HTTP communication

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Updated at March 24, 2026

Naming convention
Attributes
Example

If you are using automatic instrumentation, spans are created and attributes are filled automatically. If using manual instrumentation, follow the conventions described below:

Naming convention

Client span: <Method> if the URL template is unknown, or <url.template> <method> if known, e.g., GET /users/{user_id}.
Server span: <http.route> <method>, e.g., GET /users/:user_id.

If the client does not use templated URLs, the span name contains only the method. If the template is known, it is included into the name via the url.template attribute. The server span includes a templated route (/users/:user_id) instead of a specific path (/users/321). For more information, see the HTTP span naming specification.

Attributes

Attribute	Description
`http.request_method`	HTTP method: `GET`, `POST`, etc.
`http.response.status_code`	Response code: `200`, `404`, etc.
`http.route`	Templated server-side route: `/users/:user_id`
`url.scheme`	Request schema: `http` or `https`
`url.full`	Full request URL
`url.template`	Templated client-side URL: `/users/{user_id}`
`server.address`	Host name or IP address of the target server
`server.port`	Target server port
`client.address`	Client IP address

Example

order-service requests user data from user-service over HTTP:

Attribute	Client span	Server span
Name	`GET`	`GET /users/:user_id`
Kind	`CLIENT`	`SERVER`
Status	`OK`	`OK`
`http.request_method`	`GET`	`GET`
`http.route`	—	`/users/:user_id`
`url.template`	`/users/{user_id}`	—
`http.response.status_code`	`200`	`200`
`url.scheme`	`https`	`https`
`url.full`	`https://user-service.example.com/users/321`	—
`server.address`	`user-service.example.com`	—
`server.port`	`443`	—
`client.address`	—	`192.0.2.4`

HTTP communication

Naming conventionNaming convention

AttributesAttributes

ExampleExample

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Naming convention

Attributes

Example