apache / apache/airflow

Make Airflow stack traces configurable and easy-to-understand

Open
#43,177 5 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:core kind:feature kind:meta
Dominant language
Python
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Avg merge
2d 10h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

### Description

As per users' feedback in the Airflow Debugging Survey 2024, 55.2% respondents find stack traces challenging.

### Use case/motivation

Goal for this issue:
- Configure depth of stack trace using a config property like `AIRFLOW_STACK_TRACK_DEPTH` which can then only show stack trace for that much depth e.g. if `AIRFLOW_STACK_TRACK_DEPTH=3` then we show only 3 levels deep stack trace as the stack unwinds.
- Either depth as above or can use number of lines as well (this will be more of an absolute config as in some case 1 level deep trace can take up all the lines!).
- Use color coding wherever necessary, and simpler language for the user to understand the stack trace - probably by eliminating any redundant parts of the stack trace wherever possible.

### Related issues

Parent Issue: https://github.com/apache/airflow/issues/40975

### Are you willing to submit a PR?

- [ ] Yes I am willing to submit a PR!

### Code of Conduct

- [x] I agree to follow this project's [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/apache/airflow/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reading parent issue #40975 and the Airflow Debugging Survey 2024 context. Clarify whether the configuration should limit stack depth or line count, then define completion criteria for bounded output, simpler wording, and color coding before locating the relevant Airflow stack-trace code and tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
developer-experience
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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