Using Parseable with Datasette for OpenTelemetry traces

Simon Willison showed that Datasette, his open-source tool for exploring data, can send its internal timing records to Parseable, a new tool for storing and searching them. In his post, he explains that Datasette 1.0a41 added support for OpenTelemetry, an open standard for emitting traces, which are step-by-step records of what a program did and how long each step took, and Parseable accepts that format.

He describes Parseable as a brand-new observability platform, with an AGPL-licensed Rust version that runs as a single binary of about 180 MB, plus enterprise and cloud versions. He had Codex work out how to run it and feed it Datasette traces, then wrote up the working steps by hand in a separate note, and his post includes a screenshot of a Datasette trace in Parseable's local web interface. The result is a demonstration that the two work together, with no performance or reliability testing.