Java Observability from the team behind Pydantic: attach the Java agent, trace an existing service with one JVM flag, and query everything in plain SQL. Standard OpenTelemetry, no lock-in.
Set up Logfire with your coding agent:
curl -LO https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/releases/latest/download/opentelemetry-javaagent.jar
export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=hello-java
# For EU-region projects, use https://logfire-eu.pydantic.dev instead.
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://logfire-us.pydantic.dev
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS='Authorization=your-write-token'
export OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=http/protobuf
java -javaagent:opentelemetry-javaagent.jar -jar your-app.jarFull details are in the Java setup guide.
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A Logfire trace of one Java request. An ad lookup resolves a feature flag over gRPC, logs the targeting it applied, looks up ads by category and resolves a second flag.
What lands in Logfire:
One request, top to bottom — produced by the OpenTelemetry Java agent, with no application code changes.
Start free with 10 million spans, logs, and metrics each month. No credit card required.
The OpenTelemetry Java agent instruments supported libraries at class-load time. Your servlet container, JDBC driver, HTTP client, and messaging library start producing spans because of a JVM flag, not because you edited them. For an existing Java service that nobody wants to refactor, this is the cheapest observability you can buy.
The OpenTelemetry Java agent instruments Spring Boot, Tomcat, Jetty, Netty, JDBC, Hibernate, Kafka, gRPC, Apache HttpClient, Cassandra, and much of the rest of its instrumentation catalogue. That coverage is maintained by the OpenTelemetry project rather than by a single vendor, so it keeps pace with the ecosystem rather than with one company's roadmap.
Logfire is configured entirely through OTEL_ environment variables: an endpoint, a header, a protocol. Your application never references Logfire. Repoint those variables at another OpenTelemetry backend, or at your own collector, and nothing in the app changes.
Send Java agent traces and any OTLP metrics or logs to the same Logfire project. The service and resource attributes stay queryable across signals, so a production investigation does not stop at the edge of a trace.
Use PostgreSQL-compatible SQL to compare Java services by route, dependency, status, or any attribute the instrumentation records. A useful investigation can be saved as a dashboard or alert without translating it into another query language.
If you can ask it, SQL can find out
select
attributes->>'http.route' as route,
count(*) as requests,
avg(duration) as avg_seconds
from records
where duration > 1
group by route
order by avg_seconds desc;You can tell that Pydantic Logfire was built by people who use it.
No, and you do not need one. Java uses the standard OpenTelemetry auto-instrumentation agent, and Logfire is the OTLP backend it reports to. That means there is nothing proprietary to adopt and nothing to remove later. First-party Logfire SDKs exist for Python, TypeScript, and Rust.
No. The OpenTelemetry Java agent attaches at JVM start with the -javaagent flag and instruments supported libraries as they are loaded, so your servlet container, JDBC driver, HTTP client, and messaging library produce spans without any source changes. You can add manual spans later for your own business operations.
The most common cause is protocol. Logfire expects OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL set to http/protobuf, while some OpenTelemetry setups default to gRPC. After that, check the endpoint matches your project's data region and that the Authorization header carries a valid write token.
Yes. Spring Boot is covered by the OpenTelemetry Java agent's instrumentation catalogue, so the same -javaagent flag applies with no extra configuration. The agent also covers JDBC, Kafka, and gRPC among many others.
No. Configuration is entirely standard OTEL_ environment variables, so your application has no knowledge of Logfire at all. Repoint the endpoint at a different OpenTelemetry-compatible backend at any time, or self-host, without touching your application or its instrumentation.
Get started with 10 million free spans, logs, and metrics per month. No credit card required.