fix(tracing): mention posthog-node in the tracing empty state by turnipdabeets · Pull Request #99441 · PostHog/posthog

turnipdabeets · 2026-09-11T17:40:06Z

Problem

Node.js users opening Tracing before sending a span are told "No PostHog-specific packages needed" and pointed at OpenTelemetry only. Since posthog-node 5.52.0 (PostHog/posthog-js#4579), posthog-node creates and exports spans itself, with no OpenTelemetry dependency – so the copy steers Node users to the heavier route.

Changes

The tracing empty state's lead now names the PostHog Node.js SDK alongside OpenTelemetry, and drops the "No PostHog-specific packages needed" sentence.
Copy only – no logic change.

The logs empty state (products/logs/frontend/emptyState/logsEmptyState.tsx) has the same sentence; out of scope here, since this follows the Node tracing release.

How did you test this code?

Not run locally beyond oxfmt --check on the file – a one-string copy change, and no test references the text.

Automatic notifications

Publish to changelog?

Docs update

Node tracing docs merged in PostHog/posthog.com#19837; the remaining posthog.com landing-page fix is PostHog/posthog.com#20109, and the agent-facing tracing skill is PostHog/context-mill#391. skip-inkeep-docs is set so the Inkeep agent doesn't draft a duplicate.

🤖 Agent context

Autonomy: Human-driven (agent-assisted)

Found with Claude Code while auditing docs surfaces for the posthog-node tracing release. No open PR changes this string.
Committed with --no-verify: the pre-commit hook's hogli format:js needs python on PATH, which the worktree lacked. oxfmt --check passes on the changed file.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01QPLdjqTgK93WtVxnhx6aVr

posthog-node 5.52.0 exports spans itself, so the empty state's claim that tracing needs no PostHog-specific packages no longer holds. Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QPLdjqTgK93WtVxnhx6aVr

trunk-io · 2026-09-11T17:40:09Z

😎 Merged successfully - details.

github-actions · 2026-09-11T17:41:52Z

🤖 CI report

✅ Trunk lane — non-backend lane

This PR is assigned to the non-backend lane. It does not run backend Python tests and may merge in parallel with PRs in other lanes.

✅ Complexity (TypeScript) — clean

Cyclomatic complexity above the limit in changed typescript files (10 for production files, 15 for test files). Warn only: worth simplifying when you next touch these functions.

⚠️

Bundle size — 🔺 +86.3 KiB (+0.1%)

Uncompressed size of every built .js bundle, compared against the base branch.

Total: 68.53 MiB · 🔺 +86.3 KiB (+0.1%)

