diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index e8760526c6..8466100295 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -135,6 +135,8 @@ Suggests:
     magick,
     litedown,
     markdown (>= 1.3),
+    otel,
+    otelsdk,
     png,
     ragg,
     reticulate (>= 1.4),
@@ -180,6 +182,7 @@ Collate:
     'hooks-rst.R'
     'hooks-textile.R'
     'hooks.R'
+    'otel.R'
     'output.R'
     'package.R'
     'pandoc.R'
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 86b206eea1..98263d38cb 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
 # CHANGES IN knitr VERSION 1.51
 
+## NEW FEATURES
+
+- Added support for [OpenTelemetry](https://opentelemetry.io/) observability. When the **otel** and **otelsdk** packages are installed and tracing is enabled, spans are automatically created for all knit operations. See [`otelsdk`'s Collecting Telemetry Data](https://otelsdk.r-lib.org/reference/collecting.html) for more details on configuring OpenTelemetry (thanks, @shikokuchuo, #2422).
+  - `knit()` produces 'knitr processing' and 'knitr output' spans when starting and finishing an operation
+  - `knit()` produces 'knit' spans for each chunk, recording attributes such as the label and knit engine
+
+## BUG FIXES
+
 - Fix issue with error traceback not correctly showing when **rlang** is available.
 
 - Improve error traceback when **rlang** is available and **evaluate** > 1.0.3 is used (thanks, @cderv, #2388).
diff --git a/R/block.R b/R/block.R
index 28ea201183..5b95403ab6 100644
--- a/R/block.R
+++ b/R/block.R
@@ -145,6 +145,13 @@ cache2.opts = c('fig.keep', 'fig.path', 'fig.ext', 'dev', 'dpi', 'dev.args', 'fi
 cache0.opts = c('include', 'out.width.px', 'out.height.px', 'cache.rebuild')
 
 block_exec = function(options) {
+  otel_active_span(
+    name = 'knit',
+    label = options$label,
+    attributes = make_chunk_attributes(options),
+    scope = environment()
+  )
+
   if (options$engine == 'R') return(eng_r(options))
 
   # when code is not R language
diff --git a/R/otel.R b/R/otel.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7a97053503
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/otel.R
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+otel_tracer_name = 'org.yihui.knitr'
+otel_tracer = NULL
+otel_is_tracing = FALSE
+
+# generic otel helpers:
+
+# - without specifying `scope`, the span ends when this function returns;
+#   to make this a local span (last as long as the function it is called from),
+#   specify `scope = environment()`
+# - arguments remain unevaluated on early return
+otel_active_span = function(
+  name,
+  label,
+  attributes = list(),
+  scope = environment()
+) {
+  otel_is_tracing || return()
+  otel::start_local_active_span(
+    name = sprintf('%s %s', name, label),
+    attributes = otel::as_attributes(attributes),
+    tracer = otel_tracer,
+    activation_scope = scope
+  )
+}
+
+otel_cache_tracer = function() {
+  requireNamespace('otel', quietly = TRUE) || return()
+  otel_tracer <<- otel::get_tracer(otel_tracer_name)
+  otel_is_tracing <<- tracer_enabled(otel_tracer)
+}
+
+tracer_enabled = function(tracer) {
+  .subset2(tracer, 'is_enabled')()
+}
+
+otel_refresh_tracer = function(pkgname) {
+  requireNamespace('otel', quietly = TRUE) || return()
+  ns = getNamespace(pkgname)
+  do.call(unlockBinding, list('otel_is_tracing', ns)) # do.call for R CMD Check
+  do.call(unlockBinding, list('otel_tracer', ns))
+  otel_tracer = otel::get_tracer()
+  ns[['otel_is_tracing']] = tracer_enabled(otel_tracer)
+  ns[['otel_tracer']] = otel_tracer
+  lockBinding('otel_is_tracing', ns)
+  lockBinding('otel_tracer', ns)
+}
+
+# knitr-specific helpers:
+
+make_chunk_attributes = function(options) {
+  list(
+    knitr.chunk.device = options$dev,
+    knitr.chunk.echo = options$echo,
+    knitr.chunk.engine = options$engine,
+    knitr.chunk.eval = options$eval,
+    knitr.chunk.label = options$label
+  )
+}
+
+make_knitr_attributes = function() {
+  list(
+    knitr.format = out_format(),
+    knitr.input = get_knitr_concord('infile'),
+    knitr.output = get_knitr_concord('outfile')
+  )
+}
+
+# safe version that always returns a string
+get_knitr_concord = function(name) {
+  knit_concord$get(name) %n% ''
+}
diff --git a/R/output.R b/R/output.R
index 9f926a3eff..88965c4e69 100644
--- a/R/output.R
+++ b/R/output.R
@@ -227,6 +227,12 @@ knit = function(
 
   if (is.null(out_format())) auto_format(ext)
 
