Ruby agent release notesRSS

Feature: Introduce Hybrid Agent for OpenTelemetry Tracing Support

OpenTelemetry Tracing APIs can now be translated into New Relic telemetry with the New Relic Ruby agent's new Hybrid Agent features. This allows the newrelic_rpm gem to behave similarly to an OpenTelemetry SDK, accepting OpenTelemetry API calls and turning them into New Relic Transactions and Segments with familiar attributes and names.

The following configuration options relate to Hybrid Agent features:

Feature: Add configuration option error_collector.backtrace_truncate_location

A new configuration option has been added, error_collector.backtrace_truncate_location, which allows the user to specify where in the backtrace to truncate when the number of frames exceeds error_collector.max_backtrace_frames. Options are 'top' (removes frames from the beginning), 'middle' (removes frames from the middle, preserving the beginning and end), or 'end' (removes frames from the end). The default is 'middle'. PR#3424

Feature: Add Logging gem instrumentation

The agent will now record logs generated by the Logging gem. PR#3420

Feature: Add configuration option utilization.detect_in_parallel

A new configuration option has been added, utilization.detect_in_parallel, which controls whether the agent uses threads when detecting cloud vendor information to speed up agent startup. When set to false, vendor detection runs sequentially without creating threads. The default is true. PR#3439

Feature: Add support for forking processes in Parallel gem instrumentation

Parallel gem instrumentation has been added to allow more consistent monitoring in processes forked using the Parallel gem. PR#3405

Feature: Add support for Grape v3.1.0

Grape's release of v3.1.0 introduced changes that were incompatible with the agent's instrumentation, causing issues when collecting transaction names. The agent has been updated to properly extract class names for transaction naming in the updated Grape API structure. PR#3413

Bugfix: Create health check files in forked processes

The agent now properly initializes health check loops after forking, ensuring each process generates its own health check file. This fix also has the effect of correctly including entity.guid values in the health check files. PR#3409 Issue#3408

Bugfix: Fix sidekiq.ignore_retry_errors

The configuration option sidekiq.ignore_retry_errors: true was continuing to report retry errors. The agent now correctly ignores retry errors and only reports when jobs permanently fail. PR#3399

Breaking Change: Remove support for Ruby 2.4 and 2.5

Support for Ruby versions 2.4 and 2.5 has been removed. The new minimum required Ruby version is now 2.6. PR#3314

Breaking Change: Removal of Cross Application Tracing (CAT)

Previously, Cross Application Tracing (CAT) was deprecated in favor of Distributed Tracing. CAT functionality has now been removed. The configuration option cross_application_tracer.enabled has been removed. Public API methods NewRelic::Agent::External.process_request_metadata, NewRelic::Agent::External.get_response_metadata, NewRelic::Agent::Transaction::ExternalRequestSegment#process_response_metadata, NewRelic::Agent::Transaction::ExternalRequestSegment#get_request_metadata, and NewRelic::Agent::Transaction::ExternalRequestSegment#read_response_headers have also been removed. PR#3333

Breaking Change: Rename ActiveJob metrics and segments

ActiveJob metrics have been updated to include the job's class name for more specific reporting. This is a breaking change and may require updating custom dashboards or alerts. PR#3370 PR#3320

• Old format: Ruby/ActiveJob/<QueueName>/<Method>
• New format: Ruby/ActiveJob/<QueueName>/<ClassName>/<Method>

In addition, segments created for Active Job enqueuing actions now include the job class.