File	Size	Δ vs base
`render-query/src/render-query/render-query.js`	21.66 MiB	🟢 -73.2 KiB (-0.3%)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/persons/PersonScene.js`	removed	🟢 -41.7 KiB (-100.0%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/persons/frontend/pages/PersonScene.js`	41.5 KiB	🔺 +41.5 KiB (new)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/ai_observability/frontend/tags/AIObservabilityTagScene.js`	37.7 KiB	🔺 +37.7 KiB (new)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/ai_observability/frontend/tags/AIObservabilityTag.js`	removed	🟢 -37.3 KiB (-100.0%)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/groups/Group.js`	removed	🟢 -32.0 KiB (-100.0%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/groups/frontend/pages/Group.js`	31.8 KiB	🔺 +31.8 KiB (new)
`exporter/_parent/products/workflows/frontend/Workflows/Workflow.js`	124.6 KiB	🔺 +21.5 KiB (+20.9%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/signals/frontend/inbox/InboxScene.js`	424.5 KiB	🔺 +17.7 KiB (+4.3%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/persons/frontend/pages/PersonsScene.js`	16.3 KiB	🔺 +16.3 KiB (new)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/persons/PersonsScene.js`	removed	🟢 -16.3 KiB (-100.0%)
`exporter/src/exporter/scenes/ExporterNotebookScene.js`	3.45 MiB	🔺 +15.8 KiB (+0.4%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/signals/frontend/inbox/components/detail/ReportAiPanel.js`	14.4 KiB	🔺 +14.4 KiB (new)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/annotations/frontend/pages/Annotations.js`	14.3 KiB	🔺 +14.3 KiB (new)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/groups/frontend/pages/Groups.js`	14.1 KiB	🔺 +14.1 KiB (new)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/groups/Groups.js`	removed	🟢 -14.0 KiB (-100.0%)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/annotations/Annotations.js`	removed	🟢 -14.0 KiB (-100.0%)
`posthog-app/src/layout/panel-layout/navbar/tabs/NavTabChat.js`	20.6 KiB	🔺 +10.8 KiB (+110.8%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/groups/frontend/pages/GroupsNew.js`	10.7 KiB	🔺 +10.7 KiB (new)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/groups/GroupsNew.js`	removed	🟢 -10.4 KiB (-100.0%)
`exporter/src/lib/components/ActivityLog/describers.js`	146.3 KiB	🔺 +8.6 KiB (+6.2%)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/marketing-analytics/MarketingAnalyticsScene.js`	129.8 KiB	🔺 +7.9 KiB (+6.5%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/posthog_ai/frontend/scenes/TaskTracker/TaskTracker.js`	21.5 KiB	🟢 -7.8 KiB (-26.6%)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/models/NodeDetailScene.js`	23.8 KiB	🔺 +7.2 KiB (+43.3%)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/toolbar-launch/ToolbarLaunch.js`	12.2 KiB	🔺 +6.2 KiB (+105.0%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/data_catalog/frontend/DataCatalogMetricScene.js`	29.2 KiB	🔺 +5.8 KiB (+24.9%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/mcp_analytics/frontend/MCPAnalyticsScene.js`	163.3 KiB	🔺 +5.3 KiB (+3.4%)
`posthog-app/src/lib/components/ActivityLog/describers.js`	144.5 KiB	🔺 +4.1 KiB (+2.9%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/metrics/frontend/MetricsScene.js`	93.3 KiB	🔺 +3.2 KiB (+3.5%)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/feature-flags/FeatureFlag.js`	109.9 KiB	🟢 -2.7 KiB (-2.4%)
`toolbar/src/toolbar/debug/chunk-EventDebugMenu.js`	283.6 KiB	🔺 +1.9 KiB (+0.7%)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/onboarding/Onboarding.js`	824.2 KiB	🔺 +1.7 KiB (+0.2%)
`posthog-app/src/lib/countryFlagEmojiPolyfill.js`	1.4 KiB	🔺 +1.4 KiB (new)
`posthog-app/src/scenes/code-canvas/CodeLoopLink.js`	1.3 KiB	🔺 +1.3 KiB (new)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/stamphog/frontend/scenes/StamphogScene/StamphogScene.js`	13.6 KiB	🔺 +1.3 KiB (+10.3%)
`posthog-app/_parent/node_modules/.pnpm/country-flag-emoji-polyfill@0.1.8/node_modules/country-flag-emoji-polyfill/dist/dist.js`	removed	🟢 -1.3 KiB (-100.0%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/workflows/frontend/Workflows/WorkflowScene.js`	38.6 KiB	🔺 +1.2 KiB (+3.2%)
`exporter/_parent/products/alerts/frontend/views/EditAlertModal.js`	104.0 KiB	🔺 +1.1 KiB (+1.1%)
`posthog-app/_parent/products/error_tracking/frontend/scenes/ErrorTrackingIssueScene/ErrorTrackingIssueScene.js`	82.2 KiB	🔺 +1.0 KiB (+1.3%)

_{Posted automatically by build-bundle-size-report · uncompressed bytes from dist-report}

✅ Eager graph — within budget

How much code each root ships on the eager path — downloaded and parsed before the surface is interactive. Measured from the esbuild output chunks (post-tree-shake, static imports only); lazy import() / React.lazy chunks are not counted.

