Use this skill when you need instrument browser/web apps with the Application Insights JavaScript SDK (@microsoft/applicationinsights-web). Use for Real User Monitoring (RUM) — page views, clicks, AJAX/fetch dependencies, exceptions, custom events, and browser-side GenAI agent traces correlated to backend...
Real User Monitoring (RUM) for browser apps with @microsoft/applicationinsights-web. Auto-collects page views, AJAX/fetch dependencies, unhandled exceptions, and (with the Click Analytics plugin) clicks. Supports custom events, metrics, and GenAI agent traces that follow OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic conventions and correlate to backend spans via W3C Trace Context.
Distinct from
azure-monitor-opentelemetry-ts, which is for Node.js server apps. This skill is for browser/web code (and React Native).
Search microsoft-docs MCP for current API patterns:
npm view @microsoft/applicationinsights-web version
| Package | Purpose |
|---|---|
@microsoft/applicationinsights-web |
Core RUM SDK (page views, AJAX, exceptions). |
@microsoft/applicationinsights-clickanalytics-js |
Auto-collect click telemetry. |
@microsoft/applicationinsights-react-js |
React plugin (router instrumentation, hooks, HOC, ErrorBoundary). |
@microsoft/applicationinsights-react-native |
React Native plugin (native crashes, sessions). |
@microsoft/applicationinsights-angularplugin-js |
Angular plugin (router events, ErrorHandler). |
@microsoft/applicationinsights-debugplugin-js |
Dev-only telemetry inspector. |
@microsoft/applicationinsights-perfmarkmeasure-js |
User Timing (performance.mark/measure) integration. |
npm i --save @microsoft/applicationinsights-web
# Optional plugins (install only what you use):
npm i --save @microsoft/applicationinsights-clickanalytics-js
npm i --save @microsoft/applicationinsights-react-js @microsoft/applicationinsights-react-native @microsoft/applicationinsights-angularplugin-js
Typings ship with the package — no separate @types/... install needed.
The browser SDK requires a connection string at init time. It ships in plaintext to clients — Microsoft Entra ID auth is not supported for browser telemetry. Use a separate App Insights resource with local auth enabled for browser RUM if you need to isolate it from backend telemetry.
# Vite / CRA / Next.js — expose to client via the public env prefix
VITE_APPINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING="InstrumentationKey=...;IngestionEndpoint=https://...;LiveEndpoint=https://..."
NEXT_PUBLIC_APPINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING="InstrumentationKey=..."
import { ApplicationInsights } from "@microsoft/applicationinsights-web";
export const appInsights = new ApplicationInsights({
config: {
connectionString: import.meta.env.VITE_APPINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING,
enableAutoRouteTracking: true, // SPA route changes -> page views
enableCorsCorrelation: true, // propagate Request-Id / traceparent to cross-origin AJAX
enableRequestHeaderTracking: true,
enableResponseHeaderTracking: true,
distributedTracingMode: 2, // DistributedTracingModes.AI_AND_W3C — emit traceparent for backend correlation
autoTrackPageVisitTime: true,
disableFetchTracking: false, // fetch() is auto-instrumented by default
excludeRequestFromAutoTrackingPatterns: [/livemetrics\.azure\.com/i]
}
});
appInsights.loadAppInsights();
appInsights.trackPageView();
Call loadAppInsights() exactly once, as early as possible (before user interactions you want tracked). Then trackPageView() for the initial load — when enableAutoRouteTracking is on, subsequent route changes are automatic.
Recommended when you want auto-updating SDK and zero build pipeline. Paste this as the first <script> in <head>:
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://js.monitor.azure.com/scripts/b/ai.3.gbl.min.js" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var appInsights = window.appInsights || function (cfg) {
/* See: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-monitor/app/javascript-sdk
Use the latest snippet from the Microsoft Learn page above — it includes
backup-CDN failover (cr), SDK-load-failure reporting, and the queue shim
so calls before SDK ready are not lost. */
}({ src: "https://js.monitor.azure.com/scripts/b/ai.3.gbl.min.js",
crossOrigin: "anonymous",
cfg: { connectionString: "YOUR_CONNECTION_STRING" } });
</script>
Loader-only API (queued until SDK loads): trackEvent, trackPageView, trackException, trackTrace, trackDependencyData, trackMetric, trackPageViewPerformance, startTrackPage, stopTrackPage, startTrackEvent, stopTrackEvent, addTelemetryInitializer, setAuthenticatedUserContext, clearAuthenticatedUserContext, flush.
