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.

linear-code · 2026-06-10T14:58:45Z

INGEST-955

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(

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.

You mean check if attrs contains SENTRY__DESCRIPTION with a nonempty value?

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

loewenheim · 2026-06-12T09:38:56Z

@Dav1dde I've refactored the functions that copy the description over somewhat in 9a7ba1a. They now properly take Annotated into account. Not sure if it's an improvement …

cursor

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

There are 4 total unresolved issues (including 3 from previous reviews).

^{❌ Bugbot Autofix is OFF. To automatically fix reported issues with cloud agents, enable autofix in the Cursor dashboard.}

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 9a7ba1a. Configure here.}

Dav1dde · 2026-06-12T09:51:36Z

Not sure if it's an improvement …

Why do you think it is not an improvement?

loewenheim · 2026-06-12T10:00:46Z

Why do you think it is not an improvement?

I mean, I believe it is in terms of correctness. But it does complicate the code a fair bit. Feels like we may be missing an abstraction for combining Annotateds.

Dav1dde · 2026-06-12T10:09:06Z

+    if let Some(Annotated(Some(Value::String(db_query)), meta)) =
+        attributes.get_annotated_value(DB__QUERY__TEXT)
+    {
+        return Some(Annotated(Some(db_query.clone()), meta.clone()));
+    }
+
+    if let Some(Annotated(Some(Value::String(method)), method_meta)) =
+        attributes.get_annotated_value(HTTP__REQUEST__METHOD)
+        && let Some(Annotated(Some(Value::String(url)), url_meta)) =
+            attributes.get_annotated_value(URL__FULL)
+    {
+        let description = format!("{method} {url}");
+        let meta = method_meta.clone().merge(url_meta.clone());
+        return Some(Annotated(Some(description), meta));
+    }


Instead of actually merging the meta, I think we're fine if we just don't. We've historically never marked data which we added, as that is non-destructive and generally obvious. User/SDK doesn't set it, must be added by the Server.

We could think about adding metadata from which fields we synthesized the description if we wanted, but I am not entirely sure if that's useful.

sentry · 2026-06-12T11:42:19Z

+    if let Some(&Value::String(db_query)) = attributes.get_value(DB__QUERY__TEXT).as_ref() {
+        return Some(db_query.clone());
+    }


Bug: Moving sentry.description population to after PII scrubbing bypasses custom scrubbing rules for that field, potentially leaking sensitive data from DB queries or URLs.
_{Severity: HIGH}

Suggested Fix

Ensure that derived span descriptions are generated before the PII scrubbing process runs. This would involve calling normalize_derived() before process::scrub(), restoring the previous behavior where custom PII rules targeting sentry.description can effectively remove sensitive information.

Prompt for AI Agent

Review the code at the location below. A potential bug has been identified by an AI agent. Verify if this is a real issue. If it is, propose a fix; if not, explain why it's not valid. Location: relay-spans/src/description.rs#L27-L29 Potential issue: For non-manual V2 spans, such as database or HTTP spans, the `sentry.description` attribute is now populated after PII scrubbing has already run. Previously, this attribute was populated before scrubbing, allowing custom PII rules targeting `sentry.description` to remove sensitive data like database query text or URL parameters. Because the attribute is now absent during the scrubbing process, these custom rules are no longer effective. This results in potentially sensitive information, which was previously scrubbed, being included in the `sentry.description` field.

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

View reviewed changes

Comment thread relay-spans/src/description.rs

loewenheim added 2 commits June 10, 2026 16:59

doc comments

5a42efc

changelog

03de602

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 10, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread relay-event-normalization/src/eap/mod.rs

Comment thread relay-event-normalization/src/eap/mod.rs

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

Simplify

01e0fff

sentry Bot reviewed Jun 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

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

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

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

Fix

18d7a6f

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

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

import

e7c7306

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

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

elramen reviewed Jun 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

feedback

7dbff4a

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread relay-spans/src/description.rs

Dav1dde reviewed Jun 11, 2026

View reviewed changes

backfill_description -> normalize_derived

3084fd3

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 12, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread relay-event-normalization/src/eap/mod.rs

sentry Bot reviewed Jun 12, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread relay-event-normalization/src/eap/mod.rs Outdated

Dav1dde reviewed Jun 12, 2026

View reviewed changes

Gentler refactor

14ab996

loewenheim force-pushed the sebastian/name-description-manual branch from 9a7ba1a to 14ab996 Compare June 12, 2026 11:35

sentry Bot reviewed Jun 12, 2026

View reviewed changes

Dav1dde approved these changes Jun 12, 2026

View reviewed changes

Merge branch 'master' into sebastian/name-description-manual

91bf9a6

loewenheim enabled auto-merge June 12, 2026 12:12

loewenheim added this pull request to the merge queue Jun 12, 2026

github-merge-queue Bot removed this pull request from the merge queue due to failed status checks Jun 12, 2026

loewenheim added this pull request to the merge queue Jun 12, 2026

github-merge-queue Bot removed this pull request from the merge queue due to failed status checks Jun 12, 2026

loewenheim added this pull request to the merge queue Jun 12, 2026

Merged via the queue into master with commit fa88a08 Jun 12, 2026
33 checks passed

loewenheim deleted the sebastian/name-description-manual branch June 12, 2026 14:50

	fn name_for_origin_and_description(
	fn name_from_origin_and_description(

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

Conversation

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

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

linear-code Bot commented Jun 10, 2026

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

elramen Jun 11, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

loewenheim Jun 11, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Dav1dde Jun 11, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Dav1dde Jun 11, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

loewenheim Jun 12, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Dav1dde Jun 11, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

loewenheim commented Jun 12, 2026

Uh oh!

cursor Bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Dav1dde commented Jun 12, 2026

Uh oh!

loewenheim commented Jun 12, 2026

Uh oh!

Dav1dde Jun 12, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

sentry Bot Jun 12, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

loewenheim commented Jun 10, 2026 •

edited

Loading