Sending MCP logs to New Relic

Why Forward MCP Logs to an Observability Platform?

MCP Manager logs every request that passes through your gateways — which tool was called, who called it, which server handled it, how long it took, and how many tokens were consumed. These logs are available in MCP Manager's built-in logging UI, but many organizations want to centralize them alongside the rest of their infrastructure telemetry in a dedicated observability platform.

MCP Manager supports this through its OpenTelemetry (OTEL) collector integration. OpenTelemetry is an open standard for collecting and exporting telemetry data — traces, metrics, and logs — to any compatible backend. By connecting MCP Manager to an OTEL-compatible platform, you can correlate your AI tool usage with the rest of your operational data, build custom dashboards, set up alerts, and maintain a single audit trail across your entire stack.

Why New Relic?

New Relic is a full-stack observability platform that supports native OTLP (OpenTelemetry Protocol) ingestion. This means you can send MCP Manager logs directly to New Relic without running your own collector or proxy — New Relic's OTLP endpoint accepts logs over standard HTTPS.

Once your MCP Manager logs are in New Relic, you can query them with NRQL (New Relic's query language), build dashboards that combine MCP usage data with your application metrics, set up alert conditions for unusual tool call patterns, and share visibility across your engineering and security teams.

What You'll Need

• A New Relic account. If you don't have one, you can sign up for free.
• A New Relic License ingest key — this is the API key used to send data into New Relic.
• Admin access to MCP Manager with permission to configure logging integrations.

Step 1: Generate a License Ingest Key in New Relic

MCP Manager authenticates with New Relic using a License key (also called an ingest key). This is separate from a User key — License keys are specifically for sending data into New Relic, not for querying or configuring the platform.

1. Log in to your New Relic account at one.newrelic.com.
2. Navigate to the API Keys page. You can get there via the user menu in the bottom-left corner, or go directly to one.newrelic.com/api-keys.
3. Click Create a key.
4. For Key type, select Ingest - License.
5. Give the key a descriptive name (e.g., "MCP Manager OTEL Logs").
6. Select the Account this key should be tied to.
7. Click Create a key.
8. Copy the full key immediately. New Relic only shows the complete key once at creation time — after that, only the first 8 characters are visible in the UI. If you lose it, you'll need to create a new one.

Step 2: Determine Your Collector URL

New Relic exposes OTLP endpoints in different regions. Choose the one that matches your New Relic account's data region:

A few important details about this URL:

• Port 4318 is the standard OTLP/HTTP port. New Relic also accepts traffic on ports 443 and 4317, but 4318 is the recommended HTTP port.
• The /v1/logs path is required. MCP Manager sends to the URL exactly as entered — it does not append any path segments automatically.
• If you're unsure which region your account is in, check your New Relic URL: if it starts with one.newrelic.com, you're on US. If it starts with one.eu.newrelic.com, you're on EU.

Step 3: Connect MCP Manager to New Relic

1. In MCP Manager, navigate to Settings → Logging → Integrations.
2. Find the OpenTelemetry collector panel.

3. In the Collector URL field, enter your New Relic OTLP endpoint from Step 2. For US accounts:

   https://otlp.nr-data.net:4318/v1/logs

4. In the Request headers field, enter your License ingest key from Step 1. Add the required header fields and values. Paste the key value directly — New Relic expects the raw key, not a Bearer or Basic prefix:

   Header field name = api-key
   Header field value = your-license-ingest-key-here

5. Click Connect collector (or Save if editing an existing configuration).

A Connected pill will appear once the configuration is saved. However, this only confirms the configuration was stored — it does not confirm that logs are successfully reaching New Relic. Follow Step 4 to verify.

Step 4: Verify Logs Are Flowing

1. Trigger an MCP call. From a connected AI client (Claude, Cursor, etc.), make any tool call through a gateway. A simple tools/list call is enough.
2. Check for alerts in MCP Manager. Navigate to the Alerts tab. If there's a delivery problem, you'll see an alert titled "Failed to export telemetry logs to OTEL collector" with the HTTP status code. Common issues:
   • 401 Unauthorized — The License key is incorrect or expired.
   • 403 Forbidden — The key may be a User key instead of a License ingest key.
   • 404 Not Found — The URL path is wrong (missing /v1/logs).
3. Check in MCP Manager. The OpenTelemetry panel shows a Filter your logs by section with the service.name and service.version values MCP Manager is sending. Note these values — you'll use them to find your logs in New Relic.

Step 5: Find Your Logs in New Relic

Once logs are flowing, you can find them in New Relic's log management interface.

1. In New Relic, navigate to Logs in the left sidebar (under All Capabilities if it's not pinned).

2. In the query bar, filter by the service name that MCP Manager is sending. Use an NRQL query like:

   SELECT * FROM Log SINCE 30 minutes ago

3. You should see log records for each MCP request — including proxy_request_success and proxy_response_success entries with detailed metadata about each tool call.

From here, you can build dashboards, set up alert conditions, and query your MCP usage data alongside the rest of your New Relic telemetry.

Troubleshooting

I see "Connected" in MCP Manager but no logs appear in New Relic

• Check the Alerts tab in MCP Manager first. If exports are failing, an alert will appear with the HTTP status code.
• Make sure you triggered an actual MCP call after saving the configuration. The "Connected" pill only confirms the config was saved — logs are only generated when requests flow through a gateway.
• Verify you're looking in the right place in New Relic. MCP Manager sends logs, not metrics or traces. Navigate to Logs in the left sidebar, not APM or Infrastructure.
• There may be a short delay (up to a few minutes) before logs appear in New Relic's query interface.

Export is failing with 401 or 403

• Verify you're using a License (ingest) key, not a User key. License keys are for data ingestion; User keys are for NerdGraph API access.
• Confirm the key is for the correct New Relic account. If you have multiple accounts, make sure the key belongs to the account where you want logs to appear.
• Check whether the key has been revoked. In New Relic, navigate to the API Keys page and verify the key is active.

Export is failing with 404

• The most common cause is a missing /v1/logs path. MCP Manager does not append any path segments — the URL you enter is the exact URL that receives the request.
• Double-check the endpoint hostname. For US accounts: otlp.nr-data.net. For EU accounts: otlp.eu01.nr-data.net.

How do I test the connection manually?

From any machine with outbound HTTPS access, you can test connectivity with:

curl -v -X POST "https://otlp.nr-data.net:4318/v1/logs" \
  -H "api-key: <your-license-key>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}'

A 400 Bad Request response with a JSON error about invalid payload format means the URL and authentication are both correct — New Relic just rejected the empty test body. This confirms MCP Manager would be able to reach the endpoint successfully.

Additional Resources

• Forwarding MCP Logs to Your OpenTelemetry Collector — MCP Manager's general OTEL integration guide, covering setup for any OTLP-compatible backend, advanced troubleshooting, and FAQ.
• New Relic OTLP Endpoint Documentation — New Relic's official reference for OTLP configuration, including endpoint URLs, protocol options, attribute limits, and payload requirements.
• New Relic API Keys — How to create and manage License keys, User keys, and other API credentials in New Relic.