// Page views (SPAs that disable enableAutoRouteTracking)
appInsights.trackPageView({ name: "Checkout", uri: "/checkout", properties: { cartSize: 3 } });
// Custom events (user actions, business events)
appInsights.trackEvent({ name: "PurchaseCompleted" }, { orderId: "ord_123", amountUsd: 49.95 });
// Exceptions (caught errors)
try {
await pay(order);
} catch (err) {
appInsights.trackException({ exception: err as Error, severityLevel: 3, properties: { orderId: order.id } });
}
// Traces (logs, severity 0=Verbose, 1=Info, 2=Warning, 3=Error, 4=Critical)
appInsights.trackTrace({ message: "Cart hydrated from local storage", severityLevel: 1 });
// Custom metrics (numeric)
appInsights.trackMetric({ name: "checkout.duration_ms", average: 1234 });
// Dependencies (manually-tracked outbound calls — fetch/XHR are auto-tracked)
appInsights.trackDependencyData({
id: crypto.randomUUID(),
name: "GET /api/orders",
duration: 87, success: true, responseCode: 200,
data: "https://api.example.com/api/orders", target: "api.example.com", type: "Fetch"
});
// User identity (set ONCE per authenticated session — values are PII; do not pass emails)
appInsights.setAuthenticatedUserContext("user-id-123", "tenant-456", /*storeInCookie*/ true);
appInsights.clearAuthenticatedUserContext(); // on logout
// Force send before unload
appInsights.flush();
Run for every envelope before send. Return false to drop.
import type { ITelemetryItem } from "@microsoft/applicationinsights-web";
appInsights.addTelemetryInitializer((item: ITelemetryItem) => {
item.tags ??= {};
item.tags["ai.cloud.role"] = "web-shop";
item.tags["ai.cloud.roleInstance"] = window.location.hostname;
item.data ??= {};
item.data["app.version"] = import.meta.env.VITE_APP_VERSION;
item.data["app.build"] = import.meta.env.VITE_BUILD_SHA;
// Drop noisy health-check page views
if (item.baseType === "PageviewData" && item.baseData?.uri?.endsWith("/healthz")) return false;
// Scrub query-string secrets
if (item.baseData?.uri) {
item.baseData.uri = item.baseData.uri.replace(/([?&](https://github.com/microsoft/skills/tree/main/.github/plugins/azure-sdk-typescript/skills/applicationinsights-web-ts/token|sig|key)=)[^&]+/gi, "$1REDACTED");
}
});
import { ClickAnalyticsPlugin } from "@microsoft/applicationinsights-clickanalytics-js";
const clickPlugin = new ClickAnalyticsPlugin();
const appInsights = new ApplicationInsights({
config: {
connectionString: import.meta.env.VITE_APPINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING,
extensions: [clickPlugin],
extensionConfig: {
[clickPlugin.identifier]: {
autoCapture: true,
dataTags: { useDefaultContentNameOrId: true, customDataPrefix: "data-ai-" },
urlCollectHash: false,
behaviorValidator: (b: string) => /^[a-z0-9_]+$/.test(b) ? b : ""
}
}
}
});
appInsights.loadAppInsights();
Mark elements with data-ai-* attributes; clicks are emitted as Custom Events with parent-content metadata.
enableAutoRouteTracking: true. Hooks history.pushState/replaceState and popstate.@microsoft/applicationinsights-react-js withAITracking HOC (see references/framework-extensions.md).appInsights.trackPageView({ name, uri }) in your router's useEffect on route change. Disable enableAutoRouteTracking to avoid double counting.Set distributedTracingMode: 2 (DistributedTracingModes.AI_AND_W3C). The SDK adds traceparent (and legacy Request-Id) to outbound fetch/XHR. Backends instrumented with OpenTelemetry (e.g. @azure/monitor-opentelemetry) auto-link to the browser's operation_Id.
For cross-origin calls, also set enableCorsCorrelation: true and add the calling origin to the CORS exposed headers on the API.
When the browser invokes an AI agent (function-calling, tool-use, model calls direct from the client), emit App Insights Dependency telemetry whose attributes follow the OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic conventions so they are queryable alongside backend agent spans in App Insights / Log Analytics.
