feat(spans): Equalize name and description for manual spans by loewenheim · Pull Request #6070 · getsentry/relay

loewenheim · 2026-06-10T14:55:28Z

This ensures that for spans (V1 or V2) with an origin of "manual", name and description coincide. For V1 spans, this means copying the description to the name, and the reverse for V2 spans. Other spans behave as before.

For backfilling the name, the new logic is inserted just before the places we would create a name based on sentry-conventions.
For backfilling the description, there is a new processing step backfill_description that runs right after PII scrubbing. Unfortunately it can't simply be integrated into normalize_span because it's not safe to backfill the description before PII scrubbing—the description could end up containing a URL with PII, for example. Also, in the course of this, we move the (limited) functionality that existed for backfilling the description based on attributes out of write_legacy_attributes (where it was somewhat misplaced anyway) and centralize it in normalize_sentry_description.

Future work:

Flesh out description backfilling logic based on sentry-conventions
The concern about PII noted above also applies to the name backfilling that already exists. We'll have to find a solution for that.

Closes INGEST-955.

cursor · 2026-06-10T14:58:38Z

+        == Some("manual")
+    {
+        return name.value().cloned();
+    }


Manual origin skips query backfill

Medium Severity

derive_description_for_v2_span returns the span name whenever sentry.origin is "manual" before considering db.query.text or HTTP attributes. Child spans that inherit a manual trace origin but lack their own origin can keep a convention-derived name, so description backfill copies that label instead of the DB query or HTTP URL that used to be written via write_legacy_attributes.

Additional Locations (1)

relay-server/src/processing/transactions/spans.rs#L61-L64

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 61a998e. Configure here.}

I legitimately don't understand what this is trying to say.

I think it is trying to say "A child span might have name derived based on convention rules. Do we really want to use this derived name, instead of looking at DB__QUERY__TEXT etc., when the child span wasn't really manually instrumented (it just inherited manual)?"

linear-code · 2026-06-10T14:58:45Z

INGEST-955

cursor · 2026-06-10T15:27:11Z

+            continue;
+        };
+
+        attributes.insert(legacy_attribute, attr.value.clone());


Legacy action prefers DB over HTTP

Low Severity

In write_legacy_attributes, skipping when a legacy key already exists means sentry.action is filled from the first mapped conventional attribute and later mappings are ignored. When both db.operation.name and http.request.method are present, sentry.action stays on the DB value instead of being overwritten by the HTTP method as before.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 03de602. Configure here.}

The behavior for spans which have both db and http attributes (which should not happen in practice) was already arbitrary before, now it's arbitrary in the other direction.

cursor · 2026-06-10T15:27:11Z

+        .is_some_and(|attrs| attrs.contains_key(SENTRY__DESCRIPTION))
+    {
+        return;
+    }


Empty description blocks manual backfill

Medium Severity

normalize_sentry_description returns immediately when sentry.description is present, without treating an empty value as missing. For manual-origin spans with a non-empty name but an empty sentry.description attribute, description is never copied from name, so name and description can stay out of sync after processing.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 03de602. Configure here.}

It's intended that if someone manually sets a description it doesn't get clobbered by the name. This includes the case of an empty description.

cursor · 2026-06-10T15:27:11Z


+            if new_span.origin.value().is_none() {
+                new_span.origin = origin.clone();
+            }


Trace origin applied to child spans

Medium Severity

When extracting transaction child spans, missing span origin is filled from the trace context before V1→V2 conversion. If the trace origin is manual, children without their own origin inherit it and later use manual name/description rules instead of convention-based naming.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 03de602. Configure here.}

cursor · 2026-06-11T08:46:10Z

+            if new_span.origin.value().is_none() {
+                new_span.origin = origin.clone();
+            }
+


Transaction spans skip description backfill

Medium Severity

normalize_sentry_description runs only in the standalone span pipeline after PII scrubbing. Transaction-extracted spans are converted with span_v1_to_span_v2 and never get that step, so manual spans (including children that inherit trace manual origin) can keep a convention-inferred name while sentry.description stays unset.

Additional Locations (1)

relay-server/src/processing/spans/mod.rs#L205-L207

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 18d7a6f. Configure here.}

Backfilling the description from the name is not a concern for transaction-extracted spans, they need to worry about the converse.

cursor · 2026-06-11T10:53:27Z

+            eap::normalize_sentry_description(&mut span.attributes, &span.name);
+        }
+    });
+}


Manual spans desync after scrub

Medium Severity

For manual-origin spans, backfill_description skips when sentry.description already exists, but PII scrubbing runs immediately before it and can change that attribute. Top-level span.name is not updated to match, so name and description can diverge after the step meant to equalize them.

Additional Locations (1)

relay-spans/src/description.rs#L20-L27

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit e7c7306. Configure here.}

elramen · 2026-06-11T12:13:08Z

    Some(name_for_op_and_attributes(op, &AttributeGetter(attributes)))
 }

+fn name_for_origin_and_description(


Suggested change

fn name_for_origin_and_description(

fn name_from_origin_and_description(

cursor

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 1 potential issue.

There are 7 total unresolved issues (including 6 from previous reviews).

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^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 7dbff4a. Configure here.}

cursor · 2026-06-11T12:22:13Z

+        == Some("manual")
+    {
+        return name.value().cloned();
+    }


Manual backfill skips PII scrub

Medium Severity

For "manual" origin, backfill_description runs after PII scrub and sets sentry.description from the top-level span.name. That value is not taken from already-scrubbed attributes, and the new attribute is never run through scrub again—unlike DB/HTTP backfill paths that read scrubbed attribute data.

Additional Locations (1)

relay-server/src/processing/spans/process.rs#L205-L207

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 7dbff4a. Configure here.}

Dav1dde · 2026-06-11T19:23:14Z

        };

        process::scrub(&mut spans, ctx);
+        process::backfill_description(&mut spans);


Maybe process::normalize_derived or something similar?

Dav1dde · 2026-06-11T19:24:43Z

+        .value()
+        .is_some_and(|attrs| attrs.contains_key(SENTRY__DESCRIPTION))


This might need a check which doesn't just use value() but also considers meta, Empty trait might be able to do that for you.

Dav1dde · 2026-06-11T19:25:56Z

+    if attributes
+        .get_value(SENTRY__ORIGIN)
+        .and_then(|o| o.as_str())
+        == Some("manual")


This formatting is weird af

WIP

61a998e

loewenheim requested a review from a team as a code owner June 10, 2026 14:55

loewenheim self-assigned this Jun 10, 2026

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 10, 2026

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loewenheim added 2 commits June 10, 2026 16:59

doc comments

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changelog

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Simplify

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Comment thread relay-server/src/processing/spans/process.rs Outdated

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Comment thread relay-server/src/processing/spans/process.rs

Fix

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import

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feedback

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Dav1dde reviewed Jun 11, 2026

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	fn name_for_origin_and_description(
	fn name_from_origin_and_description(

		.value()
		.is_some_and(\|attrs\| attrs.contains_key(SENTRY__DESCRIPTION))

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loewenheim commented Jun 10, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Manual origin skips query backfill

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elramen Jun 11, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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linear-code Bot commented Jun 10, 2026

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Legacy action prefers DB over HTTP

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Empty description blocks manual backfill

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Trace origin applied to child spans

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Transaction spans skip description backfill

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Manual spans desync after scrub

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Manual backfill skips PII scrub

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loewenheim commented Jun 10, 2026 •

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elramen Jun 11, 2026 •

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