diff --git a/crates/shim/Cargo.toml b/crates/shim/Cargo.toml
index d1b89543..ff2f1d6b 100644
--- a/crates/shim/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/shim/Cargo.toml
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ async = [
   "signal-hook-tokio",
   "tokio",
 ]
+tracing = ["dep:tracing"]
 docs = []
 
 [[example]]
@@ -54,6 +55,9 @@ serde_json.workspace = true
 thiserror.workspace = true
 time.workspace = true
 
+# tracing
+tracing = { version = "0.1", optional = true }
+
 # Async dependencies
 async-trait = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 futures = { workspace = true, optional = true }
diff --git a/crates/shim/src/args.rs b/crates/shim/src/args.rs
index 325f4792..989eda1d 100644
--- a/crates/shim/src/args.rs
+++ b/crates/shim/src/args.rs
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ pub struct Flags {
 }
 
 /// Parses command line arguments passed to the shim.
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(skip_all, level = "Info"))]
 pub fn parse<S: AsRef<OsStr>>(args: &[S]) -> Result<Flags> {
     let mut flags = Flags::default();
 
diff --git a/crates/shim/src/asynchronous/mod.rs b/crates/shim/src/asynchronous/mod.rs
index 8189edda..4a145310 100644
--- a/crates/shim/src/asynchronous/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/shim/src/asynchronous/mod.rs
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ pub trait Shim {
 }
 
 /// Async Shim entry point that must be invoked from tokio `main`.
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 pub async fn run<T>(runtime_id: &str, opts: Option<Config>)
 where
     T: Shim + Send + Sync + 'static,
@@ -109,6 +110,7 @@ where
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 async fn bootstrap<T>(runtime_id: &str, opts: Option<Config>) -> Result<()>
 where
     T: Shim + Send + Sync + 'static,
@@ -239,6 +241,7 @@ impl ExitSignal {
 
 /// Spawn is a helper func to launch shim process asynchronously.
 /// Typically this expected to be called from `StartShim`.
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 pub async fn spawn(opts: StartOpts, grouping: &str, vars: Vec<(&str, &str)>) -> Result<String> {
     let cmd = env::current_exe().map_err(io_error!(e, ""))?;
     let cwd = env::current_dir().map_err(io_error!(e, ""))?;
@@ -299,6 +302,7 @@ pub async fn spawn(opts: StartOpts, grouping: &str, vars: Vec<(&str, &str)>) ->
     Ok(address)
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(skip_all, level = "info"))]
 fn setup_signals_tokio(config: &Config) -> Signals {
     if config.no_reaper {
         Signals::new([SIGTERM, SIGINT, SIGPIPE]).expect("new signal failed")
@@ -307,6 +311,7 @@ fn setup_signals_tokio(config: &Config) -> Signals {
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(skip_all, level = "info"))]
 async fn handle_signals(signals: Signals) {
     let mut signals = signals.fuse();
     while let Some(sig) = signals.next().await {
@@ -360,12 +365,14 @@ async fn handle_signals(signals: Signals) {
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 async fn remove_socket_silently(address: &str) {
     remove_socket(address)
         .await
         .unwrap_or_else(|e| warn!("failed to remove socket: {}", e))
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 async fn remove_socket(address: &str) -> Result<()> {
     let path = parse_sockaddr(address);
     if let Ok(md) = Path::new(path).metadata() {
@@ -380,6 +387,7 @@ async fn remove_socket(address: &str) -> Result<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(skip_all, level = "info"))]
 async fn start_listener(address: &str) -> Result<UnixListener> {
     let addr = address.to_string();
     asyncify(move || -> Result<UnixListener> {
@@ -391,6 +399,7 @@ async fn start_listener(address: &str) -> Result<UnixListener> {
     .await
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 async fn wait_socket_working(address: &str, interval_in_ms: u64, count: u32) -> Result<()> {
     for _i in 0..count {
         match Client::connect(address) {
diff --git a/crates/shim/src/cgroup.rs b/crates/shim/src/cgroup.rs
index 5e4222c0..1df260f3 100644
--- a/crates/shim/src/cgroup.rs
+++ b/crates/shim/src/cgroup.rs
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ use crate::error::{Error, Result};
 // OOM_SCORE_ADJ_MAX is from https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/include/uapi/linux/oom.h#L10
 const OOM_SCORE_ADJ_MAX: i64 = 1000;
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "Info"))]
 pub fn set_cgroup_and_oom_score(pid: u32) -> Result<()> {
     if pid == 0 {
         return Ok(());
@@ -62,6 +63,7 @@ pub fn set_cgroup_and_oom_score(pid: u32) -> Result<()> {
 }
 
 /// Add a process to the given relative cgroup path
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "Info"))]
 pub fn add_task_to_cgroup(path: &str, pid: u32) -> Result<()> {
     let h = hierarchies::auto();
     // use relative path here, need to trim prefix '/'
@@ -74,6 +76,7 @@ pub fn add_task_to_cgroup(path: &str, pid: u32) -> Result<()> {
 
 /// Sets the OOM score for the process to the parents OOM score + 1
 /// to ensure that they parent has a lower score than the shim
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "Info"))]
 pub fn adjust_oom_score(pid: u32) -> Result<()> {
     let score = read_process_oom_score(std::os::unix::process::parent_id())?;
     if score < OOM_SCORE_ADJ_MAX {
@@ -82,6 +85,7 @@ pub fn adjust_oom_score(pid: u32) -> Result<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 fn read_process_oom_score(pid: u32) -> Result<i64> {
     let content = fs::read_to_string(format!("/proc/{}/oom_score_adj", pid))
         .map_err(io_error!(e, "read oom score"))?;
@@ -92,12 +96,14 @@ fn read_process_oom_score(pid: u32) -> Result<i64> {
     Ok(score)
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 fn write_process_oom_score(pid: u32, score: i64) -> Result<()> {
     fs::write(format!("/proc/{}/oom_score_adj", pid), score.to_string())
         .map_err(io_error!(e, "write oom score"))
 }
 
