What is auto instrumentation?

Auto instrumentation refers to the process of automatically inserting code that captures trace information about software execution, particularly in applications and services. This involves integrating short timing code statements into various parts of an application to track the flow of requests and measure the time taken to process them. By doing so, it allows developers to automatically gather performance metrics and tracing data without manual intervention, thus simplifying the monitoring process and providing insights into the application's behavior.

This automatic tracing is particularly useful for observability and performance monitoring, as it enables users to gain visibility into how different components of their systems interact and where bottlenecks may occur. It enhances the ability to analyze and optimize application performance, contributing valuable information for debugging and improving overall efficiency.

The other options describe aspects of performance tuning and debugging but do not specifically refer to the automated capturing of trace data within an application context. Thus, auto instrumentation is best understood as the automated mechanism that enhances observability by generating traces without requiring extensive manual coding efforts from developers.