diff --git a/opentelemetry.cabal b/opentelemetry.cabal
--- a/opentelemetry.cabal
+++ b/opentelemetry.cabal
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 name:                opentelemetry
 description:         The OpenTelemetry Haskell Client https://opentelemetry.io
 category:            OpenTelemetry
-version:             0.0.0.0
+version:             0.0.0.1
 license-file:        LICENSE
 license:             Apache-2.0
 author:              Dmitry Ivanov
@@ -19,7 +19,11 @@
     BangPatterns
     BlockArguments
     DataKinds
+    DeriveGeneric
+    DerivingStrategies
+    DerivingVia
     FlexibleInstances
+    InstanceSigs
     LambdaCase
     MultiParamTypeClasses
     MultiWayIf
@@ -46,6 +50,8 @@
   import: options
   build-depends:
     base >= 4.12 && < 5,
+    attoparsec,
+    bytestring,
     clock >= 0.8,
     exceptions,
     hashable,
@@ -58,6 +64,7 @@
     OpenTelemetry.Explicit
     OpenTelemetry.Implicit
     OpenTelemetry.FileExporter
+    OpenTelemetry.Propagation
 
 test-suite just-some-usage-code-that-must-compile
   import: options
@@ -78,10 +85,13 @@
   main-is:    Main.hs
   other-modules:
     TestCommon
+    TestPropagation
   hs-source-dirs: unit-tests
   build-depends:
     base,
+    bytestring,
     tasty,
     tasty-quickcheck,
+    tasty-hunit,
     tasty-discover,
     opentelemetry
diff --git a/src/OpenTelemetry/Common.hs b/src/OpenTelemetry/Common.hs
--- a/src/OpenTelemetry/Common.hs
+++ b/src/OpenTelemetry/Common.hs
@@ -1,12 +1,10 @@
-{-# LANGUAGE DerivingStrategies #-}
-{-# LANGUAGE DerivingVia #-}
-{-# LANGUAGE InstanceSigs #-}
 {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
 
 module OpenTelemetry.Common where
 
 import qualified Data.HashMap.Strict as HM
 import Data.Hashable
+import GHC.Generics
 import qualified Data.List.NonEmpty as NE
 import Data.List.NonEmpty (NonEmpty ((:|)), (<|))
 import qualified Data.Text as T
@@ -14,11 +12,11 @@
 import System.Clock
 
 newtype TraceId = TId Word64
-  deriving (Show, Eq)
+  deriving (Show, Eq, Generic)
   deriving (Hashable) via Word64
 
 newtype SpanId = SId Word64
-  deriving (Show, Eq)
+  deriving (Show, Eq, Generic)
   deriving (Hashable) via Word64
 
 type Timestamp = Word64
@@ -62,7 +60,7 @@
 createTracer = pure $ Tracer mempty mempty
 
 data SpanContext = SpanContext !SpanId !TraceId
-  deriving (Show, Eq)
+  deriving (Show, Eq, Generic)
 
 data TagValue
   = StringTagValue !T.Text
diff --git a/src/OpenTelemetry/Implicit.hs b/src/OpenTelemetry/Implicit.hs
--- a/src/OpenTelemetry/Implicit.hs
+++ b/src/OpenTelemetry/Implicit.hs
@@ -11,9 +11,8 @@
 import Data.List.NonEmpty (NonEmpty ((:|)))
 import Data.Maybe
 import qualified Data.Text as T
-import GHC.Conc
 import OpenTelemetry.Common
-import System.IO
+import OpenTelemetry.FileExporter
 import System.IO.Unsafe
 import System.Random
 
@@ -74,6 +73,14 @@
       { gSpanExporter :: !(Exporter Span),
         gTracer :: !(Tracer ThreadId)
       }
+
+withZeroConfigOpenTelemetry :: (MonadIO m, MonadMask m) => m a -> m a
+withZeroConfigOpenTelemetry action = do
+  -- TODO(divanov): crossplatformer temporary directory
+  -- TODO(divanov): include program name and current date in the filename
+  exporter <- liftIO $ createFileSpanExporter "/tmp/opentelemetry.trace.json"
+  let otelConfig = OpenTelemetryConfig {otcSpanExporter = exporter}
+  withOpenTelemetry otelConfig action
 
 getCurrentActiveSpan :: MonadIO m => m Span
 getCurrentActiveSpan = do
diff --git a/src/OpenTelemetry/Propagation.hs b/src/OpenTelemetry/Propagation.hs
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/OpenTelemetry/Propagation.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
+
+-- This is an approximate implementation of https://www.w3.org/TR/trace-context
+
+module OpenTelemetry.Propagation where
+
+import Data.Word
+import Data.Attoparsec.ByteString.Char8
+import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8 as BS
+import Data.Char (ord)
+import Data.List (find)
+import Data.String
+import Debug.Trace
+import GHC.Generics
+import OpenTelemetry.Common
+import Text.Printf
+
+data TraceParent = TraceParent Int Int
+  deriving (Eq, Show, Generic)
+
+extractSpanContextFromHeaders :: (IsString key, Eq key) => [(key, BS.ByteString)] -> Maybe SpanContext
+extractSpanContextFromHeaders headers =
+  case find ((== "traceparent") . fst) headers of
+    Just (_, value) -> case parseSpanContext value of
+      Just c -> Just c
+    _ -> Nothing
+
+parseSpanContext :: BS.ByteString -> Maybe SpanContext
+parseSpanContext input =
+  case BS.split '-' input of
+    ["00", (fromHex -> Just tid), (fromHex -> Just sid), _] ->
+      Just $ SpanContext (SId sid) (TId tid)
+    _ -> Nothing
+
+renderSpanContext :: SpanContext -> BS.ByteString
+renderSpanContext (SpanContext (SId sid) (TId tid)) =
+  BS.pack $ printf "00-%x-%x-00" tid sid
+
+isLowerHexDigit (ord -> w) = (w >= 48 && w <= 57) || (w >= 97 && w <= 102)
+
+fromHex :: BS.ByteString -> Maybe Word64
+fromHex bytes = BS.foldl' go (Just 0) bytes
+  where
+    go Nothing _ = Nothing
+    go (Just !result) (ord -> d) | d >= 48 && d < 58 = Just $ result * 16 + fromIntegral d - 48
+    go (Just result) (ord -> d) | d >= 97 && d < 124 = Just $ result * 16 + fromIntegral d - 87
+    go _ _ = Nothing
diff --git a/unit-tests/TestPropagation.hs b/unit-tests/TestPropagation.hs
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/unit-tests/TestPropagation.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
+
+module TestPropagation where
+
+import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8 as BS
+import Data.Word
+import OpenTelemetry.Common
+import OpenTelemetry.Propagation
+import Test.Tasty.HUnit
+import Text.Printf
+
+prop_render_parse_roundtrip :: Word64 -> Word64 -> Bool
+prop_render_parse_roundtrip sid tid =
+  let c = SpanContext (SId sid) (TId tid)
+   in Just c == extractSpanContextFromHeaders [("traceparent", renderSpanContext c)]
+
+unit_render_smoke =
+  renderSpanContext (SpanContext (SId 1) (TId 2)) @?= "00-2-1-00"
+
+unit_parse_smoke =
+  extractSpanContextFromHeaders [("traceparent", "00-2-1-00")] @?= Just (SpanContext (SId 1) (TId 2))
+
+prop_fromHex :: Word64 -> Bool
+prop_fromHex x =
+  Just x == fromHex (BS.pack $ printf "%x" x)
+
+unit_fromHex_smoke =
+  Just 1 @?= fromHex "1"