celery: allow using links instead of child spans for task execution

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
   ([#3676](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/pull/3676))
 - `opentelemetry-instrumentation-dbapi`: Adds sqlcommenter to documentation.
   ([#3720](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/pull/3720))
+- `opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery`: Add `use_span_links` parameter to allow creating span links instead of parent-child relationships between task creation and execution spans.
+  ([#3002](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/issues/3002))
 
 ## Version 1.37.0/0.58b0 (2025-09-11)
 

instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/celery/__init__.py

@@ -47,6 +47,16 @@ def add(x, y):
 
     add.delay(42, 50)
 
+Configuration
+-------------
+
+The ``CeleryInstrumentor().instrument()`` method accepts the following arguments:
+
+* ``use_span_links`` (bool): When ``True``, Celery task execution spans will be linked to the
+  task creation spans instead of being created as child spans. This provides a looser
+  coupling between spans in distributed systems. Defaults to ``False`` to maintain
+  backward compatibility.
+
 Setting up tracing
 ------------------
 
@@ -122,6 +132,7 @@ def instrumentation_dependencies(self) -> Collection[str]:
 
     def _instrument(self, **kwargs):
         tracer_provider = kwargs.get("tracer_provider")
+        use_span_links = kwargs.get("use_span_links", False)
 
         # pylint: disable=attribute-defined-outside-init
         self._tracer = trace.get_tracer(
@@ -130,6 +141,8 @@ def _instrument(self, **kwargs):
             tracer_provider,
             schema_url="https://opentelemetry.io/schemas/1.11.0",
         )
+        # pylint: disable=attribute-defined-outside-init
+        self._use_span_links = use_span_links
 
         meter_provider = kwargs.get("meter_provider")
         meter = get_meter(
@@ -170,14 +183,32 @@ def _trace_prerun(self, *args, **kwargs):
         self.update_task_duration_time(task_id)
         request = task.request
         tracectx = extract(request, getter=celery_getter) or None
-        token = context_api.attach(tracectx) if tracectx is not None else None
 
         logger.debug("prerun signal start task_id=%s", task_id)
 
         operation_name = f"{_TASK_RUN}/{task.name}"
-        span = self._tracer.start_span(
-            operation_name, context=tracectx, kind=trace.SpanKind.CONSUMER
-        )
+
+        if self._use_span_links and tracectx is not None:
+            parent_span_context = trace.get_current_span(
+                tracectx
+            ).get_span_context()
+            links = (
+                [trace.Link(parent_span_context)]
+                if parent_span_context.is_valid
+                else None
+            )
+            span = self._tracer.start_span(
+                operation_name, links=links, kind=trace.SpanKind.CONSUMER
+            )
+            # Don't attach the context when using links to avoid parent-child relationship
+            token = None
+        else:
+            token = (
+                context_api.attach(tracectx) if tracectx is not None else None
+            )
+            span = self._tracer.start_span(
+                operation_name, context=tracectx, kind=trace.SpanKind.CONSUMER
+            )
 
         activation = trace.use_span(span, end_on_exit=True)
         activation.__enter__()  # pylint: disable=E1101

instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery/tests/test_tasks.py

@@ -222,6 +222,63 @@ def _retrieve_context_wrapper_none_token(
 
         unwrap(utils, "retrieve_context")
 
+    def test_task_use_span_links(self):
+        CeleryInstrumentor().instrument(use_span_links=True)
+
+        result = task_add.delay(1, 2)
+
+        timeout = time.time() + 60 * 1  # 1 minute from now
+        while not result.ready():
+            if time.time() > timeout:
+                break
+            time.sleep(0.05)
+
+        spans = self.sorted_spans(self.memory_exporter.get_finished_spans())
+        self.assertEqual(len(spans), 2)
+
+        consumer, producer = spans
+
+        self.assertEqual(consumer.name, "run/tests.celery_test_tasks.task_add")
+        self.assertEqual(consumer.kind, SpanKind.CONSUMER)
+        self.assertSpanHasAttributes(
+            consumer,
+            {
+                "celery.action": "run",
+                "celery.state": "SUCCESS",
+                SpanAttributes.MESSAGING_DESTINATION: "celery",
+                "celery.task_name": "tests.celery_test_tasks.task_add",
+            },
+        )
+
+        self.assertEqual(consumer.status.status_code, StatusCode.UNSET)
+        self.assertEqual(0, len(consumer.events))
+
+        self.assertEqual(
+            producer.name, "apply_async/tests.celery_test_tasks.task_add"
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(producer.kind, SpanKind.PRODUCER)
+        self.assertSpanHasAttributes(
+            producer,
+            {
+                "celery.action": "apply_async",
+                "celery.task_name": "tests.celery_test_tasks.task_add",
+                SpanAttributes.MESSAGING_DESTINATION_KIND: "queue",
+                SpanAttributes.MESSAGING_DESTINATION: "celery",
+            },
+        )
+
+        # Verify that consumer span is not a child of producer span when using links
+        self.assertIsNone(consumer.parent)
+        self.assertNotEqual(
+            consumer.context.trace_id, producer.context.trace_id
+        )
+
+        # Verify that consumer span has a link to the producer span
+        self.assertEqual(len(consumer.links), 1)
+        link = consumer.links[0]
+        self.assertEqual(link.context.span_id, producer.context.span_id)
+        self.assertEqual(link.context.trace_id, producer.context.trace_id)
+
 
 class TestCelerySignatureTask(TestBase):
     def setUp(self):