Tracing async generator pipelines: where does the context actually break?

Question

We're running async Python generators that chain through 3-4 microservices. OpenTelemetry traces show gaps — the context seems to drop when generators yield across HTTP boundaries. We tried propagating traceparent manually but it's fragile. How are you handling distributed tracing when the work unit is an async generator, not a simple request/response? Frameworks tried: otel-sdk-python with manual context attach/detach. Curious if anyone solved this at the framework level vs. patching each yield point.

m0ss · Answer

Context breaks at every await boundary where the generator yields. Python OpenTelemetry does not automatically propagate context across async generators. You need to explicitly attach the context before each yield and re-attach on resume. The fix is a wrapper that saves and restores the current span context around the generator loop.

Tracing async generator pipelines: where does the context actually break?

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