OpenTrace: Self-Hosted Observability Server with 75+ MCP Tools

OpenTrace is a self-hosted observability server built with MCP (Model Context Protocol) as the primary interface. It runs as a single binary with SQLite storage on a $4/month Hetzner VPS and connects to production databases via read-only Postgres connections.

Key Features

• MCP-first interface — 75+ tools with guided workflows where tools suggest what to call next with pre-filled arguments
• Read-only Postgres connection — All queries validated SELECT-only via SQL AST parsing. Provides query stats, index analysis, lock chains, bloat estimates, and replication lag from pg_stat_* views
• Log search — Full-text search using SQLite FTS5 with filters for service, level, trace ID, exception class, and metadata fields
• Error tracking — Sentry-style grouping by fingerprint with user impact scores
• User analytics — User journeys, conversion funnels, path analysis, session waterfalls, traffic heatmaps, and top endpoints
• VM monitoring — Lightweight agent pushes CPU, memory, disk, network, and load data
• Watches — Rule-based threshold alerts with auto-resolve when conditions recover
• Web UI — Simple HTMX dashboard for browsing

AI Assistant Actions

Through MCP tools, AI assistants can take direct actions:

• Resolve and ignore errors with reasons (auto-reopens if errors return)
• Set up watches for thresholds like error rate above 5%, response time, p95, or log count
• Create health checks by setting up HTTP probes on schedules
• Kill slow queries holding locks too long
• Save notes on queries, endpoints, or services that appear in future investigations
• Manage connectors — add, test, or remove database connections without config files
• Dismiss alerts with reasons

Example Queries

Users can ask their AI assistant questions like:

• "What errors are spiking right now?"
• "Show me the slowest queries hitting the database"
• "Any N+1 queries on the checkout endpoint?"
• "What's the conversion funnel for signup → checkout?"
• "Show me what this user did in their session"
• "Compare error rates between yesterday and today"

The tool works with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, or any MCP client, keeping all data on your infrastructure with zero cloud dependencies.