Contributing

Thank you for your interest!

Thank for your interest in contributing to OpenTelemetry. Contributors help sustain OpenTelemetry, and every contribution helps make the project better for the entire community.

Here is some advice to help you get started:

• Contributions can come out of necessity: While we do appreciate regular contributors, it is alright to contribute out of necessity, such as if you find a bug in the Collector, or wish to develop a feature your team needs.

• Spotted a gap? That counts too: OpenTelemetry is a large project, and even with the best efforts of contributors and maintainers, gaps in documentation and functionality are inevitable. If you notice one, filing an issue or submitting a fix is a meaningful contribution.

• Response times may vary: Contributors and maintainers often work on OpenTelemetry in their own time, and are frequently juggling multiple things. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear back immediately.

• You don’t need to be an OTel expert: Your existing skills and professional context are themselves useful. SREs, DevRel folks, and non-native English speakers all bring diverse perspectives that actively benefit the project.

First time contributing?

• Choose an issue with the following labels:

  • Good first issue
  • Help wanted
  We do not assign issues

  We do not assign issues to those who have not already made contributions to the OpenTelemetry organization, unless part of a confirmed mentorship or onboarding process.

• Make sure to choose an issue that matches your level of experience and understanding of OpenTelemetry. Avoid overreaching your capabilities.

• Read our Generative AI contribution policy

• Join the #opentelemetry-new-contributors Slack channel to learn about development etiquette and connect with other new contributors.

• Want to work on other issues or larger changes? Discuss it with maintainers first.

Jump right in!

What do you want to do?

• Correct a typo or other quick fixes, see Submitting content using GitHub
• Add or update a homepage announcement, see Homepage announcements
• For more significant contributions, read the pages in this section starting with:
  • Prerequisites
  • Issues
  • Submitting content

What can I contribute to?

OpenTelemetry is a large project with many ways to get involved. Documentation is one entry point, but far from the only one.

Documentation

OpenTelemetry documentation contributors can:

• Improve existing or create new content
• Submit a blog post or case study
• Add to or update the OpenTelemetry Registry
• Improve the code that builds the site

The pages in this section describe how to contribute to OpenTelemetry documentation.

Code contributions

For guidance on contributing code to the OpenTelemetry project, see the community OpenTelemetry New Contributor Guide. Every OTel repository for language implementations, the Collector, and conventions has its own project-specific contributing guide.

The OTel Demo is a good starting point if you want to dip your feet into code contributions. It features 15+ services across multiple languages, giving you a concrete feel for how instrumentation works in practice across real distributed systems.

SIG participation

Joining a Special Interest Group (SIG) is one of the most effective ways to contribute to OTel. SIGs focus on specific areas of the project, such as language-specific SDKs, the Collector, end users, contributor experience, and more.

SIG participation helps you:

• Gain insight into current priorities within a smaller, focused section of the OpenTelemetry project
• Connect with maintainers, approvers, and other contributors
• Bring your own topics and help decide the direction of the project

The OTel community repository lists all active SIGs with calendar invite and Slack channel links.

Community

Contributing to OTel doesn’t mean limiting yourself to writing code or docs. You can also:

• Volunteer for note-taking at SIG meetings
• Help organize community events, like the OpenTelemetry Contributor Day at KubeCon
• Contribute to localization efforts to help make OTel accessible to developers in different languages
• Participate in the End-User SIG by sharing your practitioner experience, or contribute to community podcasts like OTel Me and OTel in Practice