Collectors and keys

A collector is how data reaches a project. It has its own key, speaks one protocol, and has its own settings for what it accepts, samples and keeps. Manage collectors under Settings > Projects and collectors, or create one step by step with Set up a collector.

Protocols

Protocol	Use it for	Connection details
Sentry compatible	Any Sentry SDK	A DSN
OpenTelemetry (OTLP)	An OpenTelemetry exporter	An endpoint and a bearer token
Bugtail native	HTTP without an SDK	An endpoint with the key in it

Use separate collectors when parts of your application need different settings, for example one for the server and one for the browser.

Keys

The key identifies the collector when data is sent. It is part of the DSN or the endpoint, and it can only send data, never read it. That makes it safe to ship in a browser bundle or a mobile app.

Rotate key replaces it immediately: applications still using the old key stop reporting until they get the new one. To switch without a gap, create a second collector, move your applications over, then delete the old one.

The upload secret is a second credential, needed only to upload source maps. It is shown once when you issue it. If it is lost, issue a new one; the old one stops working.

To read data from outside the dashboard, use an API token instead. Collector keys cannot read anything.

Intake

Setting	What it does
Sample rate	The share of events and log lines kept. 1 keeps everything, 0.1 keeps one in ten.
Rate limit per minute	Requests beyond this get 429 with a Retry-After header. Sentry SDKs wait and retry by themselves.
Max request bytes	Larger requests are refused with 413.
Accepting events	Turn it off to refuse everything sent to this collector without deleting it.

Sessions are never sampled, so crash-free rates stay accurate at any sample rate.

Tracing

Every trace that arrives is counted in the performance figures. These two settings decide which traces are also kept in full, so you can open their waterfall:

Setting	Default	What it does
Slow trace threshold	1000 ms	Traces slower than this are always kept.
Trace sample rate	0.05	The share of the other traces that is kept.

Failed traces are always kept. The traces sample rate in your SDK decides how much is sent at all; these settings decide how much of that is kept.

Storage and retention

Each collector decides where its payloads go and how long its data is kept. See Data and privacy.

Filtering

For browser applications, a collector can refuse errors from third-party scripts and requests from other sites. See Browser filtering.

Deleting a collector

Deleting a collector revokes its key immediately.