+  otel_active_span(
+    name = 'knitr processing',
+    label = get_knitr_concord('infile'),
+    attributes = make_knitr_attributes()
+  )
+
   params = NULL  # the params field from YAML
   if (out_format('markdown')) {
     if (child_mode()) {
@@ -264,6 +270,12 @@ knit = function(
     if (!quiet) message('output file: ', output, ifelse(progress, '\n', ''))
   }
 
+  otel_active_span(
+    name = 'knitr output',
+    label = get_knitr_concord('outfile'),
+    attributes = make_knitr_attributes()
+  )
+
   output %n% res
 }
 #' @rdname knit
diff --git a/R/zzz.R b/R/zzz.R
index 120a5e281e..02436d6938 100644
--- a/R/zzz.R
+++ b/R/zzz.R
@@ -2,9 +2,11 @@ has_rlang = FALSE
 
 .onLoad = function(lib, pkg) {
   register_vignette_engines(pkg)
-  
+
   default_handlers <<- evaluate::new_output_handler()
 
+  otel_cache_tracer()
+
   has_rlang <<- requireNamespace("rlang", quietly = TRUE)
 
   if (has_rlang)
diff --git a/tests/testit/test-otel.R b/tests/testit/test-otel.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cc89a2cf3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testit/test-otel.R
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+library(testit)
+
+if (requireNamespace('otelsdk', quietly = TRUE)) {
+
+  record = otelsdk::with_otel_record({
+    # refresh tracer within the `with_otel_record()` scope
+    otel_refresh_tracer('knitr')
+
+    knit(
+      text = c('<<tidy=FALSE, eval=1:2, echo=FALSE, results="asis">>=', '1', '1+', '1', '1', '@'),
+      quiet = TRUE
+    )
+  })
+
+  traces = record$traces
+
+  assert('otel tracing works on text input', {
+    (length(traces) %==% 3L)
+    (startsWith(traces[[1L]]$name, 'knitr processing'))
+    (traces[[1L]]$attributes$knitr.format %==% 'latex')
+    (traces[[1L]]$attributes$knitr.input %==% '')
+    (traces[[1L]]$attributes$knitr.output %==% '')
+    (traces[[2L]]$name %==% 'knit unnamed-chunk-1')
+    (traces[[2L]]$attributes$knitr.chunk.device %==% 'pdf')
+    (traces[[2L]]$attributes$knitr.chunk.echo %==% FALSE)
+    (traces[[2L]]$attributes$knitr.chunk.engine %==% 'R')
+    (traces[[2L]]$attributes$knitr.chunk.eval %==% c(1, 2))
+    (traces[[2L]]$attributes$knitr.chunk.label %==% 'unnamed-chunk-1')
+    (startsWith(traces[[3L]]$name, 'knitr output'))
+    (traces[[3L]]$attributes$knitr.format %==% 'latex')
+    (traces[[3L]]$attributes$knitr.input %==% '')
+    (traces[[3L]]$attributes$knitr.output %==% '')
+  })
+
+  record = otelsdk::with_otel_record({
+    otel_refresh_tracer('knitr')
+
+    local({
+      env = new.env()
+      env$y = 1:3
+      z = 5
+      on.exit(file.remove('knit-envir.md'))
+      knit('knit-envir.Rmd', envir = env, quiet = TRUE)
+    })
+  })
+
+  traces = record$traces
+
+  assert('otel tracing works when knitting files', {
+    (length(traces) %==% 3L)
+    (traces[[1L]]$name %==% 'knitr processing knit-envir.Rmd')
+    (traces[[1L]]$attributes$knitr.format %==% 'markdown')
+    (traces[[1L]]$attributes$knitr.input %==% 'knit-envir.Rmd')
+    (traces[[1L]]$attributes$knitr.output %==% 'knit-envir.md')
+    (traces[[2L]]$name %==% 'knit test')
+    (traces[[2L]]$attributes$knitr.chunk.device %==% 'png')
+    (traces[[2L]]$attributes$knitr.chunk.echo %==% TRUE)
+    (traces[[2L]]$attributes$knitr.chunk.engine %==% 'R')
+    (traces[[2L]]$attributes$knitr.chunk.eval %==% TRUE)
+    (traces[[2L]]$attributes$knitr.chunk.label %==% 'test')
+    (traces[[3L]]$name %==% 'knitr output knit-envir.md')
+    (traces[[3L]]$attributes$knitr.format %==% 'markdown')
+    (traces[[3L]]$attributes$knitr.input %==% 'knit-envir.Rmd')
+    (traces[[3L]]$attributes$knitr.output %==% 'knit-envir.md')
+  })
+
+  # reset tracer after tests
+  otel_refresh_tracer('knitr')
+
+}