Sentry Reference Architecture

---
name: sentry-reference-architecture
description: 'Design production-grade Sentry architecture for multi-service organizations.

  Use when planning Sentry rollout, structuring projects across teams,

  building shared config modules, or setting up distributed tracing.

  Trigger: "sentry architecture", "sentry project structure",

  "sentry reference design", "sentry distributed tracing".

  '
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Bash(npm:*), Bash(npx:*), Glob, Grep
version: 1.51.0
license: MIT
author: Jeremy Longshore <jeremy@intentsolutions.io>
tags:
- saas
- sentry
- architecture
- enterprise
- distributed-tracing
- microservices
compatibility: Designed for Claude Code
---
# Sentry Reference Architecture

## Overview

Enterprise Sentry architecture patterns for multi-service organizations. Covers centralized configuration, project topology, team-based alert routing, distributed tracing, error middleware, source map management, and a production-ready SentryService wrapper.

## Prerequisites

- Sentry organization at [sentry.io](https://sentry.io) (Business plan+ for team features)
- `@sentry/node` v8+ installed (`npm install @sentry/node @sentry/profiling-node`)
- Service inventory and team ownership documented
- Node.js 18+ (ESM and native fetch instrumentation)

## Instructions

### Step 1 — Project Structure Strategy

**Pattern A: One Project Per Service (3+ services, recommended)**

```
Organization: acme-corp
├── Team: platform-eng
│   ├── Project: api-gateway       (Node/Express)
│   ├── Project: auth-service      (Node/Fastify)
│   └── Project: user-service      (Node/Express)
├── Team: payments
│   ├── Project: payment-api       (Node/Express)
│   └── Project: billing-worker    (Node worker)
└── Team: frontend
    ├── Project: web-app           (React/Next.js)
    └── Project: mobile-app        (React Native)
```

Benefits: independent quotas, team-scoped alerts, per-service rate limits, isolated release tracking.

**Pattern B: Shared Project (< 3 services, single team)** — one project with `Environment` tags (production/staging/dev). Simpler setup; outgrow when alert noise exceeds one team.

### Step 2 — Centralized Config Module

Create `lib/sentry.ts` imported by every service to enforce org-wide defaults:

```typescript
// lib/sentry.ts
import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
import { nodeProfilingIntegration } from '@sentry/profiling-node';

export interface SentryServiceConfig {
  serviceName: string;
  dsn: string;
  environment?: string;
  version?: string;
  tracesSampleRate?: number;
  ignoredTransactions?: string[];
}

export function initSentry(config: SentryServiceConfig): void {
  const env = config.environment || process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development';
  Sentry.init({
    dsn: config.dsn,
    environment: env,
    release: `${config.serviceName}@${config.version || 'unknown'}`,
    serverName: config.serviceName,
    tracesSampleRate: config.tracesSampleRate ?? (env === 'production' ? 0.1 : 1.0),
    sendDefaultPii: false,
    maxBreadcrumbs: 50,
    integrations: [nodeProfilingIntegration()],
    ignoreErrors: [
      'ResizeObserver loop completed with undelivered notifications',
      /Loading chunk \d+ failed/,
      'AbortError',
    ],
    tracesSampler: ({ name, parentSampled }) => {
      if (parentSampled !== undefined) return parentSampled;
      const ignored = config.ignoredTransactions || [
        'GET /health', 'GET /healthz', 'GET /ready', 'GET /metrics',
      ];
      if (ignored.some(p => name.includes(p))) return 0;
      return config.tracesSampleRate ?? (env === 'production' ? 0.1 : 1.0);
    },
    beforeSend(event) {
      if (event.request?.headers) {
        delete event.request.headers['authorization'];
        delete event.request.headers['cookie'];
        delete event.request.headers['x-api-key'];
      }
      return event;
    },
    initialScope: {
      tags: { service: config.serviceName, team: process.env.TEAM_NAME || 'unassigned' },
    },
  });
}
export { Sentry };
```

Bootstrap in each service:

```typescript
import { initSentry } from '@acme/sentry-config';
initSentry({ serviceName: 'api-gateway', dsn: process.env.SENTRY_DSN! });
// Must run BEFORE other imports that need instrumentation
```

### Step 3 — Error Handling Middleware

**Express:**

```typescript
// lib/sentry-middleware.ts
import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
import type { Request, Response, NextFunction, ErrorRequestHandler } from 'express';

export function sentryRequestHandler() {
  return (req: Request, _res: Response, next: NextFunction): void => {
    Sentry.setTag('http.route', req.route?.path || req.path);
    if (req.user) Sentry.setUser({ id: req.user.id });
    next();
  };
}

export const sentryErrorHandler: ErrorRequestHandler = (err, req, res, _next) => {
  const status = (err as any).statusCode || 500;
  Sentry.withScope((scope) => {
    scope.setLevel(status >= 500 ? 'error' : 'warning');
    scope.setTag('http.status_code', String(status));
    scope.setContext('request', { method: req.method, url: req.originalUrl });
    status >= 500 ? Sentry.captureException(err) : Sentry.captureMessage(err.message, 'warning');
  });
  res.status(status).json({ error: status >= 500 ? 'Internal server error' : err.message });
};
// Wire: app.use(sentryRequestHandler()) → routes → app.use(sentryErrorHandler)
```

