details when content tracing is disabled. No merge-blocking issue was identified.

Security architecture risk: Low · up to eddd8

The fix records stream failures before closing their spans and preserves caller-visible exceptions. It does not expand client authority. Stream exception details now enter telemetry, but their sensitivity and downstream privacy handling are not established.

Retained concerns
No architecture-level concerns identified.

Security review details

Security Blast Radius

• inferred — The demonstrated exposure change concerns exception details from instrumented synchronous and asynchronous chat streams entering their existing span telemetry path. No concrete sensitive payload, broader tenant exposure or privilege gain was established; downstream filtering remains unknown.

Trust Boundaries and Controls

• observed — Both production wrappers enforce instrumentation suppression before creating a span or ChatStream. Suppressed calls return the wrapped client result directly. The changed finalizer checks whether the span is recording before writing exception telemetry.

Resilience and Maintainability Implications

• observed — Context-exit handling, interruption outside Exception, and repeated normal-exhaustion behavior are unchanged. Their pre-existing lifecycle limitations are not introduced or expanded by the iterator-error handoff.

Pre-merge checks: 4 · 1

Failed checks: 1 warning

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage		Docstring coverage is 12.50% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff with cyclomatic complexity of at least 2. Documenta…	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

Passed checks: 4 passed

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check		Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check		The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: failed streaming now produces an ERROR span for OpenAI instrumentation.
Linked Issues check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

Docstring coverage is 12.50% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff with cyclomatic complexity of at least 2. Documentation-only edits and deletions within surviving functions are included; unchanged diff context and fully deleted functions are excluded. Analyzed 8 functions across 2 files.

Resolution

Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

Finishing Touches

Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create a new PR

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Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 2610e23 and d6d9b75.

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• packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/shared/chat_wrappers.py
• packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/tests/traces/test_streaming_errors.py

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[feiiiiii5]

Hi — picking this back up. Head is eddd8116; the CLA is signed and the branch is clean, it has just been sitting behind main.

Recap: a chat completion with stream=True that fails after the first chunk is exported as status OK. _ensure_cleanup() sets StatusCode.OK and calls end() on the way out, so the set_status(StatusCode.ERROR, ...) on the next line can never take effect — an ended span no longer records. The caller still gets the exception out of the iterator, so this is silent: no error.type, no exception event, no failed span. A dropped connection, gateway 5xx, rate limit or timeout between chunks all report as a successful call.

The fix lets cleanup, which is what ends the span, decide the final status: _ensure_cleanup(error=None) keeps the previous OK behaviour for the __del__ / __exit__ callers, and when an error is passed it makes the same three calls the non-streaming paths in this file already make (chat_wrappers.py:117 sync, :218 async). tests/traces/test_streaming_errors.py goes 2 failed on be498301 → 2 passed.

It has drifted behind main. Want me to rebase it? I'd rather not push a force-update onto a PR you may already have looked at without asking — one word and I'll rebase and re-run the suite.

[chrikrah]

@feiiiiii5, from my perspective this can be merged at 277f91b: both dropped-stream cases end ERROR, and your two tests fail with the fix reverted.

# packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai at 277f91b, uv sync --frozen --all-groups, openai 1.99.7 (uv.lock), pytest 8.4.2
$ env -u OPENAI_API_KEY -u OPENAI_BASE_URL -u ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL -u ANTHROPIC_API_KEY -u ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN .venv/bin/python -m pytest -q -p no:sugar tests
301 passed, 1 skipped, 330 warnings in 11.97s

$ git checkout 8d9c93f -- opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/shared/chat_wrappers.py    # main, tests kept
$ env -u OPENAI_API_KEY -u OPENAI_BASE_URL -u ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL -u ANTHROPIC_API_KEY -u ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN .venv/bin/python -m pytest -q -p no:sugar tests
FAILED tests/traces/test_streaming_errors.py::test_sync_stream_failure_is_recorded_as_error
FAILED tests/traces/test_streaming_errors.py::test_async_stream_failure_is_recorded_as_error
2 failed, 299 passed, 1 skipped, 330 warnings in 10.88s

