1---
2name: appinsights-instrumentation
3description: "Guidance for instrumenting webapps with Azure Application Insights. Provides telemetry patterns, SDK setup, and configuration references. WHEN: how to instrument app, App Insights SDK, telemetry patterns, what is App Insights, Application Insights guidance, instrumentation examples, APM best practices."
4license: MIT
5metadata:
6  author: Microsoft
7  version: "0.0.0-placeholder"
8---
9 
10# AppInsights Instrumentation Guide
11 
12This skill provides **guidance and reference material** for instrumenting webapps with Azure Application Insights.
13 
14> **⛔ ADDING COMPONENTS?**
15>
16> If the user wants to **add App Insights to their app**, invoke **azure-prepare** instead.
17> This skill provides reference material—azure-prepare orchestrates the actual changes.
18 
19## When to Use This Skill
20 
21- User asks **how** to instrument (guidance, patterns, examples)
22- User needs SDK setup instructions
23- azure-prepare invokes this skill during research phase
24- User wants to understand App Insights concepts
25 
26## When to Use azure-prepare Instead
27 
28- User says "add telemetry to my app"
29- User says "add App Insights" 
30- User wants to modify their project
31- Any request to change/add components
32 
33## Prerequisites
34 
35The app in the workspace must be one of these kinds
36 
37- An ASP.NET Core app hosted in Azure
38- A Node.js app hosted in Azure
39 
40## Guidelines
41 
42### Collect context information
43 
44Find out the (programming language, application framework, hosting) tuple of the application the user is trying to add telemetry support in. This determines how the application can be instrumented. Read the source code to make an educated guess. Confirm with the user on anything you don't know. You must always ask the user where the application is hosted (e.g. on a personal computer, in an Azure App Service as code, in an Azure App Service as container, in an Azure Container App, etc.). 
45 
46### Prefer auto-instrument if possible
47 
48If the app is a C# ASP.NET Core app hosted in Azure App Service, use [AUTO guide](references/auto.md) to help user auto-instrument the app.
49 
50### Manually instrument
51 
52Manually instrument the app by creating the AppInsights resource and update the app's code. 
53 
54#### Create AppInsights resource
55 
56Use one of the following options that fits the environment.
57 
58- Add AppInsights to existing Bicep template. See [examples/appinsights.bicep](examples/appinsights.bicep) for what to add. This is the best option if there are existing Bicep template files in the workspace.
59- Use Azure CLI. See [scripts/appinsights.ps1](scripts/appinsights.ps1) for what Azure CLI command to execute to create the App Insights resource.
60 
61No matter which option you choose, recommend the user to create the App Insights resource in a meaningful resource group that makes managing resources easier. A good candidate will be the same resource group that contains the resources for the hosted app in Azure.
62 
63#### Modify application code
64 
65- If the app is an ASP.NET Core app, see [ASPNETCORE guide](references/aspnetcore.md) for how to modify the C# code.
66- If the app is a Node.js app, see [NODEJS guide](references/nodejs.md) for how to modify the JavaScript/TypeScript code.
67- If the app is a Python app, see [PYTHON guide](references/python.md) for how to modify the Python code.
68 
69## SDK Quick References
70 
71- **OpenTelemetry Distro**: [Python](references/sdk/azure-monitor-opentelemetry-py.md) | [TypeScript](references/sdk/azure-monitor-opentelemetry-ts.md)
72- **OpenTelemetry Exporter**: [Python](references/sdk/azure-monitor-opentelemetry-exporter-py.md) | [Java](references/sdk/azure-monitor-opentelemetry-exporter-java.md)
73 
74## Platform-Specific Guides
75 
76- **Container Apps**: [Observability Guide](references/container-apps.md)
77