Better Auth

Overview

@kubiks/otel-better-auth provides comprehensive OpenTelemetry instrumentation for Better Auth. Get complete authentication observability across all auth flows with a single line of code—OAuth, email/password, sessions, account management, and more.

Visualize your authentication flows with detailed span information including operation type, user IDs, session IDs, auth methods, and success/failure status.

Installation

npm install @kubiks/otel-better-auth

Peer Dependencies: @opentelemetry/api >= 1.9.0, better-auth >= 1.0.0

Quick Start

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { instrumentBetterAuth } from "@kubiks/otel-better-auth";

export const auth = instrumentBetterAuth(
  betterAuth({
    database: db,
    // ... your Better Auth config
  }),
);

Instrumenting Better Auth is just a single call—wrap the instance you already create and every API method invocation is traced automatically. Keep the rest of your configuration unchanged.

Traced Operations

Authentication
Session Management
Account Management
Password & Email

Sign In & Sign Up:

auth.http.oauth.callback.{provider} - OAuth callback with user ID ✅
auth.http.signin.email - Email signin with user ID
auth.http.signup.email - Email signup with user ID
auth.http.oauth.initiate.{provider} - OAuth initiation
auth.http.signout - User signout
auth.http.get_session - Get session

Span Attributes

Each span includes rich context about the authentication operation:

Attribute	Description	Example
`auth.operation`	Type of operation	`signin`, `signup`, `get_session`, `signout`
`auth.method`	Auth method	`email`, `oauth`
`auth.provider`	OAuth provider (when applicable)	`google`, `github`
`auth.success`	Operation success	`true`, `false`
`auth.error`	Error message (when failed)	`Invalid credentials`
`user.id`	User ID (when available)	`user_123456`
`user.email`	User email (when available)	`user@example.com`
`session.id`	Session ID (when available)	`session_abcdef`

User IDs and session IDs are captured where applicable to help with debugging and monitoring authentication flows.

Configuration

You can optionally customize the instrumentation:

instrumentBetterAuth(authClient, {
  tracerName: "my-app", // Custom tracer name
  tracer: customTracer, // Custom tracer instance
});

Usage Examples

Basic Setup (Next.js App Router)

Configure Better Auth

lib/auth.ts

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { drizzleAdapter } from "better-auth/adapters/drizzle";
import { instrumentBetterAuth } from "@kubiks/otel-better-auth";
import { db } from "./db";

export const auth = instrumentBetterAuth(
  betterAuth({
    baseURL: process.env.BETTER_AUTH_URL,
    database: drizzleAdapter(db, { provider: "pg" }),
    socialProviders: {
      github: {
        clientId: process.env.GITHUB_CLIENT_ID,
        clientSecret: process.env.GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET,
      },
      google: {
        clientId: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID,
        clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET,
      },
    },
  }),
);

Create Auth Handler

app/api/auth/[...all]/route.ts

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";

export const { GET, POST } = auth.handler;

Use in Your App

All authentication operations are now automatically traced!

// Sign in
await auth.api.signInEmail({
  email: "user@example.com",
  password: "password",
});

// Get session
const session = await auth.api.getSession();

OAuth Authentication

export const auth = instrumentBetterAuth(
  betterAuth({
    database: db,
    socialProviders: {
      github: {
        clientId: process.env.GITHUB_CLIENT_ID,
        clientSecret: process.env.GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET,
      },
    },
  }),
);

// OAuth callback is automatically traced with provider name
// Span: auth.http.oauth.callback.github

Email/Password Authentication

"use server";

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";

export async function signUp(email: string, password: string, name: string) {
  const result = await auth.api.signUpEmail({
    email,
    password,
    name,
  });

  // Traced as: auth.http.signup.email
  // Includes: user.id, user.email, auth.success

  return result;
}

Session Management

"use server";

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";

export async function getCurrentSession() {
  const session = await auth.api.getSession();
  
  // Traced as: auth.api.get_session
  // Includes: user.id, session.id, auth.success
  
  return session;
}

Account Management

"use server";

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";

export async function updateProfile(name: string, image?: string) {
  const result = await auth.api.updateUser({
    name,
    image,
  });

  // Traced as: auth.api.update_user
  // Includes: user.id, auth.success

  return result;
}

Password Management

"use server";

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";

export async function changePassword(
  currentPassword: string,
  newPassword: string
) {
  const result = await auth.api.changePassword({
    currentPassword,
    newPassword,
  });

  // Traced as: auth.api.change_password
  // Includes: user.id, auth.success

  return result;
}

Email Management

"use server";

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";

export async function verifyEmail(token: string) {
  const result = await auth.api.verifyEmail({ token });