**FastAPI (Python):**

```python
import sentry_sdk, os
from sentry_sdk.integrations.fastapi import FastApiIntegration

def init_sentry(service_name: str) -> None:
    sentry_sdk.init(
        dsn=os.environ["SENTRY_DSN"],
        environment=os.getenv("ENV", "development"),
        release=f"{service_name}@{os.getenv('SERVICE_VERSION', 'unknown')}",
        traces_sample_rate=0.1,
        send_default_pii=False,
        integrations=[FastApiIntegration(transaction_style="endpoint")],
        before_send=lambda event, hint: _scrub(event),
    )

def _scrub(event):
    headers = event.get("request", {}).get("headers", {})
    for k in ["authorization", "cookie", "x-api-key"]:
        headers.pop(k, None)
    return event
```

### Step 4 — Distributed Tracing

**HTTP (automatic):** SDK v8 auto-propagates `sentry-trace` + `baggage` headers on fetch/http. All services in the same org link automatically.

**Message queues (manual propagation):**

```typescript
// lib/sentry-queue.ts
import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';

export function publishWithTrace<T>(queue: string, payload: T, publish: Function) {
  return Sentry.startSpan({ name: `queue.publish.${queue}`, op: 'queue.publish' }, async () => {
    const headers: Record<string, string> = {};
    const span = Sentry.getActiveSpan();
    if (span) {
      headers['sentry-trace'] = Sentry.spanToTraceHeader(span);
      headers['baggage'] = Sentry.spanToBaggageHeader(span) || '';
    }
    await publish(queue, { payload, headers });
  });
}

export function consumeWithTrace<T>(queue: string, msg: { payload: T; headers: Record<string, string> }, handler: (p: T) => Promise<void>) {
  return Sentry.continueTrace(
    { sentryTrace: msg.headers['sentry-trace'], baggage: msg.headers['baggage'] },
    () => Sentry.startSpan({ name: `queue.process.${queue}`, op: 'queue.process' }, () => handler(msg.payload))
  );
}
```

### Step 5 — Team-Based Alert Routing

Configure in **Project Settings > Ownership Rules**:

```bash
# .sentry/ownership-rules
path:src/payments/**     #payments-team
path:src/auth/**         #platform-team
url:*/api/v1/payments/*  #payments-team
tags.service:payment-api #payments-team
*                        #platform-team
```

**Alert tiers:**

- **P0 Critical:** error rate > 50/min OR crash-free < 95% — PagerDuty on-call, 15 min SLA
- **P1 Warning:** new production issue or regression — Slack #alerts-prod, same-day SLA
- **P2 Performance:** P95 > 2s or Apdex < 0.7 — Slack #alerts-perf, next sprint
- **P3 Info:** new staging issue — Slack #alerts-staging, backlog triage

### Step 6 — Source Map Uploads (Monorepo)

```bash
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# scripts/upload-sourcemaps.sh — run in CI after build
set -euo pipefail
SERVICE="${1:?Usage: upload-sourcemaps.sh <service>}"
RELEASE="${SERVICE}@$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"

npx @sentry/cli releases new "$RELEASE" --org "$SENTRY_ORG" --project "$SERVICE"
npx @sentry/cli sourcemaps upload --org "$SENTRY_ORG" --project "$SERVICE" \
  --release "$RELEASE" --url-prefix "~/" --validate "./services/${SERVICE}/dist/"
npx @sentry/cli releases set-commits "$RELEASE" --org "$SENTRY_ORG" --auto
npx @sentry/cli releases finalize "$RELEASE" --org "$SENTRY_ORG"
```

Webpack plugin alternative (auto-uploads on build):

```typescript
import { sentryWebpackPlugin } from '@sentry/webpack-plugin';
export default {
  devtool: 'source-map',
  plugins: [sentryWebpackPlugin({
    org: process.env.SENTRY_ORG,
    project: 'web-app',
    authToken: process.env.SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN,
    sourcemaps: { filesToDeleteAfterUpload: ['./dist/**/*.map'] },
  })],
};
```

### Step 7 — Custom Integrations

Wrap internal SDK calls with spans for tracing visibility:

```typescript
import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
export function withSpan<T>(op: string, desc: string, fn: () => Promise<T>, attrs?: Record<string, string | number>): Promise<T> {
  return Sentry.startSpan({ name: desc, op, attributes: attrs }, async (span) => {
    try { const r = await fn(); span.setStatus({ code: 1, message: 'ok' }); return r; }
    catch (e) { span.setStatus({ code: 2, message: String(e) }); throw e; }
  });
}
// Usage: await withSpan('payment.charge', 'charge $50', () => gateway.charge(5000, 'usd', custId));
```

