The Grafana Faro Web SDK can instrument frontend JavaScript applications to collect telemetry and forward it to the Grafana Alloy (with faro receiver integration enabled), to a Grafana Cloud instance or to a custom receiver. Grafana Alloy can then send this data to Loki or Tempo.
The repository consists of multiple packages that can be combined depending on your requirements. For a full reference instrumentation of a real-world app, see grafana/quickpizza — the canonical Frontend Observability demo, deployed live at quickpizza.grafana-dev.com and instrumented with the current Faro Web SDK, Web Tracing, and Session Replay packages.
Note
For more information, you can find the Faro documentation in the Grafana Cloud docs for Faro.
See quick start for web applications.
Contributing to the SDK? See local development for the three supported paths: the in-repo smoke harness, your own Grafana Cloud free-tier stack, or a local Alloy install.
Pull requests explains how pull requests work here, including the automation
that labels a pull request stale after 60 days without activity, closes it 14 days after that, and
how to keep one open.
@grafana/faro-core is the main package that provides the core functionality of the SDK. The README.md file provides an overview of the architecture and the API of library.
@grafana/faro-web-sdk provides instrumentations, metas and transports for use in web applications. See the README.md for more information.
@grafana/faro-web-tracing provides implementation for tracing web applications. See the README.md for more information.
@grafana/faro-react is a package that enables easier integration in projects built with React. See the README.md for more information.
The Faro Web SDK instruments web pages that run in a browser. During initialization, the SDK and most of its default
instrumentations read browser APIs such as window, document, PerformanceObserver and sessionStorage. JavaScript
that doesn't run in a typical web page context is outside the supported scope.
| Environment | Supported |
|---|---|
| Web applications that run in a browser | Yes |
| Client-side of server-rendered applications, such as Next.js and React SSR | Yes |
| Server runtime of server-rendered applications | No |
| Browser extensions | No |
| Web workers and service workers | No |
| Node.js, React Native, and other non-browser JavaScript environments | No |
Browser extensions come up often, so to be explicit, they are not supported. Some users have made Faro run inside an extension by supplying their own set of instrumentations. That configuration is unsupported and we do not accept issues for it.
For the reasoning behind each row, and for what to use instead when monitoring a server or a backend, see supported environments.
Faro releases follow the Semantic Versioning naming scheme: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.
-
MAJOR: Major releases include large new features which will significantly change how Faro operates and possible backwards-compatibility breaking changes. -
MINOR: these releases include new features which generally do not break backwards-compatibility. -
PATCH: patch releases include bug and security fixes which do not break backwards-compatibility.NOTE: Our goal is to provide regular releases that are as stable as possible, and we take backwards-compatibility seriously. As with any software, always read the release notes and the upgrade guide whenever choosing a new version of Faro to install.
This section is about the Node versions used to build, test and publish the SDK. Node.js is not a runtime that the SDK itself supports. See supported environments.
Faro supports all active LTS (Long Term Support) and current Node versions. When Node.js versions reach end-of-life, we remove them from our test matrix and add new versions as they are released. You can find a release schedule on nodejs.org
We’re excited to announce that Faro v2 is now available. This version modernizes Faro, simplifies setup, and removes legacy code, to give users a cleaner and better performing experience.
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Web Vitals v5 – Upgraded to v5 of Web Vitals library to remove FID metric and for improved performance.
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Cleaner Tracing APIs – Removed redundant/deprecated attributes.
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Simplified Setup – Simplified the console instrumentation configuration.
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Leaner Core – Deprecated packages and legacy internals were removed for improved stability.
Upgrading Guide v2 Upgrade Guide
Thanks to all contributors and early adopters for helping us shape Faro v2! 💙