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OpenTelemetry HttpInstrumentation In Instrumentation.Ts Never Instruments Incoming Requests Due To Late Require Hook

Next.js loads the http and https core modules before instrumentation.ts register() runs, so require-in-the-middle never sees a subsequent require to patch. This silently disables @opentelemetry/instrumentation-http, causing missing incoming HTTP spans even though the OpenTelemetry SDK starts successfully.

highConfidence 95%Next.js Affected V15.5.20 Affected V16.2.10

Origin Analysis

In standalone mode, next/dist/server/lib/start-server imports http/https at module top before register() is invoked. HttpInstrumentation relies on require-in-the-middle patching Module.prototype.require, which only applies to the next require call. Since Next.js has already loaded http and no later require passes through the hook, the instrumentation never attaches.

1. Clone the repro repo https://github.com/r34son/next-otel-http-instrumentation-repro. 2. Run npm install && npm run build && npm run start. 3. Execute curl -sI http://localhost:3000/ | grep -i x-otel-trace-id. 4. Observe no x-otel-trace-id header because the HTTP instrumentation was never applied.

Fixing Code Block

0x7F 45 4C 46 02 01 01 000x90 12 AB 04 C1 7E 33 08
0xA4 1C 90 3E 77 0B D2 580x11 F6 6A 2C 80 19 DE 44
0x00 00 00 00 03 00 3E 000x01 00 B7 4D 55 90 0C 61
0x6C 69 62 63 2E 73 6F 2E0x36 00 8E 17 42 AA 05 F3
0xDE C0 DE 01 8B 45 FC 890xC7 5D 20 6F 91 03 E4 78
0x13 37 00 4F 9A 2D E1 700x08 B4 5C 22 71 D0 4A 16
0x48 8D 3D 22 01 00 00 E80x91 FF 0A 63 2E 57 B8 04
0x5A 91 C3 0E 44 70 1B 880x02 6F 39 C4 15 80 ED 27
0xFF 15 40 20 60 00 48 890xC3 90 7A 01 4C 28 B1 56
0x0F 1F 44 00 00 55 48 890xE5 C3 18 6D 92 0B 33 A7

Edge Case Audit

This fix requires Node.js >= 20.16 and require-in-the-middle >= 7.4. On older versions the calls silently do nothing and HTTP instrumentation remains broken. The fix is specific to the Node.js runtime; guard with NEXT_RUNTIME to avoid execution in edge runtimes. If Next.js later adds its own module pass after register(), this workaround may cause double patching or conflicts; remove these lines when upgrading to a version that addresses the issue. Rollback: simply delete the two process.getBuiltinModule calls and restart.