Beginner 30 minutes

Migrate from Sentry to TraceKit

Sentry started as error tracking and added performance monitoring later. TraceKit is traces-first with error recording built in -- get both in a single SDK without the bolt-on feel.

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Replace Sentry SDK with TraceKit SDK

Remove the Sentry SDK package and install TraceKit. Sentry uses a DSN (Data Source Name) for authentication; TraceKit uses an API key.

Category	Sentry	TraceKit	Notes
Package	@sentry/node (npm)	@tracekit/node-apm (npm)	Node.js SDK replacement
Package	sentry-sdk (pip)	tracekit-apm (pip)	Python SDK replacement
Package	sentry/sentry-go	github.com/tracekit/go-sdk	Go SDK replacement

Map Sentry DSN and Init Options

Replace Sentry's DSN-based initialization with TraceKit's API key initialization. Sentry's tracesSampleRate becomes TraceKit's sample rate.

Category	Sentry	TraceKit	Notes
Authentication	SENTRY_DSN (https://[email protected]/id)	TRACEKIT_API_KEY	API key replaces DSN URL
Sampling	tracesSampleRate (0.0-1.0)	TRACEKIT_SAMPLE_RATE (0.0-1.0)	Same numeric range, direct mapping
Environment	environment option in Sentry.init()	TRACEKIT_ENVIRONMENT	Environment tagging
Release	release option in Sentry.init()	TRACEKIT_VERSION	Release/version tracking

Migrate Error Tracking Calls

Replace Sentry's captureException and captureMessage with TraceKit's span-level error recording. In Sentry, errors are top-level events; in TraceKit, errors are attached to the span where they occurred for better trace correlation.

Category	Sentry	TraceKit	Notes
Error Capture	Sentry.captureException(error)	span.RecordError(err)	Errors attached to active span for trace correlation
Error Capture	Sentry.captureMessage(msg)	span.AddEvent(msg)	Messages become span events
Breadcrumbs	Sentry.addBreadcrumb({message, category})	span.AddEvent(message, {category: cat})	Breadcrumbs map to span events with attributes
Context	Sentry.setTag(key, value)	span.SetAttribute(key, value)	Tags become span attributes

Replace Performance Monitoring Transactions

Sentry's performance monitoring uses transactions and spans. TraceKit uses spans throughout -- a root span is equivalent to a Sentry transaction.

Category	Sentry	TraceKit	Notes
Transactions	Sentry.startTransaction({name, op})	tracekit.StartSpan(ctx, name)	Transactions become root spans
Child Spans	transaction.startChild({op, description})	tracekit.StartSpan(ctx, name)	Context propagation links parent-child automatically
Finish	transaction.finish()	span.End()	Same concept, different method name

Verify Error and Trace Capture

Trigger a test error and some API requests, then verify both error recording and trace capture in the TraceKit dashboard. TraceKit shows errors inline within the trace waterfall.

Category	Sentry	TraceKit	Notes
Verification	Sentry > Issues	TraceKit Dashboard > Traces (filter by error)	Errors appear as span events in traces
Verification	Sentry > Performance > Transactions	TraceKit Dashboard > Traces	Transactions map to trace roots
Verification	Sentry > Performance > Web Vitals	TraceKit Frontend Dashboard	Web vitals via browser SDK

Code Examples

Before (Sentry)

import "github.com/getsentry/sentry-go"

func main() {
    sentry.Init(sentry.ClientOptions{
        Dsn:              "https://[email protected]/123",
        TracesSampleRate: 1.0,
        Environment:      "production",
    })
    defer sentry.Flush(2 * time.Second)

    span := sentry.StartSpan(context.Background(), "process.order")
    defer span.Finish()
    sentry.CaptureException(fmt.Errorf("out of stock"))
}

After (TraceKit)

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

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

    ctx, span := tracekit.StartSpan(context.Background(), "process.order")
    defer span.End()
    span.RecordError(fmt.Errorf("out of stock"))
}

Before (Sentry)

const Sentry = require('@sentry/node');

Sentry.init({
  dsn: 'https://[email protected]/123',
  tracesSampleRate: 1.0,
  environment: 'production',
});

const transaction = Sentry.startTransaction({
  name: 'process-order',
  op: 'http.server',
});
try {
  // ... business logic
} catch (err) {
  Sentry.captureException(err);
} finally {
  transaction.finish();
}

After (TraceKit)

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

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

const span = tracekit.startSpan('process-order');
try {
  // ... business logic
} catch (err) {
  span.recordError(err);
} finally {
  span.end();
}

Before (Sentry)

import sentry_sdk

sentry_sdk.init(
    dsn="https://[email protected]/123",
    traces_sample_rate=1.0,
    environment="production",
)

with sentry_sdk.start_transaction(name="process-order", op="task"):
    try:
        # ... business logic
        pass
    except Exception as e:
        sentry_sdk.capture_exception(e)

After (TraceKit)

import tracekit

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

with tracekit.start_span('process-order') as span:
    try:
        # ... business logic
        pass
    except Exception as e:
        span.record_error(e)

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OTel Config Generator

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