OpenTelemetry plugin in Kong is naming all transactions statically as "kong"

[hoanbc]

Hi everyone,

I have setup success Kong with OpenTelemetry but on transactions of APM only show as "Kong". I did read a workaround and follow it but it still affect. So somebody have same issuse with me?
Link: https://support.konghq.com/support/s/article/OpenTelemetry-plugin-in-Kong-is-naming-all-transactions-statically-as-kong
Version: 3.9.0 / community

[StarlightIbuki]

This is a limitation of the current implementation. We share code and trace data for different tracing plugins. This way, the accuracy of each plugin/tracing system is sacrificed. Perhaps we will find a solution in future updates

[KianAnbarestani]

Yes, this is a known behavior in Kong OSS 3.9.0 with the OpenTelemetry plugin—all APM transactions are reported with the static name "kong", which limits trace granularity in tools like Elastic APM.

The article you referenced (link) explains the root cause: the OpenTelemetry plugin currently assigns a hardcoded span name ("kong"), instead of dynamically using route/service/path/method to differentiate traces.
Workaround (Community Use):
You can try customizing the span name in the plugin by:

• Forking the plugin
• Modifying kong/plugins/opentelemetry/plugin.lua to set the span name dynamically, for example:
  span:set_name(kong.request.get_method() .. " " .. kong.request.get_path())
  This will show more meaningful names like GET /v1/anything in APM.

Notes:

• This behavior may be improved in future versions (or already addressed in Kong Enterprise).
• Community users currently need to patch or wrap the plugin manually.