---
title: Automatic instrumentation
linkTitle: Automatic
aliases: [/docs/instrumentation/ruby/configuring_automatic_instrumentation]
spelling: cSpell:ignore faraday sinatra
weight: 2
---

Automatic instrumentation in ruby is done via instrumentation packages, and most
commonly, the `opentelemetry-instrumentation-all` package. These are called
Instrumentation Libraries.

For example, if you are using Rails and enable instrumentation, your running
Rails app will automatically generate telemetry data for inbound requests to
your controllers.

### Configuring all instrumentation libraries

The recommended way to use instrumentation libraries is to use the
`opentelemetry-instrumentation-all` package:

```sh
gem 'opentelemetry-sdk'
gem 'opentelemetry-exporter-otlp'
gem 'opentelemetry-instrumentation-all'
```

and configure it early in your application lifecycle. See the example below
using a Rails initializer:

```ruby
# config/initializers/opentelemetry.rb
require 'opentelemetry/sdk'
require 'opentelemetry/exporter/otlp'
require 'opentelemetry/instrumentation/all'
OpenTelemetry::SDK.configure do |c|
  c.service_name = '<YOUR_SERVICE_NAME>'
  c.use_all() # enables all instrumentation!
end
```

This will install all instrumentation libraries and enable the ones that match
up to libraries you're using in your app.

### Overriding configuration for specific instrumentation libraries

If you are enabling all instrumentation but want to override the configuration
for a specific one, call `use_all` with a configuration map parameter, where the
key represents the library, and the value is its specific configuration
parameter.

For example, here's how you can install all instrumentations _except_ the
`Redis` instrumentation into your app:

```ruby
require 'opentelemetry/sdk'
require 'opentelemetry/instrumentation/all'

OpenTelemetry::SDK.configure do |c|
  config = {'OpenTelemetry::Instrumentation::Redis' => { enabled: false }}
  c.use_all(config)
end
```

To override more instrumentation, add another entry in the `config` map.

### Configuring specific instrumentation libraries

If you prefer more selectively installing and using only specific
instrumentation libraries, you can do that too. For example, here's how to use
only `Sinatra` and `Faraday`, with `Faraday` being configured with an additional
configuration parameter.

First, install the specific instrumentation libraries you know you want to use:

```sh
gem install opentelemetry-instrumentation-sinatra
gem install opentelemetry-instrumentation-faraday
```

Then configure them:

```ruby
require 'opentelemetry/sdk'

# install all compatible instrumentation with default configuration
OpenTelemetry::SDK.configure do |c|
  c.use 'OpenTelemetry::Instrumentation::Sinatra'
  c.use 'OpenTelemetry::Instrumentation::Faraday', { opt: 'value' }
end
```

### Next steps

Instrumentation libraries are the easiest way to generate lots of useful
telemetry data about your ruby apps. But they don't generate data specific to
your application's logic! To do that, you'll need to enrich the automatic
instrumentation from instrumentation libraries with
[manual instrumentation](../manual).
