open-telemetry · lmolkova · May 17, 2026 · Jan 2, 2026 · Jan 2, 2026 · Jan 4, 2026
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+# Semantic Convention Schema v2
+
+<!-- toc -->
+
+- [Motivation](#motivation)
+- [Details](#details)
+  - [Resolved schema](#resolved-schema)
+  - [Do we need to talk about importing and decentralization in details?](#do-we-need-to-talk-about-importing-and-decentralization-in-details)
+  - [Differentiating between stable and not stable schemas](#differentiating-between-stable-and-not-stable-schemas)
+- [Trade-offs and mitigations](#trade-offs-and-mitigations)
+  - [Schema Transformation](#schema-transformation)
+  - [Documentation and code generation](#documentation-and-code-generation)
+- [Prior art and alternatives](#prior-art-and-alternatives)
+- [Open questions](#open-questions)
+  - [Schema processing evolution](#schema-processing-evolution)
+- [Prototypes](#prototypes)
+- [Future possibilities](#future-possibilities)
+
+<!-- tocstop -->
+
+In this OTEP, we propose a new telemetry schema format that supports multiple convention registries
+and provides full access to metadata.
+
+It's built upon and is aligned with [OTEP 0243 - Introducing Application Telemetry Schema in OpenTelemetry - Vision and Roadmap](/oteps/0243-app-telemetry-schema-vision-roadmap.md)
+
+## Motivation
+
+Semantic Conventions describe telemetry schema. Conventions hosted by OpenTelemetry describe
+common concepts like HTTP and telemetry produced by different OTel instrumentations.
+
+OTel collector and language-specific instrumentations should be able to publish their
+own conventions that are only applicable within their ecosystem, and should
+have means to communicate the schema they use with [Schema URL](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/v1.52.0/specification/schemas/README.md#schema-url).
+
+Instrumentations that are not hosted by OTel should be able to document and publish
+their own conventions that may take a dependency on the OTel ones.
+
+Consumers of telemetry should be able to access the full schema to validate, upgrade,
+refine, or sanitize the telemetry. The fully resolved schema, discoverable using
+Schema URL, serves as an additional channel for metadata about telemetry. This approach
+does not increase telemetry volume and associated costs.
+
+Examples:
+
+- Given a telemetry signal, consumer should be able to find the full definition
+  of the corresponding telemetry item. This enables quite a few use cases:
+  - UX hints and AI-assistants (explain what this metric measures or what this attribute means)
+  - validation (does the telemetry item comply with the schema)
+  - cost-saving (drop all non-essential metrics)
+  - sanitization (based on annotations in the schema, redact potentially sensitive data)
+- Document company/service-specific conventions taking OTel ones as a dependency
+  and make their schemas accessible to consumers.
+  See [OTEP 0243](/oteps/0243-app-telemetry-schema-vision-roadmap.md) for the details
+
+[Telemetry Schema](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/v1.52.0/specification/schemas/README.md)
+has built the foundation for these scenarios, but does not fully support them -
+it's designed around schema transformations and describes diff between schema
+versions such as attribute or metric renames. While it can work under the assumption
+that there is a single registry (OpenTelemetry Semantic Conventions), it needs
+an upgrade to support arbitrary convention registries.
+
+## Details
+
+When an HTTP GET is issued against a valid Schema URL, the service hosting that
+Schema URL SHOULD return a valid *manifest* in response.
+
+Here's an example of the *manifest*:
+
+```yaml
+file_format: 2.0.0
+name: open-telemetry
+description: OpenTelemetry Semantic Conventions
+version: 1.39.0-dev
+repository_url: https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions
+stability: development
+resolved_schema_url: https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/archive/refs/tags/schema-v1.39.0-dev.yaml
+
+# future
+# diff_url: ...
+# all_in_one_url: https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/archive/refs/tags/v1.39.0-dev.tar.gz
+```
+
+The manifest contains metadata about the semantic convention registry including its
+version, stability, and `resolved_schema_url`.
+
+The `resolved_schema_url` MUST be a valid URL that returns YAML file with the [*resolved* schema](#resolved-schema).
+The service hosting Schema URL MUST support gzip compression that caller MAY control with `Content-Encoding`.
+
+The manifest format will evolve. For example, we may start publishing diffs againts
+previous version(s) and corresponding URL will be added as the new property with a
+minor version bump. Consumers will decide to download parts they actually use.
+
+All artifacts for a given release MUST be immutable. Consumers SHOULD make best efforts
+to cache manifests and resolved schemas or any parts of them used on the hot path.
