# kamon-io/Kamon

Distributed Tracing, Metrics and Context Propagation for applications running on the JVM

Repository: https://github.com/kamon-io/Kamon
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/kamon
Homepage: https://kamon.io
Language: Scala
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: monitoring, scala, java, kamon, tracing, metrics, time, distributed-tracing, otel
Last push: 2026-01-19T13:16:26+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 63, release rhythm 54, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4870, "days_push": 226, "days_rel": 226, "gap_med": 47, "n_releases_24m": 6}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1426, forks 330 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:41.617476+00:00)

## What it is
Kamon Telemetry is a set of open-source libraries for instrumenting JVM applications (Java, Scala, Kotlin) to collect metrics, distributed traces, and propagate context across threads and services. It offers automatic instrumentation for popular frameworks like Akka, Play, and Spring, and can report data to Kamon APM, Prometheus, Jaeger, Datadog, and other backends.

## Use cases
- instrument a Scala or Java service to collect metrics and traces
- trace requests across microservices on the JVM
- add distributed tracing to Akka or Play applications
- export JVM application metrics to Prometheus or Datadog
- propagate trace context across threads and services
- monitor database and HTTP client performance in JVM apps
- add custom business metrics to a backend service

## When to choose
- you run JVM services (Scala, Java, Kotlin) and need metrics plus distributed tracing with minimal code changes
- you use Akka, Play, Cats Effect, or Spring and want automatic instrumentation
- you want vendor-neutral telemetry that can report to Prometheus, Jaeger, Zipkin, Datadog, or Kamon APM

## When to avoid
- your stack is not on the JVM (e.g., Python, Node.js, Go)
- you want a full OpenTelemetry SDK implementation rather than Kamon's own APIs
- you need a hosted APM UI without any self-managed backend and prefer not to use Kamon APM

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: tracing, monitoring, alerting
- domain: monitoring, developer-tools, microservices, backend
- platform: jvm, cross-platform
- tags: observability, distributed-tracing, context-propagation, apm, opentelemetry, instrumentation, akka, spring, play-framework, devops

## Member repositories
- kamon-io/Kamon (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:41.617476+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:37:26.949546+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/kamon-io/Kamon (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:41.617476+00:00, sha 4b502396e47f)
  - homepage: https://kamon.io (fetched 2026-08-29T11:49:17.896818+00:00, sha e65109692c3f)
  - site_page: https://kamon.io/docs/latest/guides (fetched 2026-08-29T11:49:17.907879+00:00, sha b0b65b03d49d)
  - site_page: https://kamon.io/about (fetched 2026-08-29T11:49:17.913059+00:00, sha 601de586ad6c)
  - site_page: https://kamon.io/apm/pricing (fetched 2026-08-29T11:49:17.905805+00:00, sha 3decb13ab9cb)
  - site_page: https://kamon.io/apm (fetched 2026-08-29T11:49:17.909620+00:00, sha 06c801dcd9ff)
  - site_page: https://kamon.io/telemetry (fetched 2026-08-29T11:49:17.911410+00:00, sha cb612626c0ad)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.