  // Traced as: auth.api.verify_email
  // Includes: user.id, user.email, auth.success

  return result;
}

Complete Integration Example

Here’s a full example of Better Auth with OpenTelemetry in a Next.js application:

lib/auth.ts

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { drizzleAdapter } from "better-auth/adapters/drizzle";
import { instrumentBetterAuth } from "@kubiks/otel-better-auth";
import { db } from "./db";

export const auth = instrumentBetterAuth(
  betterAuth({
    baseURL: process.env.BETTER_AUTH_URL!,
    database: drizzleAdapter(db, { provider: "pg" }),
    
    emailAndPassword: {
      enabled: true,
      requireEmailVerification: true,
    },
    
    socialProviders: {
      github: {
        clientId: process.env.GITHUB_CLIENT_ID!,
        clientSecret: process.env.GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET!,
      },
      google: {
        clientId: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID!,
        clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET!,
      },
    },
    
    session: {
      expiresIn: 60 * 60 * 24 * 7, // 1 week
      updateAge: 60 * 60 * 24, // 1 day
    },
  }),
  {
    tracerName: "my-app-auth",
  }
);

app/api/auth/[...all]/route.ts

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";

export const { GET, POST } = auth.handler;

app/actions/auth.ts

"use server";

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";
import { redirect } from "next/navigation";

export async function signInWithEmail(email: string, password: string) {
  const result = await auth.api.signInEmail({
    email,
    password,
  });

  if (!result.error) {
    redirect("/dashboard");
  }

  return result;
}

export async function signUpWithEmail(
  email: string,
  password: string,
  name: string
) {
  const result = await auth.api.signUpEmail({
    email,
    password,
    name,
  });

  if (!result.error) {
    redirect("/verify-email");
  }

  return result;
}

export async function signOut() {
  await auth.api.signOut();
  redirect("/");
}

Best Practices

Use Server Actions

Always use Server Actions for authentication operations in Next.js:

"use server";

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";

export async function signIn(email: string, password: string) {
  return await auth.api.signInEmail({ email, password });
}

Handle Errors Gracefully

Check for errors and provide appropriate feedback:

const result = await auth.api.signInEmail({ email, password });

if (result.error) {
  return { error: result.error.message };
}

return { success: true };

Verify Email Addresses

Always enable email verification for production:

betterAuth({
  emailAndPassword: {
    enabled: true,
    requireEmailVerification: true,
  },
})

Use Custom Tracer Names

Use descriptive tracer names for easier debugging:

instrumentBetterAuth(auth, {
  tracerName: "my-app-auth",
});

Troubleshooting

Spans Not Appearing

Ensure OpenTelemetry is properly initialized before creating the auth instance:

import { NodeSDK } from "@opentelemetry/sdk-node";

const sdk = new NodeSDK({
  // ... configuration
});

sdk.start();

// Then create auth instance
export const auth = instrumentBetterAuth(betterAuth({ ... }));

Missing User IDs

User IDs are only captured for operations where the user is authenticated. For sign-in and sign-up, the user ID is captured after successful authentication.

OAuth Provider Not Traced

Make sure you’re using the correct provider name in your Better Auth configuration. The provider name must match exactly (e.g., github, not GitHub).

Resources

Better Auth Documentation

Learn more about Better Auth

GitHub Repository

View source code and examples

npm Package

View package on npm

Report Issues

Found a bug? Let us know!

License

MIT

Frameworks

Vercel

OpenTelemetry Integrations

Overview

Installation

Quick Start

Traced Operations

Span Attributes

Configuration

Usage Examples

Basic Setup (Next.js App Router)

OAuth Authentication

Email/Password Authentication

Session Management

Account Management

Password Management

Email Management

Complete Integration Example

Best Practices

Troubleshooting

Resources

Better Auth Documentation

GitHub Repository

npm Package

Report Issues

License

Frameworks

Vercel

OpenTelemetry Integrations

​Overview

​Installation

​Quick Start

​Traced Operations

​Span Attributes

​Configuration

​Usage Examples

​Basic Setup (Next.js App Router)

​OAuth Authentication

​Email/Password Authentication

​Session Management

​Account Management

​Password Management

​Email Management

​Complete Integration Example

​Best Practices

​Troubleshooting

​Resources

Better Auth Documentation

GitHub Repository

npm Package

Report Issues

​License

Overview

Installation

Quick Start

Traced Operations

Span Attributes

Configuration

Usage Examples

Basic Setup (Next.js App Router)

OAuth Authentication

Email/Password Authentication

Session Management

Account Management

Password Management

Email Management

Complete Integration Example

Best Practices

Troubleshooting

Resources

License