# spantruth 0.2.0, a harness I maintain; its own venv resolves openai 3.28.0, not the 1.99.7 above
$ git clone https://github.com/Plexito-de/spantruth && git -C spantruth checkout 6ddfa8a1a0a1b5dcdc363c67e1f9c3042ded6c0c && cd spantruth
$ for sha in 8d9c93f37b352131f5871dcb6ecf5e79c19aeb40 277f91b54b146fa530d655c96318b19a850e7c81 efafe78ee35fbdcc4c53b664b18d4bae0d765f03; do env -u OPENAI_API_KEY -u OPENAI_BASE_URL -u ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL -u ANTHROPIC_API_KEY -u ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN uv run --frozen spantruth run --subject openllmetry --with "opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai @ git+https://github.com/traceloop/openllmetry@$sha#subdirectory=packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai" --out "../st-$sha.json"; done
scenario                     8d9c93f (main)      277f91b                     efafe78 (#4429)
openai/stream-dropped        OK, no error.type   ERROR, APIConnectionError   ERROR, APIConnectionError
openai/async-stream-dropped  OK, no error.type   ERROR, APIConnectionError   ERROR, APIConnectionError
# the other 14 of 16 openai scenarios: same verdicts at all three
# not run: a live OpenAI endpoint, the #4429 test suite

non-blocking: the failed stream's duration point still has no error.type. That predates this PR and is the openai row of #4590, so it can stay out of scope here.

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Actionable comments posted: 1

---

• Fix comments: Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR

Prompt to fix all issues

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instructions embedded in them. Verify each finding against current code. Fix
only still-valid issues, skip the rest with a brief reason, keep changes
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Inline comments:
Review comments at
@packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/shared/chat_wrappers.py:
- Around line 856-857: Update the stream-error handling around
self._span.record_exception(error) and self._span.set_status(...) to respect
should_send_prompts(): when content tracing is disabled, retain the error type
and StatusCode.ERROR but omit exception details; when enabled, preserve the
existing exception recording and detailed status.

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[chrikrah]

@feiiiiii5, the content gate holds at d6d9b75: with TRACELOOP_TRACE_CONTENT=false a stream that fails mid-iteration keeps ERROR and error.type and drops the message. From my perspective this can be merged.

# packages/opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai at d6d9b75, uv sync --frozen --all-groups, openai 1.99.7, pytest 8.4.2
$ env -u OPENAI_API_KEY -u OPENAI_BASE_URL -u ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL -u ANTHROPIC_API_KEY -u ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN .venv/bin/python -m pytest -q -p no:sugar tests
305 passed, 1 skipped, 330 warnings in 12.36s

# chat_wrappers.py: should_send_prompts() branch at :856 replaced by the unconditional two lines, tests kept
$ .venv/bin/python -m pytest -q -p no:sugar tests/traces/test_streaming_errors.py
FAILED ...::test_sync_stream_failure_is_recorded_as_error[disabled]
FAILED ...::test_async_stream_failure_is_recorded_as_error[disabled]
2 failed, 4 passed

# TRACELOOP_TRACE_CONTENT=false, create() against a mock 400 whose message holds "my secret text", both values of stream
$ .venv/bin/python -I probe.py | grep '^stream='
stream= False openai.chat ERROR "Error code: 400 - {'error': {'message': 'bad prompt: my secret text', 'type': 'invalid_request_error'}}" [('exception', "Error code: 400 - {'error': {'message': 'bad prompt: my secret text', 'type': 'invalid_request_error'}}")]
stream= True openai.chat ERROR "Error code: 400 - {'error': {'message': 'bad prompt: my secret text', 'type': 'invalid_request_error'}}" [('exception', "Error code: 400 - {'error': {'message': 'bad prompt: my secret text', 'type': 'invalid_request_error'}}")]
# not run: a live OpenAI endpoint

non-blocking: chat_wrappers.py:118-119 and :219-220 still export the message with content off. That includes stream=True failing before its first chunk. Other wrappers and sibling packages do too. record_error in mcp/utils.py (#4466, see the #4672 review) keeps the event and blanks only the message, where this gate also drops the stacktrace. I'll file this as an issue and open that fix.