 /// Collect process cgroup stats, return only necessary parts of it
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 pub fn collect_metrics(pid: u32) -> Result<Metrics> {
     let mut metrics = Metrics::new();
 
@@ -179,6 +185,7 @@ pub fn collect_metrics(pid: u32) -> Result<Metrics> {
 }
 
 // get_cgroup will return either cgroup v1 or v2 depending on system configuration
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 fn get_cgroup(pid: u32) -> Result<Cgroup> {
     let hierarchies = hierarchies::auto();
     let cgroup = if hierarchies.v2() {
@@ -194,6 +201,7 @@ fn get_cgroup(pid: u32) -> Result<Cgroup> {
 }
 
 /// Get the cgroups v2 path given a PID
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 pub fn get_cgroups_v2_path_by_pid(pid: u32) -> Result<PathBuf> {
     // todo: should upstream to cgroups-rs
     let path = format!("/proc/{}/cgroup", pid);
@@ -207,6 +215,7 @@ pub fn get_cgroups_v2_path_by_pid(pid: u32) -> Result<PathBuf> {
 }
 
 // https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/blob/1950892f69597aa844cbf000fbdf77610dda3a44/libcontainer/cgroups/fs2/defaultpath.go#L83
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 fn parse_cgroups_v2_path(content: &str) -> Result<PathBuf> {
     // the entry for cgroup v2 is always in the format like `0::$PATH`
     // where 0 is the hierarchy ID, the controller name is omitted in cgroup v2
@@ -222,6 +231,7 @@ fn parse_cgroups_v2_path(content: &str) -> Result<PathBuf> {
 }
 
 /// Update process cgroup limits
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 pub fn update_resources(pid: u32, resources: &LinuxResources) -> Result<()> {
     // get container main process cgroup
     let cgroup = get_cgroup(pid)?;
diff --git a/crates/shim/src/lib.rs b/crates/shim/src/lib.rs
index 2575ff6e..5f447bd7 100644
--- a/crates/shim/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/shim/src/lib.rs
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ pub use protos::{
     shim::shim::DeleteResponse,
     ttrpc::{context::Context, Result as TtrpcResult},
 };
+
 #[cfg(unix)]
 ioctl_write_ptr_bad!(ioctl_set_winsz, libc::TIOCSWINSZ, libc::winsize);
 
@@ -167,6 +168,7 @@ pub const SOCKET_ROOT: &str = "/var/run/containerd";
 pub const SOCKET_ROOT: &str = r"\\.\pipe\containerd-containerd";
 
 /// Make socket path from containerd socket path, namespace and id.
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "Info"))]
 pub fn socket_address(socket_path: &str, namespace: &str, id: &str) -> String {
     let path = PathBuf::from(socket_path)
         .join(namespace)
diff --git a/crates/shim/src/synchronous/mod.rs b/crates/shim/src/synchronous/mod.rs
index 8acb556b..d1cfcc38 100644
--- a/crates/shim/src/synchronous/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/shim/src/synchronous/mod.rs
@@ -182,6 +182,7 @@ pub trait Shim {
 }
 
 /// Shim entry point that must be invoked from `main`.
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 pub fn run<T>(runtime_id: &str, opts: Option<Config>)
 where
     T: Shim + Send + Sync + 'static,
@@ -192,6 +193,7 @@ where
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 fn bootstrap<T>(runtime_id: &str, opts: Option<Config>) -> Result<()>
 where
     T: Shim + Send + Sync + 'static,
@@ -289,6 +291,7 @@ where
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(skip_all, level = "info"))]
 fn create_server(_flags: args::Flags) -> Result<Server> {
     let mut server = Server::new();
 
@@ -306,6 +309,7 @@ fn create_server(_flags: args::Flags) -> Result<Server> {
     Ok(server)
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(skip_all, level = "info"))]
 fn setup_signals(_config: &Config) -> Option<AppSignals> {
     #[cfg(unix)]
     {
@@ -341,6 +345,7 @@ unsafe extern "system" fn signal_handler(_: u32) -> i32 {
     1
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(skip_all, level = "info"))]
 fn handle_signals(mut _signals: Option<AppSignals>) {
     #[cfg(unix)]
     {
@@ -402,6 +407,7 @@ fn handle_signals(mut _signals: Option<AppSignals>) {
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 fn wait_socket_working(address: &str, interval_in_ms: u64, count: u32) -> Result<()> {
     for _i in 0..count {
         match Client::connect(address) {
@@ -416,10 +422,12 @@ fn wait_socket_working(address: &str, interval_in_ms: u64, count: u32) -> Result
     Err(other!("time out waiting for socket {}", address))
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 fn remove_socket_silently(address: &str) {
     remove_socket(address).unwrap_or_else(|e| warn!("failed to remove file {} {:?}", address, e))
 }
 
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 fn remove_socket(address: &str) -> Result<()> {
     #[cfg(unix)]
     {
@@ -448,6 +456,7 @@ fn remove_socket(address: &str) -> Result<()> {
 
 /// Spawn is a helper func to launch shim process.
 /// Typically this expected to be called from `StartShim`.
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "tracing", tracing::instrument(level = "info"))]
 pub fn spawn(opts: StartOpts, grouping: &str, vars: Vec<(&str, &str)>) -> Result<(u32, String)> {
     let cmd = env::current_exe().map_err(io_error!(e, ""))?;
     let cwd = env::current_dir().map_err(io_error!(e, ""))?;