/network-tracing

name: network-tracing
description: Instrument API requests with spans and distributed tracing. Use when tracking request latency, correlating client-backend traces, or debugging API issues.
triggers:
  - "correlate backend traces"
  - "distributed tracing"
  - "network performance"
  - "slow API calls"
  - "trace requests"
  - "track API requests"
priority: 2

Network Tracing

Measure API requests and correlate with backend traces.

What to Capture (OTel-Compatible Names)

| Attribute | OTel Name | Purpose | |-----------|-----------|---------| | Method | `http.request.method` | GET, POST, etc. | | Status | `http.response.status_code` | Success/failure | | URL | `url.path` | Endpoint (sanitized) | | Duration | `http.request.duration` | Request time (ms) | | Size | `http.response.body.size` | Payload bytes |

Using OTel naming = easier migration when OTel mobile matures. See `references/otel-mobile.md` for rationale.

Distributed Tracing

Propagate trace context to backend:

Client Request
    │
    ├── traceparent: 00-{trace_id}-{span_id}-01
    ├── X-Request-Id: {uuid}
    └── X-Session-Id: {session}
         │
         ▼
    Backend (correlates logs with trace_id)

Key Thresholds

| Metric | Good | Acceptable | Poor | |--------|------|------------|------| | API p50 | <500ms | <1s | >1s | | API p95 | <2s | <5s | >5s | | Error rate | <1% | <3% | >3% |

Integration Options

**Choose based on existing vendor:**

| Vendor | iOS | Android | Approach | |--------|-----|---------|----------| | Sentry | Auto URLSession swizzling | OkHttp integration | Automatic | | Datadog | URLSession delegate | OkHttp interceptor | Semi-auto | | Embrace | Auto-instrumentation | Auto-instrumentation | Automatic | | New Relic | Auto URLSession instrumentation | Auto OkHttp/HttpURLConnection | Automatic | | Custom | Manual interceptor | Manual interceptor | Manual |

**Automatic (swizzling):** Less code, may miss custom clients **Manual (interceptors):** More control, works with any HTTP client

Platform Integration Points

| Platform | Manual Option | Works With | |----------|---------------|------------| | iOS | URLSession delegate | All URLSession-based clients | | iOS | Alamofire EventMonitor | Alamofire | | Android | OkHttp Interceptor | OkHttp, Retrofit | | Android | Ktor HttpClientPlugin | Ktor | | RN | fetch wrapper | Native fetch | | RN | axios interceptor | axios |

Implementation

See `references/mobile-challenges.md` (Client-Backend Correlation) for:

• W3C trace header format
• Platform-specific interceptor code
• Backend log correlation patterns

See `references/performance.md` (Network section) for latency budgets.