+
+The manifest schema and REST API to obtain it using Schema URL will be formally
+documented for public, unauthenticated access.
+
+See [Differentiating between stable and not stable schemas](#differentiating-between-stable-and-not-stable-schemas)
+for details on the `-dev` suffix.
+
+### Resolved schema
+
+The [*source* schema](https://github.com/open-telemetry/weaver/blob/main/schemas/semconv-syntax.v2.md)
+used to write semantic conventions is not the same as *resolved* schema.
+
+For example, a metric could be defined in the following way in the *source* schema:
+
+```yaml
+# source schema
+attributes:
+- key: my.operation.name
+  type: string
+  stability: development
+  brief: My service operation name as defined in this Open API spec
+  examples: ["get_object", "create_collection"]
+...
+metrics:
+- name: my.client.operation.duration
+  stability: stable
+  instrument: histogram
+  unit: s
+  attributes:
+    - ref: my.operation.name
+    - ref_group: my.operation.server.attributes
+    - ref: error.type
+```
+
+Attributes are defined separately from metrics and are referenced,
+optimizing reusability and consistency. Defaults or inherited properties are
+omitted.
+
+The *resolved* schema is a single file produced from a set of source schemas. It contains resolved
+signal definitions and refinements. It is optimized for
+distribution and in-memory representation.
+
+*Resolved* schema for this metric would look like:
+
+```yaml
+# resolved schema
+file_format: 2.0.0  # this could be versioned independently of manifest format
+schema_url: https://opentelemetry.io/schemas/1.39.0
+attribute_catalog:
+...
+- key: my.operation.name
+  type: string
+  stability: development
+  brief: My service operation name as defined in this Open API spec
+  examples: ["get_object", "create_collection"]
+...
+registry:
+  attributes:
+  ...
+  - 888   # this is the index of `server.address` in the attribute_catalog
+  - 1042  # this is the index of `my.operation.name` in attribute_catalog
+  ...
+  metrics:
+  - name: my.client.operation.duration
+    instrument: histogram
+    unit: s
+    attributes:
+      - base: 1042  # this is the index of `my.operation.name` in attributes list
+        requirement_level: required
+      - base: 888  # this is the index of `server.address` in the attributes list
+        requirement_level: recommended
+      ...
+```
+
+Resolved schema is formally documented as [JSON schema](https://github.com/lmolkova/weaver/blob/c61cfd13b8f4f1694b451862ea7345868978819e/schemas/semconv.resolved-schema.v2.json), see [overview](https://github.com/lmolkova/weaver/blob/c61cfd13b8f4f1694b451862ea7345868978819e/schemas/semconv-schemas.md#resolved-schema).
+
+Volume data point: resolved schema for [OTel Semantic Conventions v1.38.0](https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/releases/tag/v1.38.0)
+is estimated around 1.2MB uncompressed and around 200KB compressed.
+
+### Differentiating between stable and not stable schemas
+
+Currently, Schema URL includes semantic convention version, but does not include
+indication of stability.
+
+In addition to the version, we will leverage [SemVer pre-release](https://semver.org/#spec-item-9)
+syntax to communicate the stability of the conventions and telemetry.
+
+OpenTelemetry Semantic Conventions will publish two versions with each release:
+
+- stable (e.g. `https://opentelemetry.io/schemas/1.39.0`) which will include only
+  a stable subset of semantic conventions
+- development (e.g. `https://opentelemetry.io/schemas/1.39.0-dev`) which will
+  include all semantic conventions defined in the registry regardless of their
+  stability
+
+Manifest file MUST include actual stability level.
+
+OpenTelemetry instrumentation SHOULD provide a Schema URL depending on which version
+of conventions they follow.
+
+For example, when HTTP instrumentation supports experimental features available
+on top of HTTP conventions, and user enabled these experimental features, instrumentation
+should specify a `-dev` Schema URL.
+
+### Do we need to talk about importing and decentralization in details?
+
+TODO
+
+## Trade-offs and mitigations
+
+> [!NOTE]
+>
+> We will stop publishing current schema [file format 1.1.0](/specification/schemas/file_format_v1.1.0.md)
+> which has [Development](/specification/document-status.md) status
+>
+> This is a breaking change for:
+>
+> - schema transformation (collector `schemaprocessor`)
+> - documentation and code generation scripts
+
+Consumers that download content of Schema URL today will start receiving new
+file format that they won't recognize and won't be able to perform their scenarios.
+
+The only user of existing schema files we are aware of is [schemaprocessor](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/processor/schemaprocessor), which was partially implemented ~1 year ago to do schema transformations,
+but has not been included in OTel collector distribution.
