Forking the demo repository

The demo repository is designed to be forked and used as a tool to show off what you are doing with OpenTelemetry.

Setting up a fork or a demo usually only requires overriding some environment variables and possibly replacing some container images.

Live demos can be added to the demo README.

Suggestions for Fork Maintainers

  • If you’d like to enhance the telemetry data emitted or collected by the demo, then we strongly encourage you to backport your changes to this repository. For vendor or implementation specific changes, a strategy of modifying telemetry in the pipeline via config is preferable to underlying code changes.
  • Extend rather than replace. Adding net-new services that interface with the existing API is a great way to add vendor-specific or tool-specific features that can’t be accomplished through telemetry modification.
  • To support extensibility, please use repository or facade patterns around resources like queues, databases, caches, etc. This will allow for different implementations of these services to be shimmed in for different platforms.
  • Please do not attempt to backport vendor or tool-specific enhancements to this repository.

If you have any questions or would like to suggest ways that we can make your life easier as a fork maintainer, please open an issue.

Last modified February 7, 2023: Demo docs: left-nav fixes (#2275) (5884a4fe)