Root	Eager (shipped)	Δ vs base	Budget
entry (logged-out pages, app bootstrap) `src/index.tsx`	1.54 MiB · 22 files	🔺 +8.4 KiB (+0.5%)	`████████░░` 83.9% of 1.84 MiB
logged-out boot: index + App + bootApp (preloaded by every page, including /login) `src/index.tsx + src/scenes/App.tsx + src/scenes/bootApp.ts`	3.52 MiB · 610 files	🔺 +11.6 KiB (+0.3%)	`█████████░` 87.3% of 4.03 MiB
authenticated shell (every logged-in page) `src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx`	8.32 MiB · 2,701 files	🔺 +40.4 KiB (+0.5%)	`█████████░` 87.5% of 9.51 MiB

🟢 node_modules/monaco-editor/ stays out of src/index.tsx
🟢 src/lib/components/ActivityLog/describers stays out of src/index.tsx
🟢 [object Object] stays out of src/index.tsx
🟢 [object Object] stays out of src/index.tsx
🟢 node_modules/monaco-editor/ stays out of src/index.tsx + src/scenes/App.tsx + src/scenes/bootApp.ts
🟢 src/layout/navigation-3000/navigationLogic.tsx stays out of src/index.tsx + src/scenes/App.tsx + src/scenes/bootApp.ts
🟢 src/scenes/dashboard/dashboardLogic.tsx stays out of src/index.tsx + src/scenes/App.tsx + src/scenes/bootApp.ts
🟢 src/lib/lemon-ui/LemonMarkdown/ stays out of src/index.tsx + src/scenes/App.tsx + src/scenes/bootApp.ts
🟢 src/lib/components/RichContentEditor/ stays out of src/index.tsx + src/scenes/App.tsx + src/scenes/bootApp.ts
🟢 src/lib/components/CodeSnippet/ stays out of src/index.tsx + src/scenes/App.tsx + src/scenes/bootApp.ts
🟢 src/taxonomy/core-filter-definitions-by-group.json stays out of src/index.tsx + src/scenes/App.tsx + src/scenes/bootApp.ts
🟢 node_modules/monaco-editor/ stays out of src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx
🟢 src/lib/components/ActivityLog/describers stays out of src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx
🟢 [object Object] stays out of src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx
🟢 src/scenes/session-recordings/player/sessionRecordingPlayerLogic.ts stays out of src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx
🟢 [object Object] stays out of src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx
🟢 [object Object] stays out of src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx

Largest files eagerly shipped from src/index.tsx

Size	File
126.8 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/react-dom@18.3.1_react@18.3.1/node_modules/react-dom/cjs/react-dom.production.min.js`
24.6 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/buffer@6.0.3/node_modules/buffer/index.js`
6.3 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/react@18.3.1/node_modules/react/cjs/react.production.min.js`
4.5 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/@jspm+core@2.1.0/node_modules/@jspm/core/nodelibs/browser/process.js`
3.9 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/scheduler@0.23.2/node_modules/scheduler/cjs/scheduler.production.min.js`
1.4 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/base64-js@1.5.1/node_modules/base64-js/index.js`
1.3 KiB	`src/index.tsx`
1.3 KiB	`src/RootErrorBoundary.tsx`
912 B	`../node_modules/.pnpm/ieee754@1.2.1/node_modules/ieee754/index.js`
854 B	`src/scenes/ChunkLoadErrorBoundary.tsx`

Largest files eagerly shipped from src/index.tsx + src/scenes/App.tsx + src/scenes/bootApp.ts

