Investigate openai missing spans for Nextjs

[RulaKhaled]

We have noticed that openai is not patched for Nextjs applications, it works fine for Node CJS, investigate the reason behind this.

[linear]

JS-1085

[RulaKhaled]

When using AI SDKs like openai in Nextjs server components, the modules often get bundled by Webpack instead of being required at runtime. This prevents OTEL instrumentation from hooking into them automatically, since it relies on intercepting runtime require() calls. Right now, the instrumentation should work if you add the following to your Nextjs config:

webpack(config, { isServer }) {
  if (isServer) {
    config.externals = config.externals || [];
    config.externals.push('openai', '@anthropic-ai/sdk', '@langchain/anthropic');
  }
  return config;
}

We will aim to make an automatic fix from within the Nextjs SDK.

[RulaKhaled]

Update on this:

Reproduction Details

Setup:

• Sentry SDK: v10.22.0
• Repro repo for Next.js15: https://github.com/RulaKhaled/nextjs-15-openai-sentry-issue

Findings

1. Next.js 15.5.4

Turbopack

• Dev: serverExternalPackage → Does not work
• Prod: serverExternalPackage → Does not work

Webpack

• Dev:
  • serverExternalPackage → Does not work
  • config.serverExternal → ✅ Works
• Prod:
  • serverExternalPackage → Does not work
  • config.serverExternal → ✅ Works

2. Next.js 16

Turbopack

• Dev: serverExternalPackage → Does not work
• Prod: serverExternalPackage → Does not work

Webpack

• Dev:
  • serverExternalPackage → Does not work
  • config.serverExternal → ✅ Works
• Prod:
  • serverExternalPackage → Does not work
  • config.serverExternal → ✅ Works

TLDR;

Attempting to replicate this behavior from within the Next.js SDK via serverExternalPackages did not work, it appears this may be due to differences in how Next.js’ bundler wrapper handles externals vs. serverExternal configuration, or it might be a problem with our Next.js bundler wrapper.

Next Steps / Blocker

• Need clarification on how serverExternalPackages is intended to work internally and whether it can replicate config.externals behavior.
• We’ll need input from the Next.js team on whether there’s an equivalent to serverExternalPackages or another mechanism to exclude modules from Turbopack bundling.
• The SDK fix is blocked until we confirm this behavior and determine a supported way to inject externals for instrumentation.

[RulaKhaled]

We are proceeding with manual instrumentation for now to unblock users from using OpenAI instrumentation. Documentation has been updated with the new changes getsentry/sentry-docs#15771. I’m moving this back to the backlog until it is prioritized again and we determine a way to automate instrumentation in Next.js.