envoyproxy/envoy

Ability to ignore trace propagation via traceparent/tracestate headers

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#40,012 opened on Jun 24, 2025

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enhancementhelp wanted

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Description

Title: Ability to ignore trace propagation via traceparent/tracestate headers

Description: When using envoy as an edge-facing proxy, I would like to be able to configure it so that it ignores the traceparent header on incoming requests from the internet. This is because I do not want distributed tracing from outside systems.

[optional Relevant Links:] I raised a related issue in Envoy Gateway, where envoy is used as an edge-facing proxy.

The tracing module for nginx defaults to ignoring the traceparent header, and has configuration options for using it in trace propagation: https://nginx.org/en/docs/ngx_otel_module.html#otel_trace_context

What would be nice is the ability to conditionally propagate traces, depending on the value of the tracestate header like in Elastic API (specifically the restart_external option): https://github.com/elastic/apm/blob/main/specs/agents/trace-continuation.md

Contributor guide

Research direction
Investigate the current handling of traceparent/tracestate headers in Envoy's tracing code. Identify where headers are propagated and design a configuration option to ignore or conditionally propagate them based on tracestate values. Implement the change and add tests.
Tech stack
cpp
Domain
backend
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
C++HTTP
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
30