Experimental Sentry for Zig

Welcome to the experimental Zig SDK for Sentry.

⚠️ Experimental SDK: This SDK is currently experimental and not production-ready. It was developed during a Hackweek project and is intended for testing and feedback purposes.

📦 Getting Started

Prerequisites

You need:

• A Sentry account and project
• Zig 0.14.1 or later

Installation

Using Zig Package Manager (Recommended)

Add sentry-zig to your project using the Zig package manager:

# Add the dependency (replace with actual URL when published)
zig fetch --save https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-zig/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz

Then in your build.zig, add the sentry-zig dependency:

const std = @import("std");

pub fn build(b: *std.Build) void {
    const target = b.standardTargetOptions(.{});
    const optimize = b.standardOptimizeOption(.{});

    // Get the sentry-zig dependency
    const sentry_zig = b.dependency("sentry_zig", .{
        .target = target,
        .optimize = optimize,
    });

    const exe = b.addExecutable(.{
        .name = "my-app",
        .root_source_file = b.path("src/main.zig"),
        .target = target,
        .optimize = optimize,
    });

    // Add the sentry-zig module
    exe.root_module.addImport("sentry_zig", sentry_zig.module("sentry_zig"));
    
    b.installArtifact(exe);
}

Basic Configuration

Here's a quick configuration example to get Sentry up and running:

const std = @import("std");
const sentry = @import("sentry_zig");

pub fn main() !void {
    var gpa = std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{}){};
    defer _ = gpa.deinit();
    const allocator = gpa.allocator();

    // Initialize Sentry - replace with your actual DSN
    const dsn = "https://[email protected]/0000000000000000";
    
    const options = sentry.SentryOptions{
        .environment = "production",
        .release = "1.0.0",
        .debug = false,
        .sample_rate = 1.0,
        .send_default_pii = false,
    };

    var client = sentry.init(allocator, dsn, options) catch |err| {
        std.log.err("Failed to initialize Sentry: {}", .{err});
        return;
    };
    defer client.deinit();

    // Your application code here...
    std.log.info("Application started with Sentry monitoring", .{});
}

With this configuration, Sentry will monitor for exceptions and capture events.

Quick Usage Examples

Capturing Messages

const std = @import("std");
const sentry = @import("sentry_zig");

// After initializing the client...

// Capture messages with different severity levels
_ = try sentry.captureMessage("Application started successfully", .info);
_ = try sentry.captureMessage("Warning: Low memory", .warning);
_ = try sentry.captureMessage("Critical error occurred", .@"error");
_ = try sentry.captureMessage("System failure - immediate attention required", .fatal);

Capturing Errors

const std = @import("std");
const sentry = @import("sentry_zig");

const MyError = error{
    FileNotFound,
    PermissionDenied,
    OutOfMemory,
};

fn riskyOperation() !void {
    return MyError.FileNotFound;
}

pub fn main() !void {
    // ... initialize sentry ...

    // Capture errors with automatic stack trace
    riskyOperation() catch |err| {
        std.debug.print("Caught error: {}\n", .{err});
        
        const event_id = try sentry.captureError(err);
        if (event_id) |id| {
            std.debug.print("Error sent to Sentry with ID: {s}\n", .{id.value});
        }
    };
}

Setting up Panic Handler

For automatic panic reporting, set up the Sentry panic handler:

const std = @import("std");
const sentry = @import("sentry_zig");

// Set up the panic handler to use Sentry's panic handler
pub const panic = std.debug.FullPanic(sentry.panicHandler);

pub fn main() !void {
    // ... initialize sentry ...

    // Any panic in your application will now be automatically sent to Sentry
    std.debug.panic("This will be captured by Sentry!");
}

🔧 Configuration Options

The SentryOptions struct supports various configuration options:

const options = sentry.SentryOptions{
    .environment = "production",      // Environment (e.g., "development", "staging", "production")
    .release = "1.2.3",              // Release version
    .debug = false,                  // Enable debug logging
    .sample_rate = 1.0,              // Sample rate (0.0 to 1.0)
    .send_default_pii = false,       // Whether to send personally identifiable information
};

🧩 Features

Current Features

• ✅ Event Capture: Send custom events to Sentry
• ✅ Message Capture: Log messages with different severity levels
• ✅ Error Capture: Automatic error capture with stack traces
• ✅ Panic Handler: Automatic panic reporting
• ✅ Release Tracking: Track releases and environments
• ✅ Debug Mode: Detailed logging for troubleshooting
• ✅ Configurable Sampling: Control event sampling rates

Upcoming Features

• 🔄 Breadcrumbs: Track user actions and application state
• 🔄 User Context: Attach user information to events
• 🔄 Custom Tags: Add custom tags to events
• 🔄 Performance Monitoring: Track application performance
• 🔄 Integrations: Common Zig library integrations

📁 Examples

The repository includes several complete examples in the examples/ directory:

• capture_message.zig - Demonstrates message capture with different severity levels
• capture_error.zig - Shows error capture with stack traces
• panic_handler.zig - Example of automatic panic reporting

Run examples using:

# Build and run the message capture example
zig build capture_message

# Build and run the error capture example  
zig build capture_error

# Build and run the panic handler example
zig build panic_handler

🏗️ Building from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-zig.git
cd sentry-zig

# Build the library
zig build

# Run tests
zig build test

# Run examples
zig build capture_message
zig build capture_error
zig build panic_handler

🧪 Testing

This SDK is experimental. When testing:

1. Set up a test Sentry project (don't use production)
2. Enable debug mode to see detailed logging
3. Check your Sentry dashboard for captured events
4. Review the examples for best practices

🚧 Development Status

Current Status: Experimental / Hackweek Project

This SDK was built during a Sentry Hackweek and is not yet ready for production use. We're actively working on:

• Stabilizing the API
• Adding comprehensive tests
• Implementing missing features
• Performance optimizations
• Documentation improvements

🙌 Contributing

We welcome contributions! This is an experimental project and there's lots of room for improvement.

Areas where we need help:

• 🐛 Bug fixes - Report issues or submit fixes
• ✨ Features - Implement missing Sentry features
• 📚 Documentation - Improve docs and examples
• 🧪 Testing - Add tests and improve coverage
• 🔍 Code Review - Review PRs and provide feedback

Getting Started:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests if applicable
5. Submit a pull request

🛟 Support

• 📖 Documentation: docs.sentry.io
• 💬 Discord: Sentry Community Discord
• 🐦 Twitter/X: @getsentry
• 📧 Issues: GitHub Issues

📃 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

🔗 Resources

• Sentry Documentation - Complete Sentry documentation
• Zig Language - Learn about the Zig programming language
• Sentry for Other Languages - SDKs for other programming languages

⚠️ Disclaimer

This is an experimental SDK created during a Hackweek project. It is not officially supported by Sentry and should not be used in production environments without thorough testing and evaluation.

Built with ❤️ during Sentry Hackweek