Unclear It is not clear whether a default protocol is used when the endpoint is valid but no protocol is set.
What
Claude Code can send its metrics and logs to your own monitoring system using OpenTelemetry (OTLP, a standard format for this data). It now works out which transport protocol to use in one place.
- If no protocol is set and
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINTis missing or not a valid address, Claude Code stops with an error that says so. Before, it only gave a generic "unknown protocol" error. Protocols are set with theOTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_*_PROTOCOLvariables. - The endpoint address written to logs is cleaned of sensitive parts.
- Reports about failed exports now say whether a network connection was reused, how long it had been idle, and how long Claude Code waited, and repeated errors are counted.
Why
A broken monitoring setup now tells you what to fix. If you use an HTTP exporter without setting a protocol, check that exports still arrive, since that case may behave differently now.
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It is not clear whether a default protocol is used when the endpoint is valid but no protocol is set.