Size	File
294.1 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/posthog-js@1.430.3_@types+react@18.3.27_react@18.3.1/node_modules/posthog-js/dist/module.mjs`
267.7 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/@posthog+icons@0.38.0_react-dom@18.3.1_react@18.3.1__react@18.3.1/node_modules/@posthog/icons/dist/posthog-icons.es.js`
126.8 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/react-dom@18.3.1_react@18.3.1/node_modules/react-dom/cjs/react-dom.production.min.js`
103.5 KiB	`src/lib/api.ts`
81.1 KiB	`src/products.tsx`
68.5 KiB	`src/lib/lemon-ui/icons/icons.tsx`
62.4 KiB	`src/lib/utils/eventUsageLogic.ts`
38.8 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/@dnd-kit+core@6.0.8_react-dom@18.3.1_react@18.3.1__react@18.3.1/node_modules/@dnd-kit/core/dist/core.esm.js`
33.9 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/kea@4.0.0-pre.6_patch_hash=139b8d1f1304f9d9da452a9a1244c94ea679dbcb85687d8999563146879fb6f5_react@18.3.1/node_modules/kea/lib/index.cjs.js`
33.2 KiB	`src/queries/schema/schema-general.ts`

Largest files eagerly shipped from src/scenes/AuthenticatedShell.tsx

Size	File
294.1 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/posthog-js@1.430.3_@types+react@18.3.27_react@18.3.1/node_modules/posthog-js/dist/module.mjs`
267.7 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/@posthog+icons@0.38.0_react-dom@18.3.1_react@18.3.1__react@18.3.1/node_modules/@posthog/icons/dist/posthog-icons.es.js`
263.0 KiB	`src/taxonomy/core-filter-definitions-by-group.json`
153.8 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/re2js@0.4.1/node_modules/re2js/build/index.esm.js`
126.8 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/react-dom@18.3.1_react@18.3.1/node_modules/react-dom/cjs/react-dom.production.min.js`
103.5 KiB	`src/lib/api.ts`
99.3 KiB	`../packages/quill/packages/quill/dist/index.js`
93.3 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/prosemirror-view@1.40.1/node_modules/prosemirror-view/dist/index.js`
90.6 KiB	`../node_modules/.pnpm/@tiptap+core@3.20.6_@tiptap+pm@3.20.6/node_modules/@tiptap/core/dist/index.js`
81.1 KiB	`src/products.tsx`

_{Posted automatically by check-eager-graph · sizes are eager output bytes (shipped, post-tree-shake) from the esbuild metafile · part of #32479}

✅ Toolbar bundle — eager 2.32 MiB within budget

What the toolbar ships to customer pages, measured from the esbuild output (minified, post-tree-shake). The eager set is the entry plus everything statically imported from it — fetched before any feature runs; deferred chunks load lazily. The eager guardrail is 5.72 MiB. Each output file must also stay below 10 MB, where CloudFront stops compressing it. The module boundary is enforced separately by check-toolbar-graph.

Metric	Size	Δ vs base	Budget
Eager (shipped) entry + static imports	2.32 MiB · 18 files	🔺 +11.1 KiB (+0.5%)	`████░░░░░░` 40.5% of 5.72 MiB
Deferred (lazy)	2.09 MiB · 45 files	🔺 +1.9 KiB (+0.1%)	n/a — loads on demand
Loader `dist/toolbar.js`	1.1 KiB	no change	`█░░░░░░░░░` 5.8% of 19.5 KiB

Largest eagerly-shipped chunks

Size	File
770.9 KiB	`dist/toolbar/toolbar-app-ZZO5G4K6.css`
623.5 KiB	`dist/toolbar/chunk-chunk-KAF5DJKJ.js`
484.8 KiB	`dist/toolbar/chunk-chunk-6HX5GC5K.js`
136.2 KiB	`dist/toolbar/chunk-chunk-RCT7OAJS.js`
131.8 KiB	`dist/toolbar/chunk-chunk-FDH2IBXT.js`
72.4 KiB	`dist/toolbar/toolbar-app-2SENCMP4.js`
69.0 KiB	`dist/toolbar/chunk-chunk-TSAL54PB.js`
35.6 KiB	`dist/toolbar/chunk-chunk-XWPS6SWT.js`
21.1 KiB	`dist/toolbar/chunk-chunk-PNX6PJIH.js`
6.8 KiB	`dist/toolbar/chunk-chunk-DV7IWQNF.js`

_{Posted automatically by check-toolbar-size · sizes are toolbar output bytes (shipped, post-tree-shake) from the esbuild metafile}

✅ Dist folder size — 🔺 +5.98 MiB (+0.4%)

Total size of the built frontend/dist folder (all assets), compared against the base branch.

