otel-collector-builder

OpenTelemetry Agent Skills

This repository contains reusable agent skills for OpenTelemetry.

The skills are non-opinionated by design — there are many valid ways to use OpenTelemetry, and prescribing conventions is out of scope.

They are designed for token-efficient, agent-friendly retrieval: small fetch tables, lookup indexes, and scripts that point at upstream sources of truth instead of copying docs into context. The agent finds what it missed during training; answers stay current as the project evolves.

Installation

skills.sh

Install all skills:

npx skills add https://github.com/ollygarden/opentelemetry-agent-skills

Or install a single skill by pointing at its folder, e.g.:

npx skills add https://github.com/ollygarden/opentelemetry-agent-skills/tree/main/skills/otel-go

Claude Code

1. Register the repository as a plugin marketplace:

   /plugin marketplace add ollygarden/opentelemetry-agent-skills
   

2. Install a skill:

   /plugin install <skill-name>@opentelemetry-agent-skills
   

   For example:

   /plugin install otel-go@opentelemetry-agent-skills
   

Repository Structure

Each skill is a self-contained folder under skills/, named to match its name: field per the agentskills.io specification. Language-specific skills bundle task-focused references; language-agnostic skills sit alongside them.

skills/
  otel-go/
    SKILL.md           # name: otel-go
    references/        # declarative-setup, api, instrumentation-libraries, performance, breaking-changes, compile-time-instrumentation
  otel-java/
    SKILL.md
    references/
  otel-js/
    SKILL.md
    references/
  otel-python/
    SKILL.md
    references/
  otel-dotnet/
    SKILL.md
    references/
  otel-browser/
    SKILL.md
    references/        # setup-sdk, instrumentation, performance
  otel-collector/
    SKILL.md
    components/        # one directory per Collector component (log_dedup, interval, …)
  otel-collector-builder/
    SKILL.md
    references/        # manifest, workflows, troubleshooting
  otel-declarative-config/
  otel-ottl/
  otel-sdk-versions/
  otel-semantic-conventions/
  otel-span-events-to-logs-migration/
  otel-telemetrygen/
  otel-weaver/

Available Skills

Language-agnostic skills:

Skill	Path	Use When
otel-collector	skills/otel-collector/	Configuring OpenTelemetry Collector components — config keys, defaults, validation, signal support, stability, and gotchas. Progressive disclosure via components/<type>/README.md plus on-demand detail files.
otel-collector-builder	skills/otel-collector-builder/	Building custom OpenTelemetry Collector distributions with OCB — authoring the builder manifest, aligning core/contrib/provider versions, local component development, CI/Docker/multi-arch builds, and build troubleshooting.
otel-declarative-config	skills/otel-declarative-config/	Configuring OpenTelemetry SDK providers via a single YAML file (otelconf, OTEL_CONFIG_FILE, file_format). Points at the upstream schema, env-var substitution rules, and configuration precedence.
otel-ottl	skills/otel-ottl/	Authoring or reviewing OTTL statements for transform, filter, routing, and tail_sampling processors; debugging OTTL syntax and semantics; transforming traces, metrics, logs, and profiles in the Collector.
otel-sdk-versions	skills/otel-sdk-versions/	Choosing the latest compatible released OpenTelemetry SDK or package version for a language and finding setup docs or examples.
otel-semantic-conventions	skills/otel-semantic-conventions/	Selecting released semantic convention groups, attributes, and span naming rules; checking compliance; looking up exact upstream entries via the bundled query script.
otel-span-events-to-logs-migration	skills/otel-span-events-to-logs-migration/	Migrating instrumentation from the deprecated Span Event API (AddEvent, RecordException) to the Logs API following the OTEP 4430 deprecation plan.
otel-telemetrygen	skills/otel-telemetrygen/	Constructing telemetrygen commands for generating synthetic traces, metrics, and logs; load-testing collectors; validating OTTL transforms, tail sampling, and filter rules.
otel-weaver	skills/otel-weaver/	Authoring an OpenTelemetry Weaver registry, writing Jinja2 templates, generating language bindings, and wiring weaver registry check/generate/diff into CI.

Language-specific skills: