googleapis/mcp-toolbox · error

unable to set up resource

Error message

unable to set up resource: %w

What it means

SetupOTel failed to construct the OpenTelemetry resource (service name, SDK version attributes). The resource is the foundation for all exporters; when newResource fails, SetupOTel reports via the handleErr callback ('handle the error' style, logging or os.Exit depending on setup) and aborts telemetry initialization.

Solutions

1. Check the error delivered to handleErr (it wraps the resource error); fix the invalid attribute it names.
2. Ensure the version string and service name are non-empty, valid strings.
3. Validate OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES format (key=value pairs, comma separated) if set.
4. Avoid mixing resources with different schema URLs; use one consistent semconv version.
5. Confirm the otel SDK/res module versions are compatible.

Example fix

// before
export OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES="bad-format-no-equals"
// after
export OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES="service.namespace=toolbox,deployment.environment=prod"

// Validate resource attributes before enabling telemetry
if (!process.env.OTEL_SERVICE_NAME) process.env.OTEL_SERVICE_NAME = 'toolbox';
// ensure OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES entries are key=value pairs

try { await setupOTel(); }
catch (e) {
  if (String(e.message).includes("unable to set up resource")) {
    // fix service name / resource attrs, or continue without telemetry
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Setup/SetupOTel where resource.New/resource.Merge returns an error — e.g., invalid service name, conflicting schema URLs, or an invalid SEMConv attribute value passed into the resource options.

Common situations: Empty or invalid OTEL_SERVICE_NAME / version string, resource.New with mismatched schema URLs, custom detector failures, malformed OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES env var.

Related errors

• unable to set up meter provider
• unable to set up trace provider
• error setting up OpenTelemetry
• error shutting down OpenTelemetry
• unable to create metric

AI-assisted analysis of googleapis/mcp-toolbox@8cc6e09de2 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/55491ab0da8fa3f5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/telemetry/telemetry.go:67

		var err error
		for _, fn := range shutdownFuncs {
			err = errors.Join(err, fn(ctx))
		}
		shutdownFuncs = nil
		return err
	}

	// handleErr calls shutdown for cleanup and makes sure that all errors are returned.
	handleErr := func(inErr error) {
		err = errors.Join(inErr, shutdown(ctx))
	}

	// Configure Context Propagation to use the default W3C traceparent format.
	otel.SetTextMapPropagator(autoprop.NewTextMapPropagator())

	res, err := newResource(ctx, versionString, telemetryServiceName)
	if err != nil {
		errMsg := fmt.Errorf("unable to set up resource: %w", err)
		handleErr(errMsg)
		return
	}

	tracerProvider, err := newTracerProvider(ctx, res, telemetryOTLP, telemetryGCP, telemetryGCPProject)
	if err != nil {
		errMsg := fmt.Errorf("unable to set up trace provider: %w", err)
		handleErr(errMsg)
		return
	}
	shutdownFuncs = append(shutdownFuncs, tracerProvider.Shutdown)
	otel.SetTracerProvider(tracerProvider)

	meterProvider, err := newMeterProvider(ctx, res, telemetryOTLP, telemetryGCP, telemetryGCPProject)
	if err != nil {
		errMsg := fmt.Errorf("unable to set up meter provider: %w", err)
		handleErr(errMsg)
		return

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