[bot] OpenAI Images API spans missing input/output capture
Nobody has claimed this yet.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Newbie friendliness
- 68/100
- Issue type
- Feature
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Tech stack
- java
- Domain
- api, observability
Research direction
Start in braintrust-sdk/src/main/java/dev/braintrust/instrumentation/InstrumentationSemConv.java, reading tagOpenAIRequest(), tagOpenAIResponse(), and getSpanName(), then inspect the existing OpenAI chat_completions and responses cassette fixtures. Add Images API coverage for generate, edit, and variation calls; done means spans capture the documented image request and response data, usage where applicable, and a human-readable span name, with tests or fixtures covering the behavior.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Summary
The OpenAI instrumentation intercepts every HTTP call made through the OpenAI Java client's HttpClient (generic, transport-level wrapping), so calls to the Images API (client.images().generate(), .edit(), .createVariation()) do produce a span. However, InstrumentationSemConv's request/response tagging logic only recognizes the Chat Completions (messages/choices) and Responses API (input/output) JSON shapes. Images API requests and responses use neither shape, so the resulting spans have no useful input or output data — the same class of gap already fixed/tracked for embeddings (#66) and audio (#131), but not yet filed for Images.
What is missing
InstrumentationSemConv.tagOpenAIRequest() (lines 127–138 of braintrust-sdk/src/main/java/dev/braintrust/instrumentation/InstrumentationSemConv.java):
if (requestJson.has("messages")) {
span.setAttribute("braintrust.input_json", toJson(requestJson.get("messages")));
} else if (requestJson.has("input") && requestJson.get("input").isArray()) {
span.setAttribute("braintrust.input_json", toJson(requestJson.get("input")));
}
An images.generate request body looks like:
{
"model": "gpt-image-1",
"prompt": "A photorealistic cat sitting on a moon",
"size": "1024x1024",
"quality": "high",
"n": 1
}
prompt is a plain string (not messages, not an input array), so neither branch matches — braintrust.input_json is never set for Images API calls. size, quality, n, and style are also dropped since only model is captured into metadata.
InstrumentationSemConv.tagOpenAIResponse() (lines 144–201) only sets braintrust.output_json when the response has choices or output:
if (responseJson.has("choices")) {
span.setAttribute("braintrust.output_json", toJson(responseJson.get("choices")));
} else if (responseJson.has("output")) {
span.setAttribute("braintrust.output_json", toJson(responseJson.get("output")));
}
An images.generate response returns {"data": [{"url": "...", "revised_prompt": "..."}], ...} (or b64_json instead of url). Neither choices nor output is present, so braintrust.output_json is never set — the generated image URL/base64 data and revised_prompt are silently dropped. No usage extraction exists for the Images API's token-based billing on gpt-image-1 either.
The span name mapping in getSpanName() (lines 511–522) also has no case for the images/generations / images/edits / images/variations path segments, so the span name falls back to the raw last path segment instead of a human-readable name like the existing "Chat Completion"/"Embeddings" cases.
Braintrust docs status
- not_found — the Braintrust OpenAI integration docs at https://www.braintrust.dev/docs/integrations/ai-providers/openai document streaming audio transcription tracing ("Braintrust traces streaming audio transcription calls for sync and async OpenAI clients") but make no mention of the Images API or image generation tracing for any language.
Upstream sources
- OpenAI Images API reference: https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/images/create — documents
prompt(string, required),size,quality,n,style,response_format, and the responsedata[]array withurl/b64_json/revised_prompt - OpenAI Java SDK:
client.images().generate(ImageGenerateParams),.edit(ImageEditParams),.createVariation(ImageCreateVariationParams)— stable, documented methods oncom.openai:openai-java(this repo pins2.15.0,)) - gpt-image-1 token-based usage: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/image-generation —
gpt-image-1responses include ausageobject withinput_tokens/output_tokens, distinct from the legacy DALL·E per-image pricing
Local files inspected
braintrust-sdk/src/main/java/dev/braintrust/instrumentation/InstrumentationSemConv.java— lines 110–141 (tagOpenAIRequest: onlymessages/array-inputhandled), lines 143–201 (tagOpenAIResponse: onlychoices/outputhandled), lines 511–522 (getSpanName: no case forimages/*paths)braintrust-sdk/instrumentation/openai_2_15_0/src/main/java/dev/braintrust/instrumentation/openai/v2_15_0/TracingHttpClient.java— generic HTTP-level wrapping; delegates all tagging toInstrumentationSemConvtest-harness/src/testFixtures/resources/cassettes/openai/mappings/— onlychat_completions-*andresponses-*cassette files exist; noimages-*cassette or test exists anywhere in the repo (confirmed via repo-wide search)
- Dominant language
- Java
- Stars
- 21
- Forks
- 5
- Avg merge
- 2d 7h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 8
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
More from braintrustdata/braintrust-sdk-java
-
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 82/100
-
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 82/100
-
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 82/100
-
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 78/100
-
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 68/100
All issues in braintrustdata/braintrust-sdk-java
Similar issues
-
certification
Difficulty 1/5 Under an hour Newbie friendliness 80/100
-
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 75/100
-
[BUG] ECR GetAuthorizationToken returns a proxyEndpoint for the default region, not the request's Openbug ecr
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 75/100
-
Needs: Triage Type: Feature request
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 70/100
AntennaPod/AntennaPod#8794 ·
-
agentic-workflows
Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 65/100
github/copilot-sdk#2760 ·