0.7.1 New version of Boost released
New releasev0.7.1May 26, 2026

New version of Boost released— Installation fixes and changelog sync

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Telemetry

Send Boost traces to your observability platform

Boost always exports sanitized OpenTelemetry spans to the configured Boost endpoint. If you also want the same spans in your own observability backend, set EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT and either EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS or EXTERNAL_OTEL_TOKEN.

How Boost chooses the external destination

  • EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT enables the additional customer-owned OTLP destination.
  • EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS sends comma-separated key=value headers and takes precedence over the token helper.
  • EXTERNAL_OTEL_TOKEN is a convenience shortcut for Authorization=Bearer <token>.
  • Use host:port for OTLP/gRPC or http://host / https://host for OTLP/HTTP endpoints.

Quick setup

Pick the platform you use, replace placeholders with values from that platform, and export the variables in the shell, CI job, or agent environment that runs Boost. 

# generic OTLP/gRPC collector
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT=otel-collector.example.com:4317
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS='Authorization=Bearer <collector-token>'

# local OTLP/HTTP collector
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318

Platform examples

Coralogix

Send to the Coralogix OTLP gRPC ingress endpoint with a Send-Your-Data API key.

OTLP
Token type
Coralogix Send-Your-Data API key
Endpoint
ingress.<coralogix-domain>:443
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT=ingress.<coralogix-domain>:443
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS='Authorization=Bearer <CORALOGIX_SEND_YOUR_DATA_API_KEY>'

Replace <coralogix-domain> with your region domain, such as eu1.coralogix.com or us1.coralogix.com.

Datadog

Use a local Datadog Agent for the most common OTLP setup, or use Datadog direct OTLP ingest if your account is enabled for it.

OTLP
Token type
Datadog API key for direct ingest; no app header for local Agent
Endpoint
http://localhost:4318
# local Datadog Agent, configured separately with your Datadog API key
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318

# direct OTLP traces ingest, if Datadog enabled it for your account
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT=<DATADOG_PROVIDED_OTLP_TRACES_HTTPS_ENDPOINT>
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS='dd-api-key=<DD_API_KEY>,dd-otlp-source=<DATADOG_ASSIGNED_SOURCE>'

Direct OTLP traces ingest is account-enabled and HTTP/protobuf based. Most teams should point Boost at a local Datadog Agent and let the Agent own Datadog authentication.

Elastic Cloud / Elastic APM

Send OTLP traces to Elastic Cloud managed OTLP or an Elastic APM Server.

OTLP
Token type
Elastic encoded API key, Elastic APM API key, or Elastic APM secret token
Endpoint
https://<elastic-otlp-or-apm-endpoint>
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT=https://<elastic-otlp-or-apm-endpoint>
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS='Authorization=ApiKey <ELASTIC_ENCODED_API_KEY>'

For APM Server secret tokens, use Authorization=Bearer <ELASTIC_APM_SECRET_TOKEN>. For API keys, use Authorization=ApiKey <ELASTIC_APM_API_KEY>.

Grafana Cloud

Use the OTLP endpoint and Basic auth token from the Grafana Cloud OpenTelemetry connection tile.

OTLP
Token type
Grafana Cloud instance ID plus API token encoded as Basic auth
Endpoint
otlp-gateway-<region>.grafana.net:443
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT=otlp-gateway-<region>.grafana.net:443
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS='Authorization=Basic <BASE64_INSTANCE_ID_COLON_TOKEN>'

Grafana Cloud also shows OTLP/HTTP endpoints in the UI. For Boost, the gRPC host:443 form is the most portable example.

Honeycomb

Send OTLP traces directly to Honeycomb with your Honeycomb API key.

OTLP
Token type
Honeycomb API key
Endpoint
api.honeycomb.io:443
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT=api.honeycomb.io:443
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS='x-honeycomb-team=<HONEYCOMB_API_KEY>'

For EU, use api.eu1.honeycomb.io:443. Honeycomb Classic users can add x-honeycomb-dataset=<DATASET>.

New Relic

Send OTLP traces directly to New Relic with your license key.

OTLP
Token type
New Relic license key
Endpoint
otlp.nr-data.net:443
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT=otlp.nr-data.net:443
export EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS='api-key=<NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY>'

For EU, use otlp.eu01.nr-data.net:443. For FedRAMP, use gov-otlp.nr-data.net:443.

Where to set the variables

Local agents

Export the variables in the shell environment your editor or agent inherits. Restart the editor after changing shell startup files so new agent shells see the external OTLP settings.

GitHub Actions

Store tokens in GitHub Actions secrets and map them into the job environment that runs Boost. Avoid committing real tokens to workflow files. 

env:
  EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT: otlp.nr-data.net:443
  EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS: api-key=${{ secrets.NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY }}

Security notes

  • Use a provider token with the narrowest ingest permissions available.
  • Prefer EXTERNAL_OTEL_HEADERS when the provider needs a header name other than Authorization.
  • Boost sanitizes spans before export, then fans the sanitized spans out to the Boost endpoint and your external endpoint.
  • Do not set EXTERNAL_OTEL_ENDPOINT unless you want spans mirrored outside the default Boost telemetry destination.