diff --git a/.npmrc b/.npmrc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f56badc3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.npmrc
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+@mrge-group:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com
+//npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=${GITHUB_TOKEN}
diff --git a/src/handler.cjs b/src/handler.cjs
index 641aea93d..34722b62e 100644
--- a/src/handler.cjs
+++ b/src/handler.cjs
@@ -7,15 +7,17 @@ const {
 } = require("./index.js");
 const { logDebug, logError } = require("./utils/index.js");
 const { loadSync } = require("./runtime/index.js");
-const { initTracer } = require("./runtime/module_importer");
+const { loadTracer } = require("./runtime/module_importer.js");
+const { initTracer } = require("./trace/index.js")
 
 if (process.env.DD_TRACE_DISABLED_PLUGINS === undefined) {
   process.env.DD_TRACE_DISABLED_PLUGINS = "fs";
   logDebug("disabled the dd-trace plugin 'fs'");
 }
 
+const tracer = loadTracer();
 if (getEnvValue("DD_TRACE_ENABLED", "true").toLowerCase() === "true") {
-  initTracer();
+  initTracer(tracer);
 }
 
 const taskRootEnv = getEnvValue(lambdaTaskRootEnvVar, "");
@@ -32,4 +34,4 @@ if (extractorEnv) {
   }
 }
 
-exports.handler = datadog(loadSync(taskRootEnv, handlerEnv), { traceExtractor });
+exports.handler = datadog(loadSync(taskRootEnv, handlerEnv), tracer, { traceExtractor });
diff --git a/src/handler.mjs b/src/handler.mjs
index 2db66c2d1..1ce084d20 100644
--- a/src/handler.mjs
+++ b/src/handler.mjs
@@ -1,15 +1,17 @@
 import { datadog, datadogHandlerEnvVar, lambdaTaskRootEnvVar, traceExtractorEnvVar, getEnvValue } from "./index.js";
 import { logDebug, logError } from "./utils/index.js";
 import { load } from "./runtime/index.js";
-import { initTracer } from "./runtime/module_importer.js";
+import { loadTracer } from "./runtime/module_importer.js";
+import { initTracer } from "./trace/index.js";
 
 if (process.env.DD_TRACE_DISABLED_PLUGINS === undefined) {
   process.env.DD_TRACE_DISABLED_PLUGINS = "fs";
   logDebug("disabled the dd-trace plugin 'fs'");
 }
 
+const tracer = loadTracer();
 if (getEnvValue("DD_TRACE_ENABLED", "true").toLowerCase() === "true") {
-  initTracer();
+  initTracer(tracer);
 }
 
 const taskRootEnv = getEnvValue(lambdaTaskRootEnvVar, "");
@@ -26,4 +28,4 @@ if (extractorEnv) {
   }
 }
 
-export const handler = datadog(await load(taskRootEnv, handlerEnv), { traceExtractor });
+export const handler = datadog(await load(taskRootEnv, handlerEnv), tracer,  { traceExtractor });
diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index bcca75221..6363b2518 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -21,9 +21,11 @@ import {
 } from "./utils";
 import { getEnhancedMetricTags } from "./metrics/enhanced-metrics";
 import { DatadogTraceHeaders } from "./trace/context/extractor";
+import {Tracer} from "dd-trace";
 
 // Backwards-compatible export, TODO deprecate in next major
 export { DatadogTraceHeaders as TraceHeaders } from "./trace/context/extractor";
+export { initTracer } from "./trace";
 export const apiKeyEnvVar = "DD_API_KEY";
 export const apiKeyKMSEnvVar = "DD_KMS_API_KEY";
 export const captureLambdaPayloadEnvVar = "DD_CAPTURE_LAMBDA_PAYLOAD";
@@ -98,6 +100,7 @@ const initTime = Date.now();
 /**
  * Wraps your AWS lambda handler functions to add tracing/metrics support
  * @param handler A lambda handler function.
+ * @param tracer The tracer to be used.
  * @param config Configuration options for datadog.
  * @returns A wrapped handler function.
  *
@@ -109,12 +112,13 @@ const initTime = Date.now();
  */
 export function datadog<TEvent, TResult>(
   handler: Handler<TEvent, TResult> | any,
+  tracer: Tracer,
   config?: Partial<Config>,
 ): Handler<TEvent, TResult> | any {
   const finalConfig = getConfig(config);
   const metricsListener = new MetricsListener(new KMSService(), finalConfig);
 
-  const traceListener = new TraceListener(finalConfig);
+  const traceListener = new TraceListener(tracer, finalConfig);
 
   // Only wrap the handler once unless forced
   const _ddWrappedKey = "_ddWrapped";
diff --git a/src/runtime/module_importer.js b/src/runtime/module_importer.js
index 0ee71f471..2187f30eb 100644
--- a/src/runtime/module_importer.js
+++ b/src/runtime/module_importer.js
@@ -7,21 +7,17 @@ exports.import = function (path) {
     return import(path);
 }
 
