otel-ruby

OpenTelemetry in Ruby

Entry point for OpenTelemetry mechanics in Ruby applications. Load only the reference that matches the task; each reference is self-contained.

References

File	Use when
references/setup.md	Installing gems, configuring OpenTelemetry::SDK.configure, selecting OTLP exporters, setting resources and environment variables, and handling process shutdown.
references/api.md	Writing manual traces, metrics, or logs; managing context and propagation; testing emitted telemetry.
references/instrumentation-libraries.md	Selecting and configuring contrib instrumentation for Rails, Rack, Sinatra, HTTP clients, databases, jobs, messaging, and other gems.
references/performance.md	Tuning sampling, batching, cardinality, forked-process behavior, exporters, and lifecycle handling.
references/breaking-changes.md	Reviewing Ruby/runtime compatibility, independently versioned gems, experimental signal changes, and core/contrib upgrades.

Signal stability matters

Tracing uses the stable opentelemetry-api and opentelemetry-sdk gems. Ruby metrics and logs are separate 0.x API, SDK, and exporter gems and remain experimental. Do not assume a tracing gem's version exists for metrics, logs, semantic conventions, exporters, or contrib instrumentation. Resolve each gem independently with Bundler, inspect its changelog, and keep the resulting Gemfile.lock change under review.

Released snapshot verified 2026-10-03: tracing API 1.11.1, tracing SDK 1.13.1, trace OTLP exporter 0.37.0; metrics API 0.8.0, SDK 0.19.0, OTLP exporter 0.13.0; logs API 0.5.0, SDK 0.7.0, OTLP exporter 0.6.0; experimental declarative-config gem opentelemetry-config 0.1.0 (traces only). Treat this as an audit anchor, not a version-alignment rule; use the lookups below for newer releases.

Sources of truth

Fact	Fetch
Latest core releases and per-gem tags	gh api repos/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-ruby/releases --paginate
Latest contrib instrumentation releases	gh api repos/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-ruby-contrib/releases --paginate
Released and locked gem dependencies	gem specification <gem> dependencies --remote --yaml; inspect Gemfile.lock for the locked dependency set
Core implementation and changelogs	open-telemetry/opentelemetry-ruby
Contrib catalog, compatibility, and per-gem options	open-telemetry/opentelemetry-ruby-contrib
Ruby language docs	OpenTelemetry Ruby documentation

Cross-references

• SDK version selection across languages: otel-sdk-versions skill.
• Semantic convention names and stability: otel-semantic-conventions skill.
• OTLP receiver/export validation: otel-collector and otel-telemetrygen skills.