Total: 1474.57 MiB · 🔺 +5.98 MiB (+0.4%)

✅ Playwright — all passed

All tests passed.

View test results →

✅ duplication-python — clean

New Python code duplication introduced by this branch. Fails at 70+ tokens in app code, or 150+ tokens when both copies live in test files. Advisory while the gate proves itself: extract a shared helper instead of copying.

✅ duplication-ts — clean

New TypeScript code duplication introduced by this branch. Fails at 70+ tokens in app code, or 150+ tokens when both copies live in test files. Advisory while the gate proves itself: extract a shared helper instead of copying.

posthog · 2026-09-11T17:56:54Z

✅ Visual changes approved by @turnipdabeets — baseline updated in 97cf087.

View this run in PostHog

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github-actions · 2026-09-11T17:59:07Z

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trunk-io · 2026-09-11T18:00:10Z

_{View Full Report ↗︎ ⋅ Docs}

greptile-apps · 2026-09-11T18:01:39Z

_{Reviews (1): Last reviewed commit: "fix(tracing): mention posthog-node in th..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

2 updated Run: 0bcb4c12-ff5c-41aa-a17b-9b1ba470a64a Co-authored-by: turnipdabeets <11654201+turnipdabeets@users.noreply.github.com>

deployment-status-posthog · 2026-09-15T14:52:39Z

Deploy status

Environment	Status	Deployed At	Workflow
dev	✅ Deployed	2026-09-15 14:52 UTC	Run
prod-us	✅ Deployed	2026-09-15 15:22 UTC	Run
prod-eu	✅ Deployed	2026-09-15 15:22 UTC	Run

fix(tracing): mention posthog-node in the tracing empty state

e7d666f

posthog-node 5.52.0 exports spans itself, so the empty state's claim that tracing needs no PostHog-specific packages no longer holds. Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01QPLdjqTgK93WtVxnhx6aVr

turnipdabeets added skip-inkeep-docs Use this label to skip an Inkeep docs PR in posthog.com skip-agent-review Save $$$, skip auto agent reviews (Greptile) — use for trivial or chore PRs labels Sep 11, 2026

turnipdabeets self-assigned this Sep 11, 2026

turnipdabeets mentioned this pull request Sep 11, 2026

docs(tracing): mention posthog-node on the tracing docs landing page PostHog/posthog.com#20109

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5 tasks

This was referenced Sep 11, 2026

feat(skills): add tracing skill family PostHog/context-mill#391

Merged

docs(compliance): re-audit posthog-node Traces after 5.52.0 PostHog/sdk-specs#63

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turnipdabeets requested a review from a team September 11, 2026 17:58

turnipdabeets marked this pull request as ready for review September 11, 2026 17:58

github-actions Bot deployed to preview-pr-99441 September 11, 2026 17:59 View deployment

pr-assigner-resolver-posthog Bot requested a review from a team September 11, 2026 17:59

chore(visual): update storybook baselines

97cf087

2 updated Run: 0bcb4c12-ff5c-41aa-a17b-9b1ba470a64a Co-authored-by: turnipdabeets <11654201+turnipdabeets@users.noreply.github.com>

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marandaneto approved these changes Sep 15, 2026

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trunk-io Bot merged commit 273d6da into master Sep 15, 2026
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trunk-io Bot deleted the docs/tracing-empty-state-node branch September 15, 2026 14:04

turnipdabeets mentioned this pull request Sep 18, 2026

fix(tracing): mention the Python SDK in the tracing empty state #102724

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fix(tracing): mention posthog-node in the tracing empty state - #99441

fix(tracing): mention posthog-node in the tracing empty state#99441
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