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New Relic supports native OTLP (OpenTelemetry Protocol) ingestion, so MCP Manager can send logs straight to New Relic’s OTLP/HTTP endpoint over HTTPS — no intermediate collector or proxy required. Once your MCP Manager logs are in New Relic, you can query them with NRQL, build dashboards alongside your application telemetry, and alert on unusual MCP tool-call patterns. This guide covers the New Relic-specific details. For what MCP Manager sends, how forwarding behaves, who can configure it, and general troubleshooting, see Export to SIEM.
Configuring log forwarding requires the Manage OpenTelemetry collector capability and an Enterprise plan that includes the OpenTelemetry integration. If you do not see the Logging → Integrations panel, see Who can set up log export.

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What you’ll need

  • A New Relic account.
  • A New Relic License (ingest) key — the key type used to send data into New Relic. This is not a User key.
  • Access to MCP Manager with the Manage OpenTelemetry collector capability.

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Step 1: Generate a License (ingest) key in New Relic

MCP Manager authenticates to New Relic with a License key (also called an ingest key). License keys are specifically for sending data into New Relic; User keys are for NerdGraph API access and will not work for OTLP ingestion.
1

Open the API keys page

Log in at one.newrelic.com and go to the API keys page (via the user menu in the lower-left corner, or directly at one.newrelic.com/api-keys).
2

Create an ingest key

Select Create a key. For Key type, choose Ingest - License. Give it a descriptive name (for example, MCP Manager OTEL Logs) and select the account the key belongs to.
3

Copy the key immediately

Select Create a key, then copy the full key right away. New Relic shows the complete key only once at creation; afterward only the first characters are visible. If you lose it, create a new one.
License (ingest) keys are distinct from User keys. A User key returns 403 Forbidden on the OTLP ingest endpoint. If you are unsure which you have, create a fresh Ingest - License key.

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Step 2: Choose your collector URL

New Relic exposes regional OTLP endpoints. Pick the one matching your account’s data region, and include the full /v1/logs path — MCP Manager sends the URL exactly as entered and appends nothing. The US endpoint is https://otlp.nr-data.net:4318/v1/logs and the EU endpoint is https://otlp.eu01.nr-data.net:4318/v1/logs. A few details:
  • Port 4318 is the standard OTLP/HTTP port. New Relic also accepts traffic on 443 and 4317, but 4318 is the recommended HTTP port.
  • The /v1/logs path is required. MCP Manager does not append path segments, so the URL must end in /v1/logs.
  • If you are unsure of your region, check your New Relic URL: one.newrelic.com is US, and one.eu.newrelic.com is EU.

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Step 3: Connect MCP Manager to New Relic

New Relic authenticates with a custom api-key header rather than the standard Authorization header. Because MCP Manager’s Request headers field is an open key/value list, you add the api-key header directly — no Bearer or Basic prefix.
1

Open the OpenTelemetry collector panel

In MCP Manager, go to Logs → Integrations and find the OpenTelemetry collector panel.
2

Enter the collector URL

In Logs collector URL, paste your regional endpoint from Step 2, for example https://otlp.nr-data.net:4318/v1/logs for a US account. (To also export traces, set Traces collector URL to the matching /v1/traces endpoint; this guide covers logs.)
3

Add the api-key request header

Under Request headers, add one header:
  • Field name: api-key
  • Field value: your License (ingest) key from Step 1
Paste the key value directly — New Relic expects the raw key, with no Bearer or Basic prefix.
4

Save the configuration

Select Save. MCP Manager stores the configuration and encrypts the header value. Saving confirms storage only — it does not confirm delivery. Continue to verification.

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Step 4: Verify logs are flowing

1

Trigger an MCP call

From a connected MCP client (Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT, and so on), make any call through a gateway — a tools/list call is enough.
2

Check MCP Manager Alerts if nothing arrives

Open Alerts in MCP Manager. A delivery failure appears as a “Failed to export telemetry logs to OTEL collector” alert with the HTTP status code. For New Relic, the common codes are:
  • 401 Unauthorized — the License key is incorrect or expired.
  • 403 Forbidden — the key is likely a User key rather than a License (ingest) key.
  • 404 Not Found — the URL path is wrong (missing /v1/logs).
3

Note the service name MCP Manager is sending

The OpenTelemetry collector panel’s Filter your logs by section shows the service.name and service.version MCP Manager is sending. Use those values to find your logs in New Relic.

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Step 5: Find your logs in New Relic

Once logs are flowing, open Logs in the New Relic left sidebar (under All Capabilities if it is not pinned), or query with NRQL:
You should see records for each MCP request, including proxy_request_success and proxy_response_success entries with detailed metadata. There may be a short delay (up to a few minutes) before logs appear in New Relic’s query interface. From here you can build dashboards and alert conditions alongside the rest of your New Relic telemetry.

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Troubleshooting

Check Alerts in MCP Manager first — a failing export shows the HTTP status code there. Confirm you triggered an MCP call after saving (records are only produced when requests flow through a gateway), and that you are looking at Logs in New Relic, not APM or Infrastructure. Allow a few minutes for records to appear.
Verify you are using a License (ingest) key, not a User key — a User key returns 403. Confirm the key belongs to the correct New Relic account, and check in New Relic’s API keys page that the key has not been revoked.
The most common cause is a missing /v1/logs path — MCP Manager appends nothing, so the URL must end in /v1/logs. Double-check the host for your region: otlp.nr-data.net for US, otlp.eu01.nr-data.net for EU.
From any machine with outbound HTTPS access:
terminal
A 400 Bad Request with a JSON error about an invalid payload means the URL and api-key are both correct — New Relic just rejected the empty test body. That is the response you want; it confirms MCP Manager would reach the endpoint on a real request.

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Further reading

Grafana Cloud

The next per-vendor guide — the /otlp/v1/logs gateway and Basic auth.

Export to SIEM

What MCP Manager sends, how forwarding behaves, and general troubleshooting.

Self-hosted Collector

The universal fallback if you’d rather route through your own collector.