Datasette’s latest alpha adds request and query tracing
Datasette, a tool for exploring and publishing SQLite databases, adds OpenTelemetry support in version 1.0a41. Traces connect incoming requests to database queries, worker execution and the write queue. That gives operators a way to distinguish slow SQL from time spent waiting elsewhere in the application, instead of treating every slow page as the same problem.
Simon Willison / Datasette · Sep 24, 2026
Why it matters
This makes performance investigations more concrete for teams publishing data through Datasette.
More context
Try the alpha with an OpenTelemetry SDK and exporter, launching it through opentelemetry-instrument. The docs show console output and an OTLP endpoint; setting exporter variables alone does not enable instrumentation.
Keep in mind
This is an alpha release. Telemetry adds setup and operational considerations, and 1min has not measured its overhead.
Original read