vxcontrol/pentagi · error

failed to create metric exporter: %w

Error message

failed to create metric exporter: %w

What it means

Returned during OpenTelemetry client setup (backend/pkg/observability/otelclient.go) when otlpmetricgrpc.New fails to build the OTLP metric exporter over the shared gRPC connection. The gRPC connection is closed before returning. Usually means a bad OTLP endpoint/config or gRPC connection problem.

Source

Thrown at backend/pkg/observability/otelclient.go:127

		grpc.WithTransportCredentials(insecure.NewCredentials()),
		grpc.WithDefaultCallOptions(grpc.WaitForReady(true)),
	)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create telemetry connection: %w", err)
	}

	// Build all three exporters before creating any provider. Exporter creation
	// is the only remaining error path, and at that point no batch/reader
	// goroutine has started yet, so closing the connection is a complete teardown.
	logExporter, err := otlploggrpc.New(ctx, otlploggrpc.WithGRPCConn(conn))
	if err != nil {
		_ = conn.Close()
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create log exporter: %w", err)
	}
	metricExporter, err := otlpmetricgrpc.New(ctx, otlpmetricgrpc.WithGRPCConn(conn))
	if err != nil {
		_ = conn.Close()
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create metric exporter: %w", err)
	}
	spanExporter, err := otlptracegrpc.New(ctx, otlptracegrpc.WithGRPCConn(conn))
	if err != nil {
		_ = conn.Close()
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create tracer exporter: %w", err)
	}

	logProvider := sdklog.NewLoggerProvider(
		sdklog.WithProcessor(sdklog.NewBatchProcessor(
			logExporter,
			sdklog.WithExportInterval(DefaultLogInterval),
			sdklog.WithExportTimeout(DefaultLogTimeout),
		)),
		sdklog.WithResource(newResource(resourceAttrs(cfg)...)),
	)

	meterProvider := sdkmetric.NewMeterProvider(
		sdkmetric.WithReader(sdkmetric.NewPeriodicReader(

View on GitHub (pinned to ea665308ba)

Solutions

1. Run `go mod tidy` to pin consistent go.opentelemetry.io module versions
2. Inspect the wrapped error for the real cause
3. Verify any TLS/certificate options added to the exporter
4. Rebuild after dependency updates

// verify otel metric module versions match: go list -m go.opentelemetry.io/otel go.opentelemetry.io/otel/sdk/metric

client, err := NewTelemetryClient(ctx, cfg)
if err != nil {
    log.Warnf("metrics disabled due to init failure: %v", err)
    client = nil
}

When it happens

Trigger: otlpmetricgrpc.New returning an error during setup — typically invalid exporter options, SDK incompatibility, or resource/credential configuration problems; the gRPC conn itself is already established (lazy) so this is not a connectivity failure.

Common situations: Mixed otel module versions in go.mod; custom build adding TLS options with bad certs; upstream API change after dependency upgrade.

Related errors

• failed to force flush meter: %w
• failed to create log exporter: %w
• failed to create tracer exporter: %w
• failed to force flush logger: %w
• failed to force flush tracer: %w

AI-assisted analysis of vxcontrol/pentagi@ea665308ba (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/440f7fe47b9aa9de. Report an issue: GitHub.