URL Templatization

URL templatization replaces variable parts of URLs with parameter placeholders before the URL is recorded in OpenTelemetry signals (e.g., /users/123 → /users/{id}), keeping cardinality under control and making it easier to group traffic by endpoint pattern. There are two ways to add a URL templatization action: using odictl or using YAML files.

odictl
YAML

Launch odictl

odictl

Select the actions menu

Use Tab to focus on the Actions pane or press a, then press Enter or click + Add Action with your mouse.

Select URL Templatization

Use the arrow keys to move through the list of action types. When URL templatization is highlighted, press Enter.

Configure URL templatization

Press i to enter INSERT mode.
Add one or more templatization rules with a template (e.g., /api/v1/resource/{id}) and optional examples.
When finished, press Esc, then type :wq to save and exit.

To cancel creating the action, press Esc if you are in INSERT mode, then type :q! to exit without saving.

Complete adding the action

Select OK. The action appears in the Actions section in odictl.

Verify the action has been created

Navigate to the actions configuration folder

cd /etc/odigos-vmagent/actions.d

Create an action YAML file

Create a YAML file for your action using the editor of your choice. The example below uses vi.

sudo vi url-templatization.yaml

Add the URL templatization configuration

Add a URL templatization action with one or more rule groups. Each rule has a template (e.g., /api/v1/resource/{id}), optional examples of matching URLs, and optional notes.For example:

name: url-templatization
actionName: url-templatization
signals:
  - TRACES
# pipelines: []  # optional: target specific pipelines (e.g. traces/otlp-datadog)
type: urlTemplatization
config:
  templatizationRulesGroups:
    - notes: ""
      templatizationRules:
        - template: "/api/v1/resource/{id}"
          examples:
            - "/api/v1/resource/123"
          notes: ""

Save the file

:wq!

Verify the action has been created

sudo journalctl -u odigos-vmagent | grep 'Action created'

Mar 11 21:59:43 ip-10-0-1-51 odigos-vmagent[611]: time=2026-03-11T21:59:43.580Z level=INFO source=/go/src/github.com/keyval/odigos-vmagent/pkg/components/controller/tower/mutations/create_action_handler.go:41 msg="Action created" name=url-templatization

VM Agent