Set the opt-in env first so backend instrumentations agree on the same schema version:
OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN=gen_ai_latest_experimental
| Span / op | Required attributes |
|---|---|
invoke_agent {agent.name} |
gen_ai.operation.name=invoke_agent, gen_ai.provider.name, gen_ai.agent.name, gen_ai.agent.id (when known) |
create_agent {agent.name} |
gen_ai.operation.name=create_agent, gen_ai.provider.name, gen_ai.agent.name, gen_ai.request.model |
chat {model} |
gen_ai.operation.name=chat, gen_ai.provider.name, gen_ai.request.model, gen_ai.response.model, gen_ai.usage.input_tokens, gen_ai.usage.output_tokens |
execute_tool {tool.name} |
gen_ai.operation.name=execute_tool, gen_ai.tool.name, gen_ai.tool.type (function | extension | datastore), gen_ai.tool.call.id |
gen_ai.provider.name well-known values: openai, azure.ai.openai, azure.ai.inference, anthropic, aws.bedrock, gcp.gemini, gcp.vertex_ai, cohere, mistral_ai, groq, deepseek, perplexity, x_ai, ibm.watsonx.ai.
Sensitive content opt-in.
gen_ai.system_instructions,gen_ai.input.messages,gen_ai.output.messages,gen_ai.tool.call.arguments,gen_ai.tool.call.resultare Opt-In by default. Gate them behind a runtime flag and avoid them in production unless you have approved data handling.
import { ApplicationInsights, SeverityLevel } from "@microsoft/applicationinsights-web";
type GenAiAttrs = Record<string, string | number | boolean | undefined>;
function startGenAiSpan(name: string, attrs: GenAiAttrs) {
const id = crypto.randomUUID();
const start = performance.now();
const baseProps: GenAiAttrs = { "gen_ai.span.id": id, ...attrs };
return {
end(success: boolean, extra: GenAiAttrs = {}, error?: Error) {
const duration = Math.round(performance.now() - start);
const properties = { ...baseProps, ...extra };
appInsights.trackDependencyData({
id, name, duration, success,
responseCode: error ? 500 : 200,
type: "GenAI",
target: String(attrs["gen_ai.provider.name"] ?? "genai"),
properties: properties as Record<string, string>
});
if (error) {
appInsights.trackException({
exception: error,
severityLevel: SeverityLevel.Error,
properties: { ...properties, "error.type": error.name } as Record<string, string>
});
}
}
};
}
// Agent invocation
const agentSpan = startGenAiSpan("invoke_agent ResearchAssistant", {
"gen_ai.operation.name": "invoke_agent",
"gen_ai.provider.name": "azure.ai.openai",
"gen_ai.agent.name": "ResearchAssistant",
"gen_ai.agent.id": "asst_5j66UpCpwteGg4YSxUnt7lPY",
"gen_ai.request.model": "gpt-4o-mini",
"server.address": "myresource.openai.azure.com"
});
try {
// Nested chat completion span
const chat = startGenAiSpan("chat gpt-4o-mini", {
"gen_ai.operation.name": "chat",
"gen_ai.provider.name": "azure.ai.openai",
"gen_ai.request.model": "gpt-4o-mini"
});
const res = await callAzureOpenAi(/* ... */);
chat.end(true, {
"gen_ai.response.model": res.model,
"gen_ai.response.id": res.id,
"gen_ai.response.finish_reasons": JSON.stringify(res.choices.map(c => c.finish_reason)),
"gen_ai.usage.input_tokens": res.usage.prompt_tokens,
"gen_ai.usage.output_tokens": res.usage.completion_tokens,
"gen_ai.output.type": "text"
});
// Nested tool execution span
const tool = startGenAiSpan("execute_tool getWeather", {
"gen_ai.operation.name": "execute_tool",
"gen_ai.tool.name": "getWeather",
"gen_ai.tool.type": "function",
"gen_ai.tool.call.id": "call_abc123"
});
const toolResult = await runGetWeather({ location: "SF" });
tool.end(true);
agentSpan.end(true, {
"gen_ai.usage.input_tokens": res.usage.prompt_tokens,
"gen_ai.usage.output_tokens": res.usage.completion_tokens
});
} catch (err) {
agentSpan.end(false, { "error.type": (err as Error).name }, err as Error);
}
The browser's traceparent is automatically attached to outbound fetch (when distributedTracingMode: 2), so downstream Azure OpenAI / agent backend spans hang under the same operation_Id in App Insights.
