ollygardenollygarden/opentelemetry-agent-skills/skills/otel-java/SKILL.md

otel-java

Skill125 starsChanged 4 months agoApache-2.0View on GitHub

OpenTelemetry in Java — Javaagent zero-code instrumentation, Spring Boot Starter, manual autoconfigure SDK, declarative YAML configuration, BOM dependency management, sensitive-data capture and redaction (url.query, headers, request parameters, SQL sanitization). Use when adding, reviewing, or configuring OpenTelemetry in a Java service. Triggers on "setup otel in java", "java telemetry", "javaagent", "Spring Boot otel", "GlobalOpenTelemetry", "AutoConfiguredOpenTelemetrySdk", "TracerProvider java", "url.query redaction", "capture request headers", or any Java-related OTel question.

In this repository19 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- otel-browserSkill
- otel-collector-builderSkill
- otel-collectorSkill
- otel-declarative-configSkill
- otel-dotnetSkill
- otel-goSkill
- otel-jsSkill
- otel-ottlSkill
- otel-profilesSkill
- otel-pythonSkill
- otel-rubySkill
- otel-sdk-versionsSkill
- otel-semantic-conventionsSkill
- otel-span-events-to-logs-migrationSkill
- otel-telemetry-emissionsSkill
- otel-telemetrygenSkill
- otel-upgradeSkill
- otel-weaverSkill

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

1 rule. About 0 are common, 0 are distinctive, and 1 is very specific to this project.

≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈0
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
1
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

Common
Distinctive
Very specific

Very specific:
Prefer this Explorer data over the raw ecosystem-registry YAML on GitHub: the Explorer applies upstream metadata corrections that the raw …
line 59

≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.

Files

SKILL.md

OpenTelemetry in Java

Entry point for OpenTelemetry mechanics in Java services. Load a reference below based on the task; each reference is self-contained.

References

File	Use when
`references/declarative-setup.md`	Configuring the SDK via declarative YAML: Javaagent activation, Spring Boot Starter, autoconfigure SDK, BOM, agent-only properties, manual instrumentation entry points.
`references/sensitive-data-capture.md`	What HTTP instrumentation captures by default (query strings ON, headers/params OFF), query-parameter redaction (`sensitive-query-parameters`), header/servlet-parameter capture knobs, SQL sanitization.

Sources of Truth

For YAML schema details, fetch the upstream sources listed in the otel-declarative-config skill. For Java-specific facts:

Fact	Fetch
Latest BOM (`opentelemetry-bom`)	`gh api repos/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java/releases/latest -q '.tag_name'`
Latest Javaagent	`gh api repos/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/releases/latest -q '.tag_name'`
SDK declarative-config accepted and preferred `file_format` for a selected BOM tag	`WebFetch https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java/<selected-sdk-tag>/sdk-extensions/declarative-config/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/sdk/autoconfigure/declarativeconfig/OpenTelemetryConfigurationFactory.java`
Javaagent declarative-config docs (current activation flag, supported `file_format`)	`WebFetch https://opentelemetry.io/docs/zero-code/java/agent/declarative-configuration/`
Javaagent declarative-config smoke fixture (parser truth for selected agent tag)	`WebFetch https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/<selected-agent-tag>/smoke-tests/src/test/resources/declarative-config.yaml`
Javaagent CHANGELOG (when each schema rc landed)	`WebFetch https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/<selected-agent-tag>/CHANGELOG.md`
Generated Java instrumentation config reference (names, types, defaults, deprecations)	`WebFetch https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/<selected-agent-tag>/docs/declarative-configuration-example.yaml`
Spring Boot Starter declarative-config fixture (selected starter tag)	`WebFetch https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/<selected-agent-tag>/smoke-tests-otel-starter/spring-boot-2/src/testDeclarativeConfig/resources/application.yaml`
Spring Boot starter docs	`WebFetch https://opentelemetry.io/docs/zero-code/java/spring-boot-starter/`
Per-instrumentation telemetry & config (resolved spans/attributes, metrics, config options, target versions)	`WebFetch https://explorer.opentelemetry.io/data/javaagent/instrumentations/<id>/<id>-<hash>.json` — get `<id>` and the latest `<hash>` from the index (see below)

What telemetry does an instrumentation emit?

For "what does the agent produce for library X" — which spans, attributes, metrics, or config knobs — use the OpenTelemetry Ecosystem Explorer, which fully maps the Java agent and exposes an agent-friendly surface (Markdown indexes and resolved JSON, no scraping). Do not answer from model memory.

Navigation:

WebFetch https://explorer.opentelemetry.io/agent/javaagent/index.md — table mapping display name → id → the instrumentation's JSON data URL (the URL embeds the content <hash>).
WebFetch that JSON URL — one self-contained record (a few KB): resolved configurations, telemetry (spans with span_kind + typed attributes, and metrics), javaagent_target_versions, semantic_conventions, and scope.

Version-specific or "what changed between releases": https://explorer.opentelemetry.io/agent/javaagent/versions.md lists versions and marks the latest; https://explorer.opentelemetry.io/data/javaagent/versions/<version>-index.json gives the id→hash map for a version — a differing hash for the same id across two versions means that instrumentation changed. Schema: https://explorer.opentelemetry.io/schemas/javaagent-instrumentation.schema.json; use /llms.txt for the agent-oriented index and /llms-full.txt for the full documentation.

Prefer this Explorer data over the raw ecosystem-registry YAML on GitHub: the Explorer applies upstream metadata corrections that the raw registry does not.

Cross-References

Schema-level facts: otel-declarative-config skill (language-agnostic YAML schema sources).
SDK version selection across languages: otel-sdk-versions skill.
Semantic conventions lookup: otel-semantic-conventions skill.

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