To observe every outgoing HTTP call in a Laravel application, first identify every client that sends it. Laravel’s Http client offers middleware and lifecycle events; separately constructed Guzzle clients and SDK-owned clients need instrumentation in their own Guzzle stacks. Then decide whether you need diagnostic logs, aggregate metrics, distributed traces—or all three—and validate coverage for responses, connection failures, retries, and concurrent requests.
Start by defining what “every request” means
Laravel’s Http facade uses Guzzle and provides Laravel-specific middleware, events, and request options. Those hooks apply to calls made through Laravel’s HTTP client; they do not establish coverage for every HTTP connection in the process.
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Inventory the application’s outbound paths before choosing an instrumentation point:
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Httpfacade. - Code that constructs
GuzzleHttpClientdirectly. - SDKs or packages that create and manage their own HTTP clients.
Laravel’s middleware and events are suitable for the first category. For direct Guzzle clients, add instrumentation to each client’s handler stack or use a compatible automatic instrumentation package. Verify SDK behavior rather than assuming it shares Laravel’s client.
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Choose an instrumentation layer
| Approach | Coverage | Best suited to | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laravel HTTP middleware | Requests made through Laravel’s HTTP client | Adding request- or response-level behavior to one request or broadly to Laravel HTTP calls | Does not by itself cover separately constructed Guzzle clients. |
| Laravel HTTP lifecycle events | Lifecycle events for requests made through Laravel’s HTTP client | Centralized handling of send, response, and connection-failure events | Events provide lifecycle context; a safe duration measurement still needs request-scoped timing and correlation. |
| Guzzle middleware | Requests using the instrumented Guzzle handler stack | Direct Guzzle clients and clients not using Laravel’s HTTP facade | Each relevant client must use the instrumented stack. Preserve middleware required by options such as cookies or redirects. |
| Laravel Telescope HTTP Client Watcher | Outgoing requests recorded by the watcher for Laravel’s HTTP client | Request inspection and debugging | It is not, on its own, a complete metrics or tracing design. |
| OpenTelemetry instrumentation | Depends on the selected instrumentation packages and configured clients | Connecting outbound calls to traces and exporting telemetry | Confirm package compatibility, propagation, and exporter setup for the application’s actual versions. |
Laravel middleware for HTTP client calls
Laravel documents withRequestMiddleware and withResponseMiddleware for middleware attached to an individual request. Use these when instrumentation should apply only to a specific integration or call. For application-wide behavior, Laravel documents globalRequestMiddleware and globalResponseMiddleware; these are typically registered during AppServiceProvider boot. Check the HTTP Client documentation for the Laravel version installed in the application, because APIs and behavior are version-sensitive.
Request middleware can observe or annotate an outgoing request, while response middleware can inspect the returned response. Keep this work focused: avoid copying full bodies or sensitive headers into logs merely because middleware can access them.
Laravel lifecycle events for outcomes
Laravel’s HTTP Client documentation says: “The RequestSending event is fired prior to a request being sent, while the ResponseReceived event is fired after a response is received for a given request.” It also documents ConnectionFailed for a request that receives no response. These distinctions let event listeners represent a send, a completed exchange, and a transport failure instead of treating every request as a response.
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Guzzle middleware for direct clients
Guzzle middleware wraps a handler and can inspect a request and the result returned by the downstream handler. Install it in the handler stack used by the client you want to instrument. Guzzle’s middleware documentation warns that request options relying on middleware will not work if their supporting middleware is missing. When customizing a stack, preserve the defaults required by the client’s options, including options for cookies or redirects.
Guzzle also documents the on_stats request option for transfer statistics. Check the documentation for the Guzzle version actually installed before relying on particular transfer details or implementation behavior. Whichever hook you use, associate timing data with the specific request rather than storing one mutable start time globally.
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Decide what each telemetry signal should answer
Logs: what happened on this call?
Logs are useful for investigating an individual exchange or failure. A compact record can include the HTTP method, a normalized service or host name, a route template when available, response status or failure category, elapsed time, retry attempt, and a correlation or trace identifier. Include only the fields needed for diagnosis, and define redaction before enabling broad capture.
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Metrics: how are calls behaving over time?
Metrics summarize counts and latency distributions across calls. Use bounded labels such as service, method, and outcome rather than full URLs, arbitrary query strings, or identifiers embedded in paths. High-cardinality labels can make a metrics system expensive or difficult to operate. The documentation establishes instrumentation hooks, not a universal metric schema; choose labels and duration buckets to fit the application and its monitoring system.
Traces: what work led to this outbound call?
Distributed traces connect an outbound request to the operation that triggered it and, when context is propagated, to downstream work. OpenTelemetry PHP documents traces, metrics, and logs as stable components. Its PHP propagation documentation describes automatic W3C Trace Context propagation by outgoing HTTP instrumentation packages. That does not mean Laravel and Guzzle automatically produce or export telemetry: select compatible instrumentation and exporters, configure them, and verify an actual outbound request in the target runtime. The OpenTelemetry Laravel quickstart is a project example with version-specific dependency notes, not a compatibility guarantee for every deployment.
Measure duration safely across failures, retries, and concurrency
A send event and a response event mark lifecycle points, but recording a duration requires a timer tied to the particular request. A single shared start-time variable can associate the wrong time with a request when calls overlap. Keep timing state scoped to each request or use transport statistics that belong to that transfer.
Represent retries explicitly. One logical operation can generate multiple network attempts, so record attempts distinctly when the instrumentation layer exposes them. Otherwise a successful final response can hide earlier failures, and aggregate counts may not match the number of actual transfers. Decide whether your metric represents individual attempts or completed logical operations, and keep that definition consistent.
Keep sensitive data out of telemetry by default
Authorization headers, cookies, query parameters, and request or response bodies can contain credentials or private data. Do not log them wholesale by default. Prefer a normalized host or service name over a complete URL, omit payloads unless there is a specific need, and explicitly mask or exclude sensitive fields in every logging or export path. Confirm the behavior of your own handlers, packages, and storage configuration; access to a request object is not evidence that its contents are automatically redacted.
Use Telescope for inspection, not as the whole observability plan
Laravel Telescope includes an HTTP Client Watcher that records outgoing HTTP client requests, which can help inspect calls during debugging. Its documented recording function does not establish complete metrics or tracing coverage, nor does it determine whether Telescope is appropriate for a particular production environment. Evaluate retention, storage, access controls, and configuration for your application before relying on it beyond development workflows.
Validate coverage before calling it complete
Test the instrumentation in a controlled environment using Laravel’s HTTP client testing features, including request fakes and response inspection, and prevent stray real requests where appropriate. Confirm that the observed records match the client paths your inventory identified.
- A successful response produces the expected request and response records.
- An HTTP error response is recorded as a response with its status, not misclassified as a connection failure.
- A connection failure is represented even though no response was received.
- A retry produces records that match your chosen attempt-counting definition.
- Sensitive headers, query values, and bodies are absent or correctly redacted.
- Concurrent calls retain their own timing and correlation context.
- Metric labels remain bounded and avoid unique URLs or identifiers.
- Direct Guzzle clients and SDK-owned clients are covered by their own configured stacks or verified instrumentation.
- Trace context reaches the outbound request when propagation is expected, and telemetry reaches the intended exporter.
Review Laravel, Guzzle, PHP, and instrumentation package versions together. Hook names, handler behavior, automatic instrumentation, and exporter configuration can vary by version and deployment; confirm them against the documentation for the versions in use.
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