diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 24c4e2c24..6701bb7d0 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -267,6 +267,8 @@ dependencies = [
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
  "tokio",
+ "tracing",
+ "tracing-subscriber",
  "url",
 ]
 
diff --git a/tools/automator/Cargo.toml b/tools/automator/Cargo.toml
index e89b37370..4e6a6a4bc 100644
--- a/tools/automator/Cargo.toml
+++ b/tools/automator/Cargo.toml
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ octocrab = "0.32.0"
 semver = "1.0.20"
 serde = "1.0.193"
 serde_json = "1.0.108"
+tracing = "0.1.40"
 url = "2.5.0"
 
 [dependencies.autolib]
@@ -24,3 +25,7 @@ features = ["derive"]
 [dependencies.tokio]
 version = "1.35.0"
 features = ["full"]
+
+[dependencies.tracing-subscriber]
+version = "0.3.18"
+features = ["env-filter"]
diff --git a/tools/automator/src/blog/release.rs b/tools/automator/src/blog/release.rs
index 550c957fa..67e9e644e 100644
--- a/tools/automator/src/blog/release.rs
+++ b/tools/automator/src/blog/release.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 use std::{collections::HashSet, fmt::Write};
 
+use anyhow::Context;
 use map_macro::hash_set;
 use octocrab::Octocrab;
 use tokio::{fs::File, io::AsyncWriteExt};
@@ -17,7 +18,9 @@ pub async fn create_release_announcement(
     let date = util::now_ymd();
 
     let pull_requests_since_last_release =
-        PullRequestsSinceLastRelease::fetch(octocrab).await?;
+        PullRequestsSinceLastRelease::fetch(octocrab)
+            .await
+            .context("Failed to fetch pull requests since last release")?;
 
     let pull_requests =
         pull_requests_since_last_release.pull_requests.into_values();
@@ -33,12 +36,15 @@ pub async fn create_release_announcement(
     let min_dollars = 32;
     let for_readme = false;
     let sponsors = Sponsors::query(octocrab)
-        .await?
-        .as_markdown(min_dollars, for_readme)?;
+        .await
+        .context("Failed to query sponsors")?
+        .as_markdown(min_dollars, for_readme)
+        .context("Failed to convert sponsor data to Markdown")?;
 
     let mut file = util::create_blog_post_file("release", &version).await?;
     generate_announcement(date, version, sponsors, pull_requests, &mut file)
-        .await?;
+        .await
+        .context("Failed to generate release announcement")?;
 
     Ok(())
 }
diff --git a/tools/automator/src/run.rs b/tools/automator/src/run.rs
index 6413ff6ef..cf111768b 100644
--- a/tools/automator/src/run.rs
+++ b/tools/automator/src/run.rs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ use std::env;
 
 use anyhow::Context;
 use octocrab::Octocrab;
+use tracing_subscriber::{layer::SubscriberExt, util::SubscriberInitExt};
 
 use crate::{
     args::{Args, Blog},
@@ -10,6 +11,11 @@ use crate::{
 };
 
 pub async fn run() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+    tracing_subscriber::registry()
+        .with(tracing_subscriber::fmt::layer())
+        .with(tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::from_default_env())
+        .init();
+
     let token = env::var("GITHUB_TOKEN")
         .context("Loading env variable `GITHUB_TOKEN`")?;
     let octocrab = Octocrab::builder().personal_token(token).build()?;
diff --git a/tools/automator/src/sponsors.rs b/tools/automator/src/sponsors.rs
index 138e68832..dd983110a 100644
--- a/tools/automator/src/sponsors.rs
+++ b/tools/automator/src/sponsors.rs
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ use std::{cmp::Ordering, collections::HashMap, fmt::Write};
 use anyhow::Context;
 use chrono::{DateTime, Utc};
 use octocrab::Octocrab;
+use tracing::debug;
 
 #[derive(Debug)]
 pub struct Sponsors {
@@ -45,11 +46,16 @@ impl Sponsors {
         let mut json_object = HashMap::new();
         json_object.insert("query", graphql_query);
 
-        let response: QueryResult = octocrab
+        let response: serde_json::Value = octocrab
             .graphql(&json_object)
             .await
             .context("GraphQL query failed")?;
 
+        debug!("Response to GraphQL query for sponsors:\n{response}");
+
+        let response: QueryResult = serde_json::from_value(response)
+            .context("Failed to deserialize GraphQL query result")?;
+
         let mut sponsors = response
             .data
             .viewer