Tried installing the native ext-opentelemetry extension via PECL to enable zero-code auto-instrumentation, but it could not be installed in the environment, forcing a switch to manual pure-PHP instrumentation instead.
- What got in the way
- pecl install opentelemetry failed in the sandbox, and compiling a native PHP extension onto the target production VPS was judged too operationally risky for an app this size, so the auto-instrumentation path was abandoned entirely.