• Old format: ActiveJob/<QueueAdapter>/Queue/<Event>/Named/<QueueName>
• New format: ActiveJob/<QueueAdapter>/Queue/<Event>/Named/<QueueName>/<ClassName>

Breaking Change: Rename bin/newrelic command to bin/newrelic_rpm

The executable file for the agent's CLI has been renamed from bin/newrelic to bin/newrelic_rpm. This change resolves a name collision with the standalone New Relic CLI tool. PR#3323

Breaking Change: Remove the newrelic deployments CLI command

The deprecated newrelic deployments CLI command has been removed. To track changes and deployments in New Relic, please see our guide to Change Tracking for a list of available options. PR#3299

Breaking Change: Remove the NewRelic::Agent::SqlSampler#notice_sql method

Users should call NewRelic::Agent::Datastores.notice_sql instead. PR#3338

Breaking Change: Remove unused arguments from various NewRelic::Agent::Datastores APIs

The following APIs from the NewRelic::Agent::Datastores class have had method arguments removed:

• NewRelic::Agent::Datastores.notice_sql, previously had three positional arguments, query, scoped_metric and elapsed. Now, it only has query.
• NewRelic::Agent::Datastores.notice_statement, previously had two positional arguments query and elapsed. Now it only has query.
• NewRelic::Agent::Datastores.wrap requires a proc. Previously the proc received three arguments: the result of the yield, the most specific scoped metric name, and the elapsed time of the call. Now, it only receives one: the result of the yield.

The values of the removed arguments are derived from the current segment at the time of the call. PR#3347

Breaking Change: Remove experimental feature Configurable Security Policies (CSP)

The experimental feature, Configurable Security Policies (CSP), is no longer supported and has been removed. PR#3292

Breaking Change: Remove support for Puma versions < 3.9.0

The minimum version of Puma now supported is 3.9.0 or higher. PR#3326

Breaking Change: Improve configuration validation and coercion

The internals used to coerce and validate the values provided for agent configuration are now more performant and more accurate.

• Warning messages will now be logged to the newrelic_agent.log file when nil is provided as a config value for a setting that does not support it.
• Integer values are permitted for Float configuration types
• Float values are permitted for Integer configuration types
• Fatal interruptions are prevented when a default value can be found to replace an invalid input value PR#3341

Breaking Change: Replace 'default' option with 'adaptive' for distributed tracing remote parent samplers

Previously, the default option for distributed_tracing.sampler.remote_parent_sampled and distributed_tracing.sampler.remote_parent_not_sampled was default, which used the pre-existing adaptive sampler. The default option has been renamed to adaptive. PR#3363

Feature: Add logger as a dependency

The logger gem is now listed as a dependency of the agent to ensure continued logging functionality and support for Ruby 4.0.0 and newer versions. PR#3293

Feature: Add Active Support notification allowlist configuration option

A new configuration option, instrumentation.active_support_notifications.active_support_events, allows users to define an allowlist of Active Support notifications event names for the agent to subscribe to. By default, the agent subscribes to all Active Support: Caching and Active Support: Messages events. PR#3327

Feature: Use Ruby's built-in Gzip compression

The agent now uses the built-in Zlib.gzip method from the Ruby standard library for compression, replacing the previous custom implementation. PR#3332

Feature: Add argument validation for the NewRelic::Agent#record_custom_event API

The NewRelic::Agent#record_custom_event API now raises an ArgumentError when an invalid event_type is provided. A valid event type must consist only of alphanumeric characters, underscores (_), colons (:), or spaces ( ). PR#3319

Feature: Add root sampling configuration options

You can now configure the sampling behavior for traces that originate within the current service using distributed_tracing.sampler.root. PR#3330

There are four modes available:

Feature: Add Trace ID Ratio Based sampling options

The agent can now sample traces using the OpenTelemetry Trace ID Ratio Based sampler algorithm. PR#3330 This samples traces based on a probability between 0.0 and 1.0 based on the trace ID.

To use this option, you must first set your distributed tracing sampler configuration to trace_id_ratio_based and then set the corresponding distributed_tracing.sampler.*.trace_id_ratio_based.ratio sampler to a Float between 0.0 and 1.0.

For example:

distributed_tracing.sampler.remote_parent_sampled: 'trace_id_ratio_based'
  distributed_tracing.sampler.remote_parent_sampled.trace_id_ratio_based.ratio': 0.5

This configuration would sample approximately 50% of your traces for all traces where the remote parent is sampled.

