Telemetry and the SDK

as of v1.44.0

Telemetry describing itself: the service and SDK that emitted it, and the log and event plumbing.

otel 12 log 7 service 7 telemetry 5 event 1 opentracing 1 state 1

attributes: 34
metrics: 23
signals: 6
stable: 14
deprecated: 4

Signals

What this domain emits, and the attributes each one carries, most strongly required first. An attribute marked * is required on that signal; * is conditionally required.

Entities 6

otel.scopeDeprecatedAttributes used by non-OTLP exporters to represent OpenTelemetry Scope's concepts.
otel.scope.nameotel.scope.version
serviceStableA logical unit of an application or system that performs a specific function.
service.name*service.criticalityservice.version
service.instanceStableA unique instance of a logical service.
service.instance.id*
service.namespaceStableGroups related services that compose a system or application under a common namespace.
service.namespace*
telemetry.distroStableThe distribution of telemetry SDK used to capture data recorded by the instrumentation libraries.
telemetry.distro.nametelemetry.distro.version
telemetry.sdkStableThe telemetry SDK used to capture data recorded by the instrumentation libraries.
telemetry.sdk.language*telemetry.sdk.name*telemetry.sdk.version*

Metrics 23

otel.sdk.exporter.log.exported
Developmentcounter · {log_record}The number of log records for which the export has finished, either successful or failed.
otel.sdk.exporter.log.inflight
Developmentupdowncounter · {log_record}The number of log records which were passed to the exporter, but that have not been exported yet (neither successful, nor failed).
otel.sdk.exporter.metric_data_point.exported
Developmentcounter · {data_point}The number of metric data points for which the export has finished, either successful or failed.
otel.sdk.exporter.metric_data_point.inflight
Developmentupdowncounter · {data_point}The number of metric data points which were passed to the exporter, but that have not been exported yet (neither successful, nor failed).
otel.sdk.exporter.operation.duration
Developmenthistogram · sThe duration of exporting a batch of telemetry records.
otel.sdk.exporter.span.exported
Developmentcounter · {span}The number of spans for which the export has finished, either successful or failed.
otel.sdk.exporter.span.exported.count
Deprecatedupdowncounter · {span}Deprecated, use otel.sdk.exporter.span.exported instead.
otel.sdk.exporter.span.inflight
Developmentupdowncounter · {span}The number of spans which were passed to the exporter, but that have not been exported yet (neither successful, nor failed).
otel.sdk.exporter.span.inflight.count
Deprecatedupdowncounter · {span}Deprecated, use otel.sdk.exporter.span.inflight instead.
otel.sdk.log.created
Developmentcounter · {log_record}The number of logs submitted to enabled SDK Loggers.
otel.sdk.metric_reader.collection.duration
Developmenthistogram · sThe duration of the collect operation of the metric reader.
otel.sdk.processor.log.processed
Developmentcounter · {log_record}The number of log records for which the processing has finished, either successful or failed.
otel.sdk.processor.log.queue.capacity
Developmentupdowncounter · {log_record}The maximum number of log records the queue of a given instance of an SDK Log Record processor can hold.
otel.sdk.processor.log.queue.size
Developmentupdowncounter · {log_record}The number of log records in the queue of a given instance of an SDK log processor.
otel.sdk.processor.span.processed
Developmentcounter · {span}The number of spans for which the processing has finished, either successful or failed.
otel.sdk.processor.span.processed.count
Deprecatedupdowncounter · {span}Deprecated, use otel.sdk.processor.span.processed instead.
otel.sdk.processor.span.queue.capacity
Developmentupdowncounter · {span}The maximum number of spans the queue of a given instance of an SDK span processor can hold.
otel.sdk.processor.span.queue.size
Developmentupdowncounter · {span}The number of spans in the queue of a given instance of an SDK span processor.
otel.sdk.span.ended
Deprecatedcounter · {span}Use otel.sdk.span.started minus otel.sdk.span.live to derive this value.
otel.sdk.span.ended.count
Deprecatedcounter · {span}Use otel.sdk.span.started minus otel.sdk.span.live to derive this value.
otel.sdk.span.live
Developmentupdowncounter · {span}The number of created spans with recording=true for which the end operation has not been called yet.
otel.sdk.span.live.count
Deprecatedupdowncounter · {span}Deprecated, use otel.sdk.span.live instead.
otel.sdk.span.started
Developmentcounter · {span}The number of created spans.

Specification

Metricsare bound by the metrics specification — 548 requirements across 8 documents, 279 of them MUST or SHALL.
Entitiesare bound by the entities specification — 53 requirements across 3 documents, 23 of them MUST or SHALL.

