RPC: deprecate rpc.server|client.request|response.size metrics#3267
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lmolkova merged 4 commits intoopen-telemetry:mainfrom Jan 15, 2026
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RPC: deprecate rpc.server|client.request|response.size metrics#3267lmolkova merged 4 commits intoopen-telemetry:mainfrom
rpc.server|client.request|response.size metrics#3267lmolkova merged 4 commits intoopen-telemetry:mainfrom
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kamphaus
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matt-hensley
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@open-telemetry/java-instrumentation-approvers any concerns with us removing these metrics?
Co-authored-by: Matthew Hensley <130569+matt-hensley@users.noreply.github.com>
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Fixes #3259
Deprecate
rpc.server.request.size,rpc.server.response.size,rpc.client.request.size,and
rpc.client.response.sizemetrics due to confusing definition and low adoption.Came up in #3229 when analyzing gRPC native metrics.
request|responseterminology, but apply to individual messages within a stream. E.g. Java instrumentation interprets them as per-call (and records metrics with last-message-size while Go instrumentation reports metric per-message)grpc.client.attempt.sent_total_compressed_message_size,grpc.client.attempt.rcvd_total_compressed_message_size,grpc.server.call.sent_total_compressed_message_size,grpc.server.call.rcvd_total_compressed_message_sizewhich are more specific.Retries and compression are framework/protocol specific and following T-Shaped signals philosophy, each framework can define its own metrics for message sizes when necessary.
If there is enough commonality, new metrics can be added to OTel in the future, but we're not targeting them for initial RPC conventions stability.