Intermediate 1-2 hours

Migrate from Datadog to TraceKit

Replace the Datadog agent and dd-trace libraries with TraceKit's lightweight SDK. No per-host billing, no agent infrastructure, same distributed tracing visibility.

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Install TraceKit SDK and Remove dd-trace

Replace the Datadog tracing library with the TraceKit SDK in your application. Remove dd-trace-go, dd-trace-js, or ddtrace depending on your language, then add the corresponding TraceKit SDK package.

Category	Datadog	TraceKit	Notes
Package	dd-trace-go (gopkg.in/DataDog/dd-trace-go.v1)	github.com/tracekit/go-sdk	Go SDK replacement
Package	dd-trace (npm)	@tracekit/node-apm (npm)	Node.js SDK replacement
Package	ddtrace (pip)	tracekit-apm (pip)	Python SDK replacement

Replace Datadog Agent Configuration

TraceKit does not require a separate agent process. Remove the Datadog Agent container or host package and point your SDK directly at the TraceKit ingestion endpoint.

Category	Datadog	TraceKit	Notes
Agent	DD_AGENT_HOST	TRACEKIT_ENDPOINT	TraceKit uses direct HTTPS ingestion -- no local agent needed
Agent	DD_TRACE_AGENT_PORT (default 8126)	(not needed)	No agent port; SDK sends directly to cloud endpoint
Agent	DD_API_KEY	TRACEKIT_API_KEY	API key for authentication
Agent	DD_SITE (e.g., datadoghq.com)	TRACEKIT_ENDPOINT	Single endpoint replaces site selection

Map Environment Variables

Translate Datadog unified service tagging environment variables to TraceKit equivalents. TraceKit uses a similar concept but with different variable names.

Category	Datadog	TraceKit	Notes
Service Identity	DD_SERVICE	TRACEKIT_SERVICE_NAME	Service name for trace grouping
Service Identity	DD_ENV	TRACEKIT_ENVIRONMENT	Environment tag (production, staging)
Service Identity	DD_VERSION	TRACEKIT_VERSION	Application version for deployment tracking
Sampling	DD_TRACE_SAMPLE_RATE (0.0-1.0)	TRACEKIT_SAMPLE_RATE (0.0-1.0)	Same numeric range, direct mapping
Tags	DD_TAGS (key:value,key:value)	TRACEKIT_TAGS (key=value,key=value)	Note the separator change from colon to equals

Migrate Custom Instrumentation

Replace Datadog's tracer API calls with TraceKit SDK equivalents. The core concepts (spans, tags, error recording) map directly, though method names differ.

Category	Datadog	TraceKit	Notes
Initialization	tracer.Start(tracer.WithServiceName(...))	tracekit.Init(apiKey, tracekit.WithService(...))	Init accepts API key as first argument
Spans	tracer.StartSpan(operationName)	tracekit.StartSpan(ctx, operationName)	TraceKit spans require context for parent linking
Attributes	span.SetTag(key, value)	span.SetAttribute(key, value)	Follows OpenTelemetry attribute naming
Errors	span.SetTag(ext.Error, err)	span.RecordError(err)	Dedicated error recording method
Shutdown	tracer.Stop()	tracekit.Shutdown(ctx)	Shutdown takes context for graceful flush

Verify Traces in Dashboard

Start your application, generate some traffic, and confirm that traces appear in the TraceKit dashboard. Check service map, trace waterfall, and span attributes to verify data fidelity.

Category	Datadog	TraceKit	Notes
Verification	Datadog APM > Traces	TraceKit Dashboard > Traces	Check trace waterfall view
Verification	Datadog Service Map	TraceKit Service Map	Verify service dependencies appear
Verification	Datadog Monitors	TraceKit Alerts	Recreate key alerts in TraceKit

Code Examples

Before (Datadog)

import (
    "gopkg.in/DataDog/dd-trace-go.v1/ddtrace/tracer"
    "gopkg.in/DataDog/dd-trace-go.v1/ddtrace/ext"
)

func main() {
    tracer.Start(
        tracer.WithServiceName("my-service"),
        tracer.WithEnv("production"),
    )
    defer tracer.Stop()

    span := tracer.StartSpan("web.request")
    span.SetTag(ext.HTTPMethod, "GET")
    span.SetTag(ext.HTTPStatusCode, 200)
    span.Finish()
}

After (TraceKit)

import "github.com/tracekit/go-sdk/tracekit"

func main() {
    tracekit.Init("tk_your_api_key",
        tracekit.WithService("my-service"),
        tracekit.WithEnvironment("production"),
    )
    defer tracekit.Shutdown(context.Background())

    ctx, span := tracekit.StartSpan(context.Background(), "web.request")
    span.SetAttribute("http.method", "GET")
    span.SetAttribute("http.status_code", 200)
    span.End()
}

Before (Datadog)

const tracer = require('dd-trace').init({
  service: 'my-service',
  env: 'production',
});

const span = tracer.startSpan('web.request');
span.setTag('http.method', 'GET');
span.setTag('http.status_code', 200);
span.finish();

After (TraceKit)

const tracekit = require('@tracekit/node-apm');

tracekit.init({
  apiKey: 'tk_your_api_key',
  service: 'my-service',
  environment: 'production',
});

const span = tracekit.startSpan('web.request');
span.setAttribute('http.method', 'GET');
span.setAttribute('http.status_code', 200);
span.end();

Before (Datadog)

from ddtrace import tracer

tracer.configure(
    hostname='localhost',
    port=8126,
)

with tracer.trace('web.request', service='my-service') as span:
    span.set_tag('http.method', 'GET')
    span.set_tag('http.status_code', 200)

After (TraceKit)

import tracekit

tracekit.init(
    api_key='tk_your_api_key',
    service='my-service',
    environment='production',
)

with tracekit.start_span('web.request') as span:
    span.set_attribute('http.method', 'GET')
    span.set_attribute('http.status_code', 200)

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OTel Config Generator

Generate OpenTelemetry Collector configurations for your stack

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