For the full attribute reference, well-known values, and content-capture guidance, see references/agent-traces.md.
dependencies
| where type == "GenAI"
| extend op = tostring(customDimensions["gen_ai.operation.name"]),
agent = tostring(customDimensions["gen_ai.agent.name"]),
model = tostring(customDimensions["gen_ai.request.model"]),
tin = toint(customDimensions["gen_ai.usage.input_tokens"]),
tout = toint(customDimensions["gen_ai.usage.output_tokens"])
| summarize calls=count(), p95_ms=percentile(duration, 95),
avg_in=avg(tin), avg_out=avg(tout) by op, agent, model, bin(timestamp, 5m)
See references/framework-extensions.md for full React, React Native, Angular, Next.js, and Vite recipes.
import { ApplicationInsights } from "@microsoft/applicationinsights-web";
import { ReactPlugin, withAITracking } from "@microsoft/applicationinsights-react-js";
import { createBrowserHistory } from "history";
const reactPlugin = new ReactPlugin();
const browserHistory = createBrowserHistory();
export const appInsights = new ApplicationInsights({
config: {
connectionString: import.meta.env.VITE_APPINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING,
extensions: [reactPlugin],
extensionConfig: { [reactPlugin.identifier]: { history: browserHistory } }
}
});
appInsights.loadAppInsights();
export const TrackedCheckout = withAITracking(reactPlugin, Checkout, "Checkout");
import { ApplicationInsights } from "@microsoft/applicationinsights-web";
import { ReactNativePlugin } from "@microsoft/applicationinsights-react-native";
const rnPlugin = new ReactNativePlugin();
const appInsights = new ApplicationInsights({
config: {
connectionString: process.env.EXPO_PUBLIC_APPINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING,
extensions: [rnPlugin],
disableFetchTracking: false
}
});
appInsights.loadAppInsights();
Auto-collected: page-load timings via PerformanceTiming / PerformanceNavigationTiming. To add Core Web Vitals:
import { onCLS, onLCP, onINP, type Metric } from "web-vitals";
function send(m: Metric) {
appInsights.trackMetric(
{ name: `web_vitals.${m.name.toLowerCase()}`, average: m.value },
{ rating: m.rating, navigationType: m.navigationType, id: m.id }
);
}
onCLS(send); onLCP(send); onINP(send);
new ApplicationInsights({ config: {
connectionString,
isCookieUseDisabled: true, // hard-disable all cookies
cookieCfg: { enabled: true, domain: ".example.com", path: "/", expiry: 365 }
}});
To honor consent dynamically:
appInsights.getCookieMgr().setEnabled(userGaveConsent);
appInsights.config.disableTelemetry = !userGaveConsent;
Server-side ingestion sampling (recommended) is configured on the App Insights resource. SDK-side sampling reduces network use:
new ApplicationInsights({ config: { connectionString, samplingPercentage: 50 } });
Per-type sampling via telemetry initializer: drop with return false based on item.baseType.
The SDK uses sendBeacon (default onunloadDisableBeacon: false) to flush on pagehide / unload. For SPAs, also call appInsights.flush() before destructive transitions (logout, hard reload).
enableAutoRouteTracking + manual trackPageView = duplicates. Pick one.Request-Id, Request-Context, traceparent, tracestate request headers and expose Request-Context response header.gen_ai.input.messages etc.) is Opt-In — never log without an explicit runtime flag and approved data handling.chat spans, not invoke_agent — copy aggregated usage to the parent agent span only if you know it.loadAppInsights() with a module-level singleton.The full web SDK is ~110 KB minified (~36 KB gzipped). For aggressive budgets, use the Loader Script path so the SDK loads asynchronously off the critical path, or tree-shake unused plugins.
import {
ApplicationInsights,
SeverityLevel,
DistributedTracingModes,
type IConfiguration,
type IConfig,
type ITelemetryItem,
type ITelemetryPlugin,
type ICustomProperties,
type IPageViewTelemetry,
type IEventTelemetry,
type IExceptionTelemetry,
type ITraceTelemetry,
type IMetricTelemetry,
type IDependencyTelemetry
} from "@microsoft/applicationinsights-web";
app.version, tenantId, and to scrub PII / query-string secrets.distributedTracingMode: 2 and ensure your APIs accept/expose W3C trace context headers.gen_ai.* attribute names verbatim — they are queryable across browser and backend telemetry uniformly.gen_ai.input.messages / gen_ai.output.messages) behind a build-time or runtime opt-in.IConfiguration reference and tuning guide.