n8n

n8n can export workflow and node execution traces over OTLP. Recent n8n versions can also emit agent spans using OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic conventions. Send these spans to Arize AX to inspect workflow latency, node failures, and agent behavior.

n8n OpenTelemetry tracing is marked preview in n8n’s documentation. OTEL tracing is available from n8n 2.19.0, UI-based OTEL configuration is available from 2.27.0, and agent tracing is available from 2.33.0. Validate the behavior on your n8n version before relying on it for production operations.

Prerequisites

A self-hosted n8n instance with OpenTelemetry tracing support. Use n8n 2.19.0 or later for workflow tracing and 2.33.0 or later for agent tracing.
An Arize AX account (sign up)
Your Arize AX Space ID and API Key

Launch Arize AX

Sign in to your Arize AX account.
From Space Settings, copy your Space ID and API Key.

Configure n8n with environment variables

Set these variables on each n8n process that should emit traces, including main, worker, and webhook processors in queue mode:

export N8N_OTEL_ENABLED=true
export N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://otlp.arize.com
export N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACING_PATH=/v1/traces
export N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS="space_id=<your-arize-space-id>,api_key=<your-arize-api-key>"
export N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_SERVICE_NAME=n8n

For EU spaces, use:

export N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://otlp.eu-west-1a.arize.com

Restart n8n after setting the environment variables.

n8n appends N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACING_PATH to N8N_OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT. Set the endpoint to the base Arize host and the tracing path to /v1/traces.

For production deployments, you can use n8n’s _FILE variants for sensitive values when your deployment platform mounts secrets as files.

Enable n8n agent tracing

In n8n 2.33.0 or later, enable agent spans:

export N8N_AGENTS_TRACING_ENABLED=true

By default, n8n agent tracing may record prompts, tool arguments, responses, and tool results. To reduce sensitive data capture:

export N8N_AGENTS_TRACING_RECORD_INPUTS=false
export N8N_AGENTS_TRACING_RECORD_OUTPUTS=false

Verify in Arize

Run an n8n workflow.
Open your Arize AX space.
Look for workflow.execute and node.execute spans within ~30 seconds. Agent runs may also appear as GenAI spans if enabled.

If you configured OpenTelemetry from the n8n UI, use n8n’s Send test trace action to verify the exporter before running a workflow.

Check from the skill, CLI, or SDK

Confirm spans are actually reaching your Arize AX project. Use whichever fits your workflow — the skill and CLI work for any framework; the SDK check is shown for each language.

Arize skill (agent)
AX CLI
SDK

Install the Arize Skills plugin and let your coding agent check for you:

npx skills add Arize-ai/arize-skills

Then prompt your agent:

Use the arize-trace skill to export and analyze recent traces from my project. Confirm spans are arriving, and summarize any errors or latency issues.

Export recent spans for your project — any rows mean traces are landing:

ax spans export "$ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME" --space "$ARIZE_SPACE_ID" \
  --limit 5 --stdout | jq 'length'

A non-zero count confirms spans reached Arize AX. Run ax auth login first if you have not authenticated. See the ax spans reference.

Query the project’s spans and check that at least one came back.

import os
from arize import ArizeClient

client = ArizeClient(api_key=os.environ["ARIZE_API_KEY"])
resp = client.spans.list(
    project=os.environ["ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME"],
    space=os.environ["ARIZE_SPACE_ID"],
    limit=5,
)
count = len(resp.spans)
print(
    f"{count} span(s) found" if count else "No spans yet — recheck setup"
)

// Reads ARIZE_API_KEY from the environment.
import { listSpans } from "@arizeai/ax-client";

const { data: spans } = await listSpans({
  project: process.env.ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME!,
  space: process.env.ARIZE_SPACE_ID!,
  limit: 5,
});
const count = spans.length;
console.log(
  count ? `${count} span(s) found` : "No spans yet — recheck setup",
);

client, err := arize.NewClient(
    arize.Config{APIKey: os.Getenv("ARIZE_API_KEY")},
)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
resp, err := client.Spans.List(ctx, spans.ListRequest{
    Project: os.Getenv("ARIZE_PROJECT_NAME"),
    Space:   os.Getenv("ARIZE_SPACE_ID"),
    Limit:   5,
})
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Printf("%d span(s) found\n", len(resp.Spans))

SDK span references: Python · TypeScript · Go.

What Arize captures

n8n exports:

workflow.execute spans for workflow executions
node.execute spans for node executions
W3C trace context propagation for inbound webhooks and outbound HTTP requests
agent spans using OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic conventions when N8N_AGENTS_TRACING_ENABLED=true

Optional: add a project name with an OpenTelemetry Collector

Arize AX uses the openinference.project.name resource attribute to organize traces into projects. n8n’s direct OTLP configuration focuses on endpoint, headers, service name, sampling, and span options. If you want a specific project name, send n8n traces through an OpenTelemetry Collector and add:

processors:
  resource/arize_project:
    attributes:
      - key: openinference.project.name
        value: n8n
        action: upsert

Then export to Arize AX with the same space_id and api_key headers.

Troubleshooting

No traces in Arize. Confirm N8N_OTEL_ENABLED=true, the endpoint is the base Arize OTLP host, the tracing path is /v1/traces, and headers include space_id and api_key.
Only production executions appear. n8n exports production executions by default. Set N8N_OTEL_TRACES_PRODUCTION_ONLY=false to trace all executions.
Node spans are missing. Confirm N8N_OTEL_TRACES_INCLUDE_NODE_SPANS=true.
Agent spans are missing. Confirm your n8n version supports agent tracing and N8N_AGENTS_TRACING_ENABLED=true.

OpenTelemetry

LLM Providers

Agent Frameworks

Coding Agents

Platforms

Orchestration

Evaluation

Prerequisites

Launch Arize AX

Configure n8n with environment variables

Enable n8n agent tracing

Verify in Arize

Check from the skill, CLI, or SDK

What Arize captures

Optional: add a project name with an OpenTelemetry Collector

Troubleshooting

Resources

n8n OpenTelemetry tracing

n8n OpenTelemetry environment variables

OpenTelemetry GenAI and OpenInference

​Prerequisites

​Launch Arize AX

​Configure n8n with environment variables

​Enable n8n agent tracing

​Verify in Arize

​Check from the skill, CLI, or SDK

​What Arize captures

​Optional: add a project name with an OpenTelemetry Collector

​Troubleshooting

​Resources

n8n OpenTelemetry tracing

n8n OpenTelemetry environment variables

OpenTelemetry GenAI and OpenInference

Prerequisites

Launch Arize AX

Configure n8n with environment variables

Enable n8n agent tracing

Verify in Arize

Check from the skill, CLI, or SDK

What Arize captures

Optional: add a project name with an OpenTelemetry Collector

Troubleshooting

Resources