OpenSRE queries Honeycomb to surface distributed traces during alert investigations — identifying slow spans, high-error services, and query patterns correlated with incidents.
Prerequisites
- Honeycomb account (classic or environments-based)
- API key with query access
Setup
Option 1: Interactive CLI
opensre integrations setup
Option 2: Environment variables
Add to your .env:
HONEYCOMB_API_KEY=your-api-key
HONEYCOMB_DATASET=your-dataset # optional, defaults to __all__
HONEYCOMB_API_URL=https://api.honeycomb.io # optional
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
HONEYCOMB_API_KEY | — | Required. Honeycomb API key |
HONEYCOMB_DATASET | __all__ | Dataset to query (classic) or __all__ for environments |
HONEYCOMB_API_URL | https://api.honeycomb.io | Override for EU region or proxies |
Option 3: Persistent store
{
"version": 1,
"integrations": [
{
"id": "honeycomb-prod",
"service": "honeycomb",
"status": "active",
"credentials": {
"api_key": "your-api-key",
"dataset": "__all__",
"base_url": "https://api.honeycomb.io"
}
}
]
}
Creating an API key
- In Honeycomb, go to Account → API Keys
- Click Create API Key
- Set the environment and enable Query Data permission
- Copy the key
Use __all__ as the dataset to query across all datasets in an environment. For EU accounts, set HONEYCOMB_API_URL=https://api.eu1.honeycomb.io.
Verify
opensre integrations verify --service honeycomb
Service: honeycomb
Status: passed
Detail: Connected to https://api.honeycomb.io (environment production) and queried dataset __all__
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|
| 401 Unauthorized | Confirm the API key is correct and has Query Data permission |
| Dataset not found | Use __all__ or check the exact dataset name in Honeycomb |
| EU account unreachable | Set HONEYCOMB_API_URL=https://api.eu1.honeycomb.io |
Security best practices
- Use a dedicated read-only API key scoped to query access.
- Store the API key in
.env, not in source code.
