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Decouple anonymous telemetry from CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY environment variable #8126

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Merged
merged 1 commit into from
Oct 13, 2025
Merged

Decouple anonymous telemetry from CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY environment variable #8126

merged 1 commit into from
Oct 13, 2025

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@continue continue bot commented Oct 7, 2025 •
edited by cubic-dev-ai bot
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Summary

This PR decouples OpenTelemetry (OTEL) metrics from the CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY environment variable in the Continue CLI.

Context

From Slack discussion: https://continuedev.slack.com/archives/C096032ATNG/p1759420638004449?thread_ts=1759420638.004449&cid=C096032ATNG

OTEL is already opt-in because users must explicitly add destination info (e.g., OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT, OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER). The CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY environment variable should only control anonymous telemetry (PostHog), not OTEL.

Changes

  • telemetryService.ts: Removed the check for CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY from OTEL initialization
  • otlp-metrics.md: Removed CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY from the OTEL configuration documentation
  • Added clarifying comment in code explaining that OTEL is opt-in via configuration

Behavior

Before

  • OTEL was disabled if CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY=0, even if OTEL config was present
  • This made OTEL unusable for users who wanted to opt-out of anonymous telemetry but still use OTEL

After

  • OTEL is enabled solely by the presence of OTEL configuration variables
  • CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY now only affects PostHog anonymous telemetry
  • Users can independently control OTEL and anonymous telemetry

Testing

Existing tests should continue to pass as they already set OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER which is the actual control for OTEL.

This agent session was co-authored by tingwai and Continue.

Summary by cubic

Decoupled OTEL metrics from CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY so OTEL is controlled only by OTEL env vars. This lets users disable anonymous telemetry while still using OTEL (aligns with CON-4291).

  • Bug Fixes
    • Removed CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY check from OTEL initialization; OTEL now enables when OTEL config is present.
    • Updated docs to drop CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY from OTEL setup and clarified it only controls PostHog.

@TyDunn TyDunn marked this pull request as ready for review October 7, 2025 19:56
@TyDunn TyDunn requested a review from a team as a code owner October 7, 2025 19:56
@TyDunn TyDunn requested review from tingwai and removed request for a team October 7, 2025 19:56
@dosubot dosubot bot added the size:S This PR changes 10-29 lines, ignoring generated files. label Oct 7, 2025
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@sestinj
Add CONTINUE_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS_TELEMETRY env var for anonymous telemetr…
73057d3 
…y control

Separates control of OTEL telemetry and anonymous PostHog telemetry:
- CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY: Controls OTEL telemetry (requires OTEL config)
- CONTINUE_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS_TELEMETRY: Controls anonymous PostHog telemetry

This allows users to independently control:
1. OTEL metrics (opt-in via config + env var)
2. Anonymous telemetry (opt-out via env var)

Changes:
- Added CONTINUE_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS_TELEMETRY env var
- Updated posthogService to use new env var
- Kept CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY for OTEL control
- Updated documentation for both telemetry types
- Updated all tests to reflect the change

Generated with [Continue](https://continue.dev)

Co-authored-by: tingwai <tingwai@continue.dev>
@continue continue bot force-pushed the continue/con-4291 branch from f48e121 to 73057d3 Compare October 7, 2025 20:03
cubic-dev-ai[bot]
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No issues found across 2 files

@TyDunn TyDunn mentioned this pull request Oct 7, 2025
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@TyDunn TyDunn changed the title Decouple OTEL from CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY environment variable Decouple anonymous telemetry from CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY environment variable Oct 7, 2025
tingwai
tingwai requested changes Oct 10, 2025
View reviewed changes
extensions/cli/src/telemetry/posthogService.ts

get isEnabled() {
return process.env.CONTINUE_CLI_ENABLE_TELEMETRY !== "0";
return process.env.CONTINUE_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS_TELEMETRY !== "0";
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This isn't right, its changing the flag name for enabling posthog telemetry. We should be changing the flag name for wherever OTEL is enabled

@github-project-automation github-project-automation bot moved this from Todo to In Progress in Issues and PRs Oct 10, 2025
@TyDunn TyDunn requested a review from tingwai October 10, 2025 18:47
@tingwai tingwai merged commit b8677b2 into main Oct 13, 2025
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@tingwai tingwai deleted the continue/con-4291 branch October 13, 2025 18:38
@dosubot dosubot bot added the lgtm This PR has been approved by a maintainer label Oct 13, 2025
@github-project-automation github-project-automation bot moved this from In Progress to Done in Issues and PRs Oct 13, 2025
@github-actions github-actions bot locked and limited conversation to collaborators Oct 13, 2025
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sestinj commented Oct 14, 2025

🎉 This PR is included in version 1.28.0 🎉

The release is available on:

Your semantic-release bot 📦🚀

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sestinj commented Oct 15, 2025

🎉 This PR is included in version 1.25.0 🎉

The release is available on:

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sestinj commented Oct 15, 2025

🎉 This PR is included in version 1.2.0 🎉

The release is available on:

Your semantic-release bot 📦🚀

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