Contexts Interface

The Contexts Interface provides additional context data. Typically, this is data related to the current user and the environment. For example, the device or application version. Its canonical name is contexts.

The contexts type can be used to define arbitrary contextual data on the event. It accepts an object of key/value pairs. The key is the “alias” of the context and can be freely chosen. However, as per policy, it should match the type of the context unless there are two values for a type. You can omit type if the key name is the type.

When adding additional data to the event data model contexts are a good fit when you have all the data available at a single point in time. Contexts are not well suited to data that is collected over time as the SDK interfaces for contexts don't afford merging of data.

Unknown data for the contexts is rendered as a key/value list.

In the Sentry Product, certain contexts are rendered in a special way to make it more readable. More details about this can be found in the contexts code on the Sentry UI.

For more details about sending additional data with your event, see the full documentation on Additional Data.

Device Context

Device context describes the device that caused the event. This is most appropriate for mobile applications.

The type and default key is "device".

name

Required. The name of the device. This is typically a hostname.

family

Optional. The family of the device. This is usually the common part of model names across generations. For instance, iPhone would be a reasonable family, so would be Samsung Galaxy.

model

Optional. The model name. This, for example, can be Samsung Galaxy S3.

model_id

Optional. An internal hardware revision to identify the device exactly.

arch

Optional. The CPU architecture.

battery_level

Optional. If the device has a battery, this can be a floating point value defining the battery level (in the range 0-100).

orientation

Optional. This can be a string portrait or landscape to define the orientation of a device.

manufacturer

Optional. The manufacturer of the device.

brand

Optional. The brand of the device.

screen_resolution

Optional. The screen resolution. (e.g.: 800x600, 3040x1444).

screen_height_pixels

Optional. The height of the screen.

screen_width_pixels

Optional. The width of the screen.

screen_density

Optional. A floating point denoting the screen density.

screen_dpi

Optional. A decimal value reflecting the DPI (dots-per-inch) density.

online

Optional. Whether the device was online or not.

charging

Optional. Whether the device was charging or not.

low_memory

Optional. Whether the device was low on memory.

simulator

Optional. A flag indicating whether this device is a simulator or an actual device.

memory_size

Optional. Total system memory available in bytes.

free_memory

Optional. Free system memory in bytes.

usable_memory

Optional. Memory usable for the app in bytes.

storage_size

Optional. Total device storage in bytes.

free_storage

Optional. Free device storage in bytes.

external_storage_size

Optional. Total size of an attached external storage in bytes (for example, android SDK card).

external_free_storage

Optional. Free size of an attached external storage in bytes (for example, android SDK card).

boot_time

Optional. A formatted UTC timestamp when the system was booted. For example, "2018-02-08T12:52:12Z".

timezone

Optional. The timezone of the device. For example, Europe/Vienna. This field is deprecated, please use timezone of culture context instead.

language

Optional. The language of the device. For example, en. This field is deprecated, please use locale of culture context instead.

processor_count

Optional. Number of "logical processors". For example, 8.

cpu_description

Optional. CPU description. For example, Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz.

processor_frequency

Optional. Processor frequency in MHz. Note that the actual CPU frequency might vary depending on current load and power conditions, especially on low-powered devices like phones and laptops.

device_type

Optional. Kind of device the application is running on. For example, Unknown, Handheld, Console, Desktop.

battery_status

Optional. Status of the device's battery. For example, Unknown, Charging, Discharging, NotCharging, Full.

device_unique_identifier

Optional. Unique device identifier. This value might only be used if sendDefaultPii is enabled.

supports_vibration

Optional. Is vibration available on the device?

supports_accelerometer

Optional. Is accelerometer available on the device?

supports_gyroscope

Optional. Is gyroscope available on the device?

supports_audio

Optional. Is audio available on the device?

supports_location_service

Optional. Is the device capable of reporting its location?

OS Context

OS context under the default key "os" describes the operating system on which the crash happened/the event was created.

The type and default key is "os". However, since contexts can be set multiple times under different keys, there has historically been a lot of confusion about which OS context represents what. So here's some examples:

• In events reported from a Python/ASP.NET/Rails web backend, the OS context under the default key "os" is the server's operating system, and is set by the SDK (if at all).

  Additionally, the Sentry server will attempt to parse the User-Agent header from the event's Request Interface and create a secondary OS context under the non-default key "client_os".

• In events reported from a JS web frontend, the SDK typically reports no OS context.

  The server however knows by looking at the platform ("javascript") that the incoming User-Agent can only come from the crashing device, and creates the User-Agent based OS context under the default key "os".

To summarize:

• "os" key for the device generating the event.

• "client_os" key for an adjacent client device's OS (that is not the device creating the event) if it's important. The Sentry server sets this as part of User-Agent parsing, but SDKs can set this directly too.

• If in doubt, just send "os". Any other keys are not searchable in the product and will not be visually pronounced using icons, so using something like "server_os" to clarify what you meant is probably going to backfire with regards to the overall product experience.

  Under the existing mental model, a hypothetical "server_os" key would actually mean you're reporting the operating system of an adjacent "upstream" device that the crashing device is talking to.