This option is available for:

• distributed_tracing.sampler.root
• distributed_tracing.sampler.remote_parent_sampled
• distributed_tracing.sampler.remote_parent_not_sampled

Feature: Add Entity GUID to Agent Control health check files

When the agent is started within an Agent Control environment, a health check file is created at the configured file location for every agent process. This file now includes the guid of the entity related to the agent when available. PR#3371

Bugfix: Resolve a NoMethodError in GCP utilization detection.

The GCP metadata discovery logic will now gracefully handle nil or unexpected values, preventing service initialization crashes. PR#3388

Feature: Deprecation reminder for SqlSampler#notice_sql API

The NewRelic::Agent::SqlSampler#notice_sql method is deprecated and will be removed in a future major version. Instead, users should call NewRelic::Agent::Datastores.notice_sql. PR#3345

Feature: Deprecation notice for second and third arguments in Datastores.notice_sql API

The second (scoped_metric) and third (elapsed) arguments in the NewRelic::Agent::Datastores.notice_sql method are deprecated. They have not been used by the method for some time. Instead, these values will be set based on the current segment when the API is called. PR#3345

Feature: Deprecation notice for second argument in Datastores.notice_statement API

The second (elapsed) argument in the NewRelic::Agent::Datastores.notice_statement method is deprecated. It has not been used by the method for some time. Instead, this value will be set based on the current segment when the API is called. PR#3346

Feature: Deprecation notice for proc's second and third arguments in Datastores.wrap API

The NewRelic::Agent::Datastores.wrap method is changing. In a future major version, proc will only accept a single argument, the result of the yield. The scoped metric name and elapsed arguments will be removed, as they are being removed from the Datastores.notice_sql method. The scoped metric name and elapsed values are derived from the current segment when the wrap yields. PR#3346

Feature: Add sidekiq.ignore_retry_errors configuration option

A new configuration option, sidekiq.ignore_retry_errors, has been added to control if Sidekiq job retries are captured. Retry errors are captured by default, but now if sidekiq.ignore_retry_errors is set to true, the agent will ignore exceptions raised during Sidekiq's retry attempts and will only report the error if the job permanently fails. Thank you DonGiulio for recognizing this improvement and contributing a solution. PR#3317

Feature: Deprecation notice for recording deployments using Capistrano

Sending application deployment information using a Capistrano recipe is deprecated and will be removed in agent version 10.0.0. For recording deployments, please see our guide to Change Tracking for a list of available options.

Feature: Use remote parent sampling configurations for decisions in more scenarios

Previously, the distributed_tracing.sampler.remote_parent_sampled and distributed_tracing.sampler.remote_parent_not_sampled configuration options were used for the sampling decision only when the traceparent and tracestate headers were present. Now, these configuration options are applied in cases when the tracestate header is missing and when only the newrelic header is available. This change makes distributed trace sampling more consistent and predictable. PR#3306

Feature: One-step instrumentation for Kubernetes

The Kubernetes APM auto-attach automatically instruments applications and manages agent upgrades within Kubernetes deployments. This feature has exited preview and is now generally avaliable. Learn more about Kubernetes auto-attach. PR#2635 PR#3287

Feature: Deprecation notice for Ruby 2.4 and Ruby 2.5

Ruby agent support for Ruby versions 2.4 and 2.5 is deprecated and will be removed in agent version 10.0.0. The new miniumum required Ruby version will become Ruby 2.6 and we will stop testing with Ruby 2.4 and 2.5. PR#3288

Feature: Deprecation notice for the newrelic deployments command

Support for recording deployments using the newrelic deployments command is now deprecated and will be removed in agent version 10.0.0.