### Step 8 — SentryService Wrapper

Production wrapper with singleton, metrics, and graceful shutdown:

```typescript
// lib/sentry-service.ts
import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';

export class SentryService {
  private static instance: SentryService | null = null;
  private initialized = false;

  private constructor(private config: { serviceName: string; dsn: string; version?: string }) {}

  static getInstance(config?: { serviceName: string; dsn: string; version?: string }): SentryService {
    if (!SentryService.instance) {
      if (!config) throw new Error('Config required on first call');
      SentryService.instance = new SentryService(config);
    }
    return SentryService.instance;
  }

  init(): void {
    if (this.initialized) return;
    const { initSentry } = require('./sentry');
    initSentry(this.config);
    this.initialized = true;
  }

  captureError(error: Error, ctx?: { tags?: Record<string, string>; extra?: Record<string, unknown>; level?: Sentry.SeverityLevel }): string {
    return Sentry.withScope((scope) => {
      if (ctx?.tags) Object.entries(ctx.tags).forEach(([k, v]) => scope.setTag(k, v));
      if (ctx?.extra) Object.entries(ctx.extra).forEach(([k, v]) => scope.setExtra(k, v));
      if (ctx?.level) scope.setLevel(ctx.level);
      return Sentry.captureException(error);
    });
  }

  async trackOperation<T>(name: string, op: string, fn: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
    return Sentry.startSpan({ name, op }, async (span) => {
      try { const r = await fn(); span.setStatus({ code: 1, message: 'ok' }); return r; }
      catch (e) { span.setStatus({ code: 2, message: String(e) }); Sentry.captureException(e); throw e; }
    });
  }

  async shutdown(timeoutMs = 5000): Promise<void> {
    await Sentry.close(timeoutMs);
    SentryService.instance = null;
    this.initialized = false;
  }
}
```

### Step 9 — Health Check Exclusion

Define health routes BEFORE Sentry middleware so they never create transactions:

```typescript
app.get('/health', (_req, res) => res.status(200).json({ status: 'ok' }));
app.get('/readiness', async (_req, res) => {
  const dbOk = await checkDatabase();
  res.status(dbOk ? 200 : 503).json({ db: dbOk });
});
// Combined with tracesSampler (Step 2) dropping /health, /ready, /metrics
```

## Output

- Centralized `lib/sentry.ts` enforcing PII scrubbing, sample rates, and noise filters across all services
- Project-per-service topology with team ownership, independent quotas, and per-service releases
- Error middleware for Express and FastAPI with severity-based capture
- Distributed tracing across HTTP (automatic) and message queues (manual propagation helpers)
- Team-based alert routing with 4-tier escalation (P0-P3)
- Source map pipeline with CLI and Webpack plugin for monorepo builds
- SentryService singleton with custom metrics and graceful shutdown

## Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Solution |
|-------|-------|----------|
| Traces not linking cross-service | Missing trace headers in non-HTTP transport | Use `publishWithTrace`/`consumeWithTrace` for queues |
| `init() called multiple times` | Multiple imports | Use SentryService singleton (idempotent init) |
| Source maps not resolving | Wrong `url-prefix` | Use `--url-prefix "~/"` and `--validate` flag |
| Alerts routing to wrong team | Ownership rules mismatch | Verify `path:` rules match source tree; add `tags.service:` fallback |
| Health checks consuming quota | Probes hitting instrumented routes | Define health routes before middleware; use `tracesSampler` |
| PII leaking | Missing `beforeSend` scrubbing | Enforce `sendDefaultPii: false` + header deletion in shared config |

## Examples

**Bootstrap a service (3 lines):**

```typescript
import { SentryService } from '@acme/sentry-config';
const sentry = SentryService.getInstance({ serviceName: 'user-service', dsn: process.env.SENTRY_DSN! });
sentry.init();
```

**Capture with business context:**

```typescript
sentry.captureError(err, {
  tags: { 'payment.provider': 'stripe' },
  extra: { orderId: order.id, amount: order.total },
  level: 'error',
});
```

**Track an operation:**

```typescript
const result = await sentry.trackOperation('order.fulfillment', 'business.process', () => fulfillOrder(id));
```

## Resources

- [Sentry Node.js SDK v8](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/javascript/guides/node/)
- [Distributed Tracing](https://docs.sentry.io/product/performance/distributed-tracing/)
- [Ownership Rules](https://docs.sentry.io/product/issues/ownership-rules/)
- [Source Maps CLI](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/javascript/sourcemaps/uploading/cli/)
- [Alerting Best Practices](https://docs.sentry.io/product/alerts/best-practices/)
- [Sentry Webpack Plugin](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@sentry/webpack-plugin)

## Next Steps

1. Roll out incrementally — start with one high-traffic service, validate traces and alerts, then onboard remaining services
2. Set up Sentry Crons for scheduled job monitoring (ETL, billing workers)
3. Enable Session Replay (`@sentry/browser`) for frontend error-to-session correlation
4. Define per-project quota budgets to prevent one noisy service from exhausting org quota
5. Build Discover dashboards for cross-service error trends (`count() by service, level`)