From c5003c88cd77d1263d7c167603d3f6e49241aa6d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Yucheng He <yucheng@berri.ai>
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2026 22:38:47 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix(otel v2): retire the drain workers with the fan-out that
 started them

A proxy that rebuilds its telemetry builds another fan-out, so workers that
outlive the one that started them are two more threads per reload. Shutdown
now retires them once everything queued is closed, and a processor shed
afterwards is closed inline rather than queued to nobody.
---
 .../integrations/otel/plumbing/providers.py   | 31 ++++++++++++++++---
 .../otel/test_otel_v2_destinations.py         | 27 ++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 54 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/litellm/integrations/otel/plumbing/providers.py b/litellm/integrations/otel/plumbing/providers.py
index b9c842656f4..65d9a01b1a5 100644
--- a/litellm/integrations/otel/plumbing/providers.py
+++ b/litellm/integrations/otel/plumbing/providers.py
@@ -234,16 +234,38 @@ class _DrainPool:
     """
 
     def __init__(self, workers: int = _DRAIN_WORKERS) -> None:
-        self._pending: Final[queue.Queue[SpanProcessor]] = queue.Queue()
+        self._workers: Final = workers
+        self._closed: Final = threading.Event()
+        self._pending: Final[queue.Queue[SpanProcessor | None]] = queue.Queue()
         for _ in range(workers):
-            threading.Thread(target=self._drain_forever, daemon=True, name="litellm-otel-destination-drain").start()
+            threading.Thread(
+                target=self._drain_until_closed, daemon=True, name="litellm-otel-destination-drain"
+            ).start()
 
     def submit(self, processor: SpanProcessor) -> None:
+        if self._closed.is_set():
+            _shutdown_quietly(processor)
+            return
         self._pending.put(processor)
 
-    def _drain_forever(self) -> None:
+    def close(self) -> None:
+        """Retire the workers once they have closed everything already queued.
+
+        A proxy that rebuilds its telemetry builds another fan-out, so workers that
+        outlive the one that started them are two more threads per reload, forever.
+        """
+        if self._closed.is_set():
+            return
+        self._closed.set()
+        for _ in range(self._workers):
+            self._pending.put(None)
+
+    def _drain_until_closed(self) -> None:
         while True:
-            _shutdown_quietly(self._pending.get())
+            processor: SpanProcessor | None = self._pending.get()  # rebind-ok: loop variable
+            if processor is None:
+                return
+            _shutdown_quietly(processor)
 
 
 class _ResourceWrappedReadableSpan(ReadableSpan):
@@ -345,6 +367,7 @@ class TenantFanOutSpanProcessor(SpanProcessor):
             self._processors.clear()
             self._retired.clear()
             self._exporting.clear()
+        self._drain.close()
 
     def force_flush(self, timeout_millis: int = 30000) -> bool:
         results: Final = tuple(self._flush_one(processor, timeout_millis) for processor in self._snapshot())
diff --git a/tests/test_litellm/integrations/otel/test_otel_v2_destinations.py b/tests/test_litellm/integrations/otel/test_otel_v2_destinations.py
index 25ed0b1af68..e950e5e9f6e 100644
--- a/tests/test_litellm/integrations/otel/test_otel_v2_destinations.py
+++ b/tests/test_litellm/integrations/otel/test_otel_v2_destinations.py
@@ -894,6 +894,33 @@ class TestEvictionSafety:
 
         assert not closed.is_alive(), "shutdown blocked on an export that never finished"
 
+    def test_shutdown_retires_the_drain_workers(self):
+        """A proxy that rebuilds its telemetry builds another fan-out, so workers that
+        outlive the one that started them are two more threads per reload."""
+        from litellm.integrations.otel.plumbing.providers import _DRAIN_WORKERS
+
+        before = self._drain_workers()
+        fan_out, _ = self._fan_out()
+        assert self._drain_workers() - before == _DRAIN_WORKERS
+
+        fan_out.shutdown()
+        for _ in range(500):
+            if self._drain_workers() == before:
+                break
+            time.sleep(0.02)
+
+        assert self._drain_workers() == before, "the drain workers outlived their fan-out"
+
+    def test_a_processor_shed_after_shutdown_is_still_closed(self):
+        """``close`` retires the workers, so anything handed to the pool afterwards
+        would sit in a queue nobody reads."""
+        fan_out, _ = self._fan_out()
+        stray = self.Recording()
+        fan_out.shutdown()
+        fan_out._drain.submit(stray)
+
+        assert stray.shutdown_calls == 1
+
     def test_a_retired_processor_is_still_closed_on_shutdown(self):
         from litellm.integrations.otel.plumbing.providers import _MAX_CACHED_DESTINATION_PROCESSORS