OpenTelemetry Semantic Conventions

Use this skill when you need released semantic convention guidance for naming, attributes, or compliance checks.

Workflow

1. Start with released semantic conventions, not model memory.

• do not load the full semantic convention spec into context
• use the bundled lookup script to query only the needed released group or attribute
• for local verification against a checked-out upstream repo, set OTEL_SEMCONV_REPO=/path/to/semantic-conventions

2. Choose the closest released group before inventing custom keys.

• identify the boundary type such as http, db, messaging, rpc, or network
• pick one primary group first, then add related groups only when they add needed context
• for gen_ai.*, OpenAI, or MCP conventions, use open-telemetry/semantic-conventions-genai; it has no tagged release as of 2026-10-25, so cite the commit and label the guidance unreleased (the lookup script does not cover it); the core repository keeps only deprecated GenAI-era stubs after v1.42.0
• see references/semconv-selection.md
• to target a version a language's semconv package actually exposes (works offline, dated), see references/sdk-semconv-packages.md