Going forward, there are a number of automated and manual ways ways to record changes in New Relic. Please see our guide to Change Tracking for a list of available options. PR#3262

Feature: Deprecation reminder for cross application tracing

Cross application tracing has been deprecated since major version 8.0.0 of the Ruby agent. We will remove support for it entirely in version 10.0.0 of the agent. PR#3288

Feature: Ensure compatibility with Ruby 3.5 change to Method#source_location

Updated the agent to correctly parse the return value of Method#source_location, which is changing in Ruby 3.5 from a two-element to a five-element array. This change maintains support for older Ruby versions while adding support for the future release. PR#3257

Feature: In Serverless APM mode, use event source name as transaction name prefix

The agent will now use the event source name as a prefix for the transaction name in Serverless APM mode. This will help to better identify the source of the transaction in the New Relic UI. PR#3245

Bugfix: Revert changed logic for how we track the thread the span starts in

This change restores the previous behavior of tracking the thread the span starts in, addressing issues that arose from the updated logic. Thank you @david-zw-liu for bringing this to our attention. PR#3248

Feature: Add ECS Docker ID for Fargate

Previously, the Ruby agent did not record the Docker ID when running in an AWS ECS Fargate environment. The Docker ID will now be recorded correctly. PR#3172

Feature: Add NewRelic::Helper.version_satisfied?

The agent has a new helper method to simplify version comparison. NewRelic::Helper.version_satisfied? accepts three arguments: a left-side version number, the comparison operator as a string, and a right-side version number. Our thanks go to @kekke-n for this contribution. PR#3182

Feature: Add code.stacktrace attribute on datastore spans when duration exceeds configured threshold

The agent will now add the code.stacktrace attribute to datastore spans when the duration exceeds the configured threshold. The threshold is configured using the transaction_tracer.stack_trace_threshold configuration option. PR#3220

Feature: Consolidate "Unknown" constant values

All references to the various capitalization styles for "Unknown" have been consolidated into two constants: NewRelic::UNKNOWN and NewRelic::UNKNOWN_LOWER. Thank you, @tsubasa1122, for your contribution! PR#3185

Bugfix: Fix Brewfile source links

Previously, the multiverse README's links to the Brewfile were broken. Our thanks go to @emmanuel-ferdman for submitting a PR to fix them! PR#3191

Bugfix: Fix error when using HTTPX 1.5.0

The agent previously encountered an error when using the new HTTPX version 1.5.0. This was due to a change in the way HTTPX stores the response. The agent has been updated to handle this change correctly, and no longer encounters an error when using HTTPX 1.5.0. PR#3203

Bugfix: Bugfixes and improvements to debug level agent logs

Improves the information logged at the debug level by the agent when the agent reads in a configuration source. PR#3221

Bugfix: Fix risk of server-side forgery for Slack workflow script

Internally, we keep track of gems that are released using a GitHub actions workflow that posts updates on Slack. [@odaysec] identified a way we could reduce the risk of server-side forgery for this workflow. Thank you! PR#3184

Bugfix: Replace JSON.load calls with JSON.parse

Generally, JSON.parse is seen as safer than JSON.load. Thank you, @odaysec, for bringing this to our attention! PR#3183 PR#3230

Feature: Add Thread ID as attribute to all spans

The agent will now record the Thread ID as an attribute on each span. PR#3122

Feature: Add support for W3C TraceContext Trace Flag

Previously, the agent would not use the trace flag field of the traceparent header for sampling decisions. This could lead to fragmented traces in the UI. While the default behavior remains unchanged, two new configuration options, distributed_tracing.sampler.remote_parent_sampled and distributed_tracing.sampler.remote_parent_not_sampled, have been introduced to allow more control over the way sampling decisions are made. PR#3135

Bugfix: Include request.uri in Transaction events by default

The New Relic data dictionary expects Transaction events to have the request.uri attribute. The Ruby agent now fulfills this expectation. If you would like to exclude request.uri from Transaction events, you can do so by setting transaction_events.attributes.exclude to 'request.uri'. PR#3103

Bugfix: Fix error in Active Job instrumentation when using perform_all_later

Previously, when Active Job's perform_all_later method was called and the agent was running, a NoMethodError would be raised with the message undefined method 'queue_name' for nil. The error has been fixed and the name of the segment will reflect the first job in the queue. Our thanks goes to @tan-linx for bringing this to our attention and providing a fix. PR#3110