-exports.initTracer = function () {
-    // Looks for the function local version of dd-trace first, before using
-    // the version provided by the layer
-    const path = require.resolve("dd-trace", { paths: ["/var/task/node_modules", ...module.paths] });
-    // tslint:disable-next-line:no-var-requires
-    const tracer = require(path).init({
-        tags: {
-            "_dd.origin": "lambda",
-        },
-    });
-    logDebug("automatically initialized dd-trace");
-
-    // Configure the tracer to ignore HTTP calls made from the Lambda Library to the Extension
-    tracer.use("http", {
-        blocklist: /:8124\/lambda/,
-    });
-    return tracer;
+exports.loadTracer = function () {
+    try {
+        // Looks for the function local version of dd-trace first, before using
+        // the version provided by the layer
+        const path = require.resolve("dd-trace", { paths: ["/var/task/node_modules", ...module.paths] });
+        // tslint:disable-next-line:no-var-requires
+        return require(path);
+    } catch (err) {
+        if (err instanceof Object || err instanceof Error) {
+            logDebug("Couldn't require dd-trace from main", err);
+        }
+    }
+    return undefined;
 }
diff --git a/src/runtime/user-function.ts b/src/runtime/user-function.ts
index 5071238fa..b1454e3d3 100644
--- a/src/runtime/user-function.ts
+++ b/src/runtime/user-function.ts
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ import {
   ImportModuleError,
   UserCodeSyntaxError,
 } from "./errors";
+import {logDebug} from "../utils";
+import {Tracer} from "dd-trace";
 
 const module_importer = require("./module_importer");
 const FUNCTION_EXPR = /^([^.]*)\.(.*)$/;
diff --git a/src/trace/index.ts b/src/trace/index.ts
index 74fbf13ce..cd2c1d9a8 100644
--- a/src/trace/index.ts
+++ b/src/trace/index.ts
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 export { TraceConfig, TraceListener, TraceExtractor } from "./listener";
 export { DatadogTraceHeaders } from "./context/extractor";
+export { initTracer } from "./tracer-wrapper";
diff --git a/src/trace/listener.ts b/src/trace/listener.ts
index 7456813a0..80ff93aa9 100644
--- a/src/trace/listener.ts
+++ b/src/trace/listener.ts
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import { TraceContext, TraceContextService, TraceSource } from "./trace-context-
 import { StepFunctionContext, StepFunctionContextService } from "./step-function-service";
 import { XrayService } from "./xray-service";
 import { AUTHORIZING_REQUEST_ID_HEADER } from "./context/extractors/http";
+import {Tracer} from "dd-trace";
 export type TraceExtractor = (event: any, context: Context) => Promise<TraceContext> | TraceContext;
 
 export interface TraceConfig {
@@ -80,8 +81,8 @@ export class TraceListener {
     return this.contextService.currentTraceHeaders;
   }
 
-  constructor(private config: TraceConfig) {
-    this.tracerWrapper = new TracerWrapper();
+  constructor(private readonly tracer: Tracer, private config: TraceConfig) {
+    this.tracerWrapper = new TracerWrapper(tracer);
     this.contextService = new TraceContextService(this.tracerWrapper, this.config);
     this.inferrer = new SpanInferrer(this.tracerWrapper);
   }
diff --git a/src/trace/tracer-wrapper.ts b/src/trace/tracer-wrapper.ts
index 78cb6b49c..1d49ce766 100644
--- a/src/trace/tracer-wrapper.ts
+++ b/src/trace/tracer-wrapper.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { logDebug } from "../utils";
 import { SpanContextWrapper } from "./span-context-wrapper";
 import { TraceSource } from "./trace-context-service";
+import {Tracer} from "dd-trace";
 
 export interface SpanContext {
   toTraceId(): string;
@@ -23,24 +24,28 @@ export interface TraceOptions {
   childOf?: SpanContext;
 }
 
+export function initTracer(tracer: Tracer): Tracer {
+  tracer.init({
+    tags: {
+      "_dd.origin": "lambda",
+    },
+  });
+  logDebug("automatically initialized dd-trace");
+
+  // Configure the tracer to ignore HTTP calls made from the Lambda Library to the Extension
+  tracer.use("http", {
+    blocklist: /:8124\/lambda/,
+  });
+  return tracer;
+}
+
 // TraceWrapper is used to remove dd-trace as a hard dependency from the npm package.
 // This lets a customer bring their own version of the tracer.
 export class TracerWrapper {
-  private tracer: any;
-
-  constructor() {
-    try {
-      // Try and use the same version of the tracing library the user has installed.
-      // This handles edge cases where two versions of dd-trace are installed, one in the layer
-      // and one in the user's code.
-      const path = require.resolve("dd-trace", { paths: ["/var/task/node_modules", ...module.paths] });
-      this.tracer = require(path);
-      return;
-    } catch (err) {
-      if (err instanceof Object || err instanceof Error) {
-        logDebug("Couldn't require dd-trace from main", err);
-      }
-    }
+  private readonly tracer: any;
+
+  constructor(tracer: Tracer) {
+    this.tracer = tracer;
   }
 
   public get isTracerAvailable(): boolean {