Requirements that name this domain 43

MUSTSchema URLStable
The fetcher MUST follow the HTTP standard and honour the redirect response and fetch the file from the redirected URL.
MUSTSchema URLStable
The schema file that corresponds to the new version MUST be retrievable at a new URL.
MUSTSpan ExporterStable
Each implementation MUST document the concurrency characteristics the SDK requires of the exporter.
SHOULDInstrumentation ScopeStable
This tuple SHOULD uniquely identify the logical unit of software that emits the telemetry.
SHOULDInstrumentation ScopeStable
The instrumentation scope's name SHOULD be specified to identify the InstrumentationScope name.
SHOULDInstrumentation ScopeStable
The instrumentation scope's optional Schema URL SHOULD identify the Telemetry Schema that the instrumentation's emitted telemetry conforms to.
SHOULDInstrumentation Scope AttributesStable
Exporters to formats that don't have a concept that is equivalent to the Scope SHOULD record the attributes at the most suitable place in their corresponding format, typically at the Span, Metric or LogRecord equivalent.
SHOULD NOTExporter SelectionStable
It SHOULD NOT be supported by new implementations.

All 43 matching requirements

On the wire, this lands in metrics/v1/metrics, resource/v1/resource. Field-by-field definitions are under OTLP.

Attributes 34

otel12 attributes

otel.component.name
DevelopmentA name uniquely identifying the instance of the OpenTelemetry component within its containing SDK instance.
otel.component.type
DevelopmentA name identifying the type of the OpenTelemetry component.
otel.event.name
StableIdentifies the class / type of event.
otel.library.name
Deprecated→ otel.scope.nameDeprecated. Use the otel.scope.name attribute
otel.library.version
Deprecated→ otel.scope.versionDeprecated. Use the otel.scope.version attribute.
otel.scope.name
StableThe name of the instrumentation scope - (InstrumentationScope.Name in OTLP).
otel.scope.schema_url
DevelopmentThe schema URL of the instrumentation scope.
otel.scope.version
StableThe version of the instrumentation scope - (InstrumentationScope.Version in OTLP).
otel.span.parent.origin
DevelopmentDetermines whether the span has a parent span, and if so, whether it is a remote parent
otel.span.sampling_result
DevelopmentThe result value of the sampler for this span
otel.status_code
StableName of the code, either "OK" or "ERROR". MUST NOT be set if the status code is UNSET.
otel.status_description
StableDescription of the Status if it has a value, otherwise not set.

log7 attributes

log.file.name
DevelopmentThe basename of the file.
log.file.name_resolved
DevelopmentThe basename of the file, with symlinks resolved.
log.file.path
DevelopmentThe full path to the file.
log.file.path_resolved
DevelopmentThe full path to the file, with symlinks resolved.
log.iostream
DevelopmentThe stream associated with the log. See below for a list of well-known values.
log.record.original
DevelopmentThe complete original Log Record.
log.record.uid
DevelopmentA unique identifier for the Log Record.

service7 attributes

service.criticality
AlphaThe operational criticality of the service.
service.instance.id
StableThe string ID of the service instance.
service.name
StableLogical name of the service.
service.namespace
StableA namespace for service.name.
service.peer.name
DevelopmentLogical name of the service on the other side of the connection. SHOULD be equal to the actual service.name resource attribute of the remote service if any.
service.peer.namespace
DevelopmentLogical namespace of the service on the other side of the connection. SHOULD be equal to the actual service.namespace resource attribute of the remote service i
service.version
StableThe version string of the service component. The format is not defined by these conventions.

telemetry5 attributes

telemetry.distro.name
StableThe name of the auto instrumentation agent or distribution, if used.
telemetry.distro.version
StableThe version string of the auto instrumentation agent or distribution, if used.
telemetry.sdk.language
StableThe language of the telemetry SDK.
telemetry.sdk.name
StableThe name of the telemetry SDK as defined above.
telemetry.sdk.version
StableThe version string of the telemetry SDK.

event1 attributes

event.name
DeprecatedIdentifies the class / type of event.

opentracing1 attributes

opentracing.ref_type
DevelopmentParent-child Reference type

state1 attributes

state
Deprecated→ db.client.connection.stateDeprecated, use db.client.connection.state instead.

Recent changes

Breaking and notable changes to this domain across the last 6 semantic-conventions releases.

enumattributetelemetry.sdk.languageEnum members changed (12 to 13).
deprecatedsignalevent.gen_ai.client.inference.operation.detailsMoved to the OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic conventions repository.
deprecatedsignalevent.gen_ai.client.operation.exceptionMoved to the OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic conventions repository.
deprecatedsignalevent.gen_ai.evaluation.resultMoved to the OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic conventions repository.
stabilityattributeotel.event.namePromoted to stable.
stabilityattributetelemetry.distro.namePromoted to stable.
stabilityattributetelemetry.distro.versionPromoted to stable.
deprecatedsignalevent.rpc.messageDeprecated, no replacement at this time.
stabilityattributeservice.instance.idPromoted to stable.
stabilityattributeservice.namespacePromoted to stable.

Topics are this site's grouping of upstream namespaces, not a structure the OpenTelemetry project publishes. JSON · All domains