Honeycomb - OpenSRE Documentation

Overview

OpenSRE queries Honeycomb for 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 honeycomb

You will be prompted for the API key, dataset (defaults to __all__), and API URL.

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"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Store credentials use base_url (not HONEYCOMB_API_URL).

Option 4: Multi-instance

For multiple Honeycomb environments or keys, use multi-instance with HONEYCOMB_INSTANCES:

HONEYCOMB_INSTANCES='[
  {"name":"prod","tags":{"env":"prod"},"credentials":{"api_key":"...","dataset":"__all__","base_url":"https://api.honeycomb.io"}},
  {"name":"eu","tags":{"env":"eu"},"credentials":{"api_key":"...","dataset":"__all__","base_url":"https://api.eu1.honeycomb.io"}}
]'

When HONEYCOMB_INSTANCES is set, the single-instance HONEYCOMB_* variables are ignored.

Credentials

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.

Investigation tools

Tool	Use it for
`query_honeycomb_traces`	Trace and span groups related to an incident

Arguments the planner commonly supplies:

Argument	Default	Description
`dataset`	from config (`__all__`)	Required at tool call time
`service_name`	—	Filter spans for a service
`trace_id`	—	Look up a specific trace
`time_range_seconds`	`3600`	Lookback window
`limit`	`20`	Result cap

Verify

opensre integrations verify honeycomb

Expected output:

SERVICE     SOURCE      STATUS   DETAIL
honeycomb   local env   passed   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`
Multiple Honeycomb accounts	Use `HONEYCOMB_INSTANCES` — see Multi-instance integrations

Security

Use a dedicated read-only API key scoped to query access.
Store the API key in .env or your secret manager — not in source control.

​Overview

​Prerequisites

​Setup

​Option 1: Interactive CLI

​Option 2: Environment variables

​Option 3: Persistent store

​Option 4: Multi-instance

​Credentials

​Investigation tools

​Verify

​Troubleshooting

​Security

Overview

Prerequisites

Setup

Option 1: Interactive CLI

Option 2: Environment variables

Option 3: Persistent store

Option 4: Multi-instance

Credentials

Investigation tools

Verify

Troubleshooting

Security