Beacon Python

beacon-otel is the main Beacon Python installation package. The current stable version is 1.0.0.

Install the main package together with the auto-instrumentation plugins required by your framework. For example, a FastAPI application can install the current stable version with:

pip install 'beacon-otel[fastapi]==1.0.0'

To enable profiling, install:

pip install 'beacon-otel[fastapi,profiling]==1.0.0'

Activate the virtual environment where Beacon is installed, configure the OTLP endpoint, and then start the application. You can also pass the full path of an executable in that virtual environment after beacon:

export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=my-service
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4317
beacon uvicorn myapp:app

beacon --version displays the Beacon Python product version. Optional dependencies are currently provided for requests, flask, and fastapi; auto-instrumentation packages for other frameworks can be installed separately according to the official OpenTelemetry documentation. Package availability does not mean that every framework and runtime environment is supported by a stable Beacon release. Refer to the release notes and acceptance records for the supported scope of each version.

Optional dependencies install only the corresponding auto-instrumentation plugins; the application must install the framework itself. Do not install the legacy guance-sdk-extension-profiling package in the same Python environment because its auto-instrumentation entry point conflicts with beacon-profiling.

By default, beacon selects the Beacon OpenTelemetry distro and configurator and uses the standard OTEL_* environment variables. Explicitly configured OTEL_PYTHON_DISTRO or OTEL_PYTHON_CONFIGURATOR values are not overwritten. Profiling is disabled by default; see the profiling documentation to enable it.