Laminar

Laminar (Apache-2.0) is an agent-focused observability platform with cloud and self-hosted editions that take OTLP over HTTP directly. It types the plugin's spans (LLM for api.* and llm.*, TOOL for tool.*), fills token and cost columns from the gen_ai.usage.* attributes, and, beyond what its docs promise, stores the plugin's log records next to the trace.

Signals: traces + logs. Metrics are off by default because Laminar's /v1/metrics answers 200 and stores nothing. Deployment: self-hosted (the "lite" compose, five containers, about 600 MB resident), the official Helm chart, or Laminar cloud. Cost: open source; the cloud has a free tier.

Verified live

One real hermes turn through type: laminar into the bundled compose stack (2026-10-08): 5 spans and 39 log records, every batch SUCCESS, read back from Laminar's ClickHouse with span types and token counts filled. See Verified behavior.

Quick start

Self-hosted

docker compose -f docker-compose/laminar/docker-compose.yaml up -d
export LMNR_PROJECT_API_KEY=$(docker-compose/laminar/mint-api-key.sh)   # or Settings → API keys in the UI

backends:
  - type: laminar
    endpoint: http://localhost:8100       # the app-server, not the UI on 5667
    api_key_env: LMNR_PROJECT_API_KEY
capture_logs: true

The startup banner reads ✓ Laminar at http://localhost:8100/v1/traces (traces + logs). Open http://localhost:5667 (enter any email; local sign-in has no password) → the project → Traces.

Laminar cloud

export LMNR_PROJECT_API_KEY="..."

backends:
  - type: laminar                         # endpoint defaults to https://api.lmnr.ai
    api_key_env: LMNR_PROJECT_API_KEY
capture_logs: true

Why a dedicated type: laminar

The key is required on both editions (it is what names the project), metrics are silently discarded, and the ingest host differs from the UI host. The explicit type:

1. Requires a project API key (api_key / api_key_env / OTEL_LAMINAR_API_KEY / LMNR_PROJECT_API_KEY) and sends Authorization: Bearer <key>; a missing key skips the entry at startup with a clear message instead of a stream of 401s.
2. Defaults endpoint to the cloud and normalises a self-hosted base to /v1/traces, deriving /v1/logs from it.
3. Keeps traces and logs on and metrics off, so a user is not left wondering where their metrics went.

Configuration reference

Field	Meaning
endpoint	App-server base: http://localhost:8100 for the bundled stack (upstream publishes 8000). Default https://api.lmnr.ai. Also via OTEL_LAMINAR_ENDPOINT / LMNR_BASE_URL.
api_key / api_key_env	Required. Project API key → Authorization: Bearer. Prefer api_key_env.
metrics	Default off. Set true only with a collector in front of Laminar that stores them.
logs	Default on.
headers	Extra headers, merged on top (a user Authorization wins).

Single backend (env vars)

export OTEL_LAMINAR_API_KEY="..."              # enables Laminar; cloud by default
# export OTEL_LAMINAR_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:8100   # self-hosted app-server
export OTEL_PROJECT_NAME=hermes-otel-laminar

LMNR_PROJECT_API_KEY and LMNR_BASE_URL are used as fallbacks but never switch export on by themselves; OTEL_LAMINAR_ENDPOINT without a key is skipped.

Verified behavior

Read back from the stack's ClickHouse after one turn:

docker exec hermes-otel-laminar-clickhouse clickhouse-client --user ch_user --password ch_passwd \
  -q "SELECT name, span_type, input_tokens, output_tokens FROM spans ORDER BY start_time DESC LIMIT 8; SELECT count() FROM logs"

	Observed
Plugin	export Laminar: 3 span(s) -> SUCCESS, two single-span batches, nine log batches (39 records) all SUCCESS; no metrics reader created
Spans	5: the root (hermes-agent), llm.<model> and two api.<model> typed LLM with input_tokens 14 281 / 14 413 and output_tokens 93 / 43, terminal typed TOOL
Logs	39 records in the logs table with trace_id and span_id
Cost	0 for this run: the model (nvidia/nemotron-3-nano-omni) is not in Laminar's price table

Caveats

• Metrics are accepted and dropped. /v1/metrics returns 200 with a placeholder handler; keep the default. Token, tool and cost metrics need a second backend (multi-backend).
• The bundled stack adds a Quickwit init job that upstream's published images miss; without it span full-text search never indexes. Trace views read ClickHouse and work either way.
• Ingest is on the app-server port (8100 bundled, 8000 upstream), not the frontend (5667).
• The published container images are latest only; upstream tags no releases for them.
• The Hermes dashboard's OTel tab has no query adapter for laminar; use Laminar's UI.

Troubleshooting

• laminar requires api_key — no key resolved; set api_key_env or LMNR_PROJECT_API_KEY (the helper script prints one for the bundled stack).
• 401 — the key belongs to another project or deployment; mint one in Settings → API keys of the target project.
• Spans arrive, search finds nothing — the Quickwit indexes are missing (see Caveats); docker compose … logs quickwit-init.