  As Kurt Tucholsky said: "The opposite of good is not evil, but good intentions"

name

Recommended. The name of the operating system. It might be derived from raw_description. It is required if raw_description is not provided.

version

Optional. The version of the operating system.

build

Optional. The internal build revision of the operating system.

kernel_version

Optional. An independent kernel version string. This is typically the entire output of the uname syscall.

rooted

Optional. A flag indicating whether the OS has been jailbroken or rooted.

theme

Optional. Either light or dark. Describes whether the OS runs in dark mode or not.

raw_description

Optional. An unprocessed description string obtained by the operating system. For some well-known runtimes, Sentry will attempt to parse name and version from this string, if they are not explicitly given.

Example

The OS Context for the 3 major OSs should look like this:

{
  "windows": {
    "type": "os",
    "name": "Windows",
    "version": "10.0.19041",
    "build": "662",
  },
  "mac": {
    "type": "os",
    "name": "macOS",
    "version": "11.1.0",
    "build": "20C69",
    "kernel_version": "20.2.0"
  },
  "linux": {
    "type": "os",
    "name": "Linux",
    "version": "5.10.6",
    "build": "arch1-1"
  }
}

Runtime Context

Runtime context describes a runtime in more detail. Typically, this context is used multiple times if multiple runtimes are involved (for instance, if you have a JavaScript application running on top of JVM).

The type and default key is "runtime".

name

Recommended. The name of the runtime. It might be derived from raw_description. It is required if raw_description is not provided.

version

Optional. The version identifier of the runtime.

raw_description

Optional. An unprocessed description string obtained by the runtime. For some well-known runtimes, Sentry will attempt to parse name and version from this string, if they are not explicitly given.

App Context

App context describes the application. As opposed to the runtime, this is the actual application that was running and carries metadata about the current session.

The type and default key is "app".

app_start_time

Optional. Formatted UTC timestamp when the user started the application.

device_app_hash

Optional. Application-specific device identifier.

build_type

Optional. String identifying the kind of build. For example, testflight.

app_identifier

Optional. Version-independent application identifier, often a dotted bundle ID.

app_name

Optional. Human readable application name, as it appears on the platform.

app_version

Optional. Human readable application version, as it appears on the platform.

app_build

Optional. Internal build identifier, as it appears on the platform.

app_memory

Optional. Amount of memory used by the application in bytes.

in_foreground

Optional. A flag indicating whether the app is in foreground or not. An app is in foreground when it's visible to the user.

Browser Context

Browser context carries information about the browser or user agent for web-related errors. This can either be the browser this event occurred in or the user agent of a web request that triggered the event.

The type and default key is "browser".

name

Required. Display name of the browser application.

version

Optional. Version string of the browser.

GPU Context

GPU context describes the GPU of the device.

name

Required. The name of the graphics device.

version

Optional. The Version of the graphics device.

id

Optional. The PCI identifier of the graphics device.

vendor_id

Optional. The PCI vendor identifier of the graphics device.

vendor_name

Optional. The vendor name as reported by the graphics device.

memory_size

Optional. The total GPU memory available in Megabytes.

api_type

Optional. The device low-level API type.

Examples: "Apple Metal" or "Direct3D11"

multi_threaded_rendering

Optional. Whether the GPU has multi-threaded rendering or not.

npot_support

Optional. The Non-Power-Of-Two-Support support.

max_texture_size

Optional. Largest size of a texture that is supported by the graphics hardware. For example, 16384.

graphics_shader_level

Optional. Approximate "shader capability" level of the graphics device. For example, Shader Model 2.0, OpenGL ES 3.0, Metal / OpenGL ES 3.1, 27 (unknown).

supports_draw_call_instancing

Optional. Is GPU draw call instancing supported?

supports_ray_tracing

Optional. Is ray tracing available on the device?

supports_compute_shaders

Optional. Are compute shaders available on the device?

supports_geometry_shaders

Optional. Are geometry shaders available on the device?

Example:

"gpu": {
  "name": "AMD Radeon Pro 560",
  "vendor_name": "Apple",
  "memory_size": 4096,
  "api_type": "Metal",
  "multi_threaded_rendering": true,
  "version": "Metal",
  "npot_support": "Full"
}

State Context

State context describes the state of the application (e.g.: Redux store object).

The type and default key is "state".

state

Required. Object with two keys: Optional type for naming the state library (e.g.: Redux, MobX, Vuex) and Required value that holds the state object.

Example:

"state": {
  "state": {
    "type": "MobX",
    "value": {
      "flights": [],
      "airports": [],
      "showModal": false
    }
  },
}

Culture Context

Culture Context describes certain properties of the culture in which the software is used.

The type and default key is "culture".

calendar

Optional. For example GregorianCalendar. Free form string.

display_name

Optional. Human readable name of the culture. For example English (United States)

locale

Optional. The name identifier, usually following the RFC 4646. For example en-US or pt-BR.

is_24_hour_format

Optional. boolean, either true or false.

timezone

Optional. The timezone of the locale. For example, Europe/Vienna.

Examples

The following example illustrates the contexts part of the event payload and omits other attributes for simplicity.

{
  "contexts": {
    "os": {
      "name": "Windows"
    },
    "electron": {
      "type": "runtime",
      "name": "Electron",
      "version": "4.0"
    }
  }
}