OpenTelemetry Concepts

Key concepts in OpenTelemetry

This section covers data sources and key components of the OpenTelemetry project, which can help you understand how OpenTelemetry works.


Observability primer

Core observability concepts.

Context propagation

Learn about the concept that enables Distributed Tracing.

Signals

Learn about the categories of telemetry supported by OpenTelemetry

Instrumentation

How OpenTelemetry facilitates instrumentation

Components

The main components that make up OpenTelemetry

Semantic Conventions

Common names for different kinds of operations and data.

Resources

Instrumentation scope

Sampling

Learn about sampling and the different sampling options available in OpenTelemetry.

Distributions

A distribution, not to be confused with a fork, is customized version of an OpenTelemetry component.

Glossary

Terminology you may or may not be familiar with used by the OpenTelemetry project.