+
+### Schema Transformation
+
+Schema transformations (diffs) will not be published due to:
+
+- limited adoption and functionality not covering many existing upgrade cases
+- ability to generate them on demand
+- lack of test infrastructure around tranformations and known
+
+While it's possible to publish old schema side-by-side with a new one, it would mean
+using a different URL format (such as `https://opentelemetry.io/schemas/v2/1.42.0`)
+which would be confusing. More importantly, we believe it's not justified taking into
+account actual usage.
+
+In order to perform schema transformations, schema processor and other possible consumers
+are encouraged to use [`weaver registry diff`](https://github.com/open-telemetry/weaver/blob/main/docs/usage.md#registry-diff)
+to pre-generate at start time (or generate lazily at runtime) the list of diffs
+for versions they want to support such as vN -> vTarget, vN+1 -> vTarget, etc:
+
+```bash
+weaver registry diff \
+  --registry ./schema-v1.38.0-dev \
+  --baseline-registry ./schema-v1.28.0-dev \
+  --diff-format yaml \
+  --output diff_v1.28.0_v1.38.0 \
+  --v2
+```
+
+It produces a diff file similar to:
+
+```yaml
+registry:
+  attribute_changes:
+  - name: system.memory.linux.slab.state
+    type: added
+  - new_name: rpc.response.status_code
+    note: Replaced by `rpc.response.status_code`.
+    old_name: rpc.connect_rpc.error_code
+    type: renamed
+...
+```
+
+Diff schema is formally documented as JSON schema, see [overview](https://github.com/lmolkova/weaver/blob/c61cfd13b8f4f1694b451862ea7345868978819e/schemas/semconv-schemas.md#diff-schema)
+and [full schema](https://github.com/lmolkova/weaver/blob/c61cfd13b8f4f1694b451862ea7345868978819e/schemas/semconv.diff.v2.json).
+
+<details>
+
+<summary>It's relatively cheap to calculate the diff between two arbitrary (supported by weaver)
+versions.</summary>
+
+Assuming data is already available locally, it takes ~100ms and ~500ms on two different
+machines I tried. It currently includes time to unpack, read, validate, and
+resolve source schema, and can be optimized further by leveraging resolved schema.
+</details>
+
+### Documentation and code generation
+
+Weaver supports Schema V2 as opt-in feature and will default to old schema format
+until a majority of OTel code-generation scripts use it.
+
+Migration will involve minor changes in Jinja2 templates and weaver config files.
+Migration steps and recipes will be documented. There should be no impact on the
+generated documentation or artifacts affecting end users.
+
+## Prior art and alternatives
+
+See [Telemetry Schema](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/v1.52.0/specification/schemas/README.md)
+for the current state of the art.
+
+## Open questions
+
+### Schema processing evolution
+
+Based on the previous discussions in the community ([weaver/450](https://github.com/open-telemetry/weaver/issues/450),
+[repo:open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification schema transformation](https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Aopen-telemetry%2Fopentelemetry-specification+schema+transformation&type=issues)) we've identified
+that the need for transformations is not limited to renames. Applying certain
+transformations in isolation may produce otherwise invalid
+telemetry items (e.g. renaming existing attribute but not adding new required attribute).
+Transformations need to support upgrades and downgrades.
+So while transformations are extremely useful, they could be extremely complicated.
+
+The existing story around schema transformations didn't go through extensive development
+and feedback cycle and we don't have confidence that weaver diff schema is sufficient
+for the future transformation needs. It's also not clear if schema transformation
+would still be necessary once the core set of semantic conventions is stabilized.
+
+Weaver diff should evolve along with schema transformation adoption and eventually
+may be included in the published artifacts.
+
+## Prototypes
+
+[Semantic conventions](https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/pull/2469)
+in a release preparation step would:
+
+- resolve schema
+- generate manifest
+- publish SemConv artifact as a GitHub release asset (and potentially on opentelemetry.io)
+- TODO: stable and not stable publishing
+
+TODO: do we need collector prototype for schema transformation?
+TODO: do we need imports/decentralized example
+
+## Future possibilities
+
+1. Schema transformation may be applicable between different convention registries.
+   For example, between ECS and OTel or between [OTel gRPC and native gRPC conventions](https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/pull/3229)
+
+2. We've been serving OTel schemas on opentelemetry.io and are proposing to start
+   serving artifacts from GitHub assets. If we see significantly higher demand,
+   we'd need to consider other distribution options that would support scale or
+   reliability needs.