Blog # OpenTelemetry® and Observability insights from OllyGarden ![Cover illustration for “Introducing Minimum Viable Instrumentation”](/images/blog/introducing-minimum-viable-instrumentation.png)Latest Post Featuring in OpenTelemetry ## Introducing Minimum Viable Instrumentation Coding agents write the code and AI SRE agents operate it, so telemetry is the source of truth between them. Rose now brings low-volume, high-quality OpenTelemetry instrumentation to every repository. October 9, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling - Rose - Instrumentation - AI - OpenTelemetry[Read Article](/resources/blog/introducing-minimum-viable-instrumentation) ![Cover illustration for “Where Sensitive Data Hides in OpenTelemetry Pipelines, and How to Find It”](/images/blog/where-sensitive-data-hides-in-opentelemetry-pipelines.png)Featured Featuring in OpenTelemetry ## Where Sensitive Data Hides in OpenTelemetry Pipelines, and How to Find It Trust store passwords in resource attributes, OAuth tokens in query strings, tax IDs in metrics: what we found in real pipelines, why tools cause most of it, and what privacy laws allow. October 3, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling - Security - PII - OpenTelemetry - Privacy[Read Article](/resources/blog/where-sensitive-data-hides-in-opentelemetry-pipelines) ![Cover illustration for “Observability for Humans and Agents in the AI Age”](/images/blog/observability-for-humans-and-agents-in-the-ai-age.png)Featured Featuring in OpenTelemetry ## Observability for Humans and Agents in the AI Age OllyGarden and Bronto on where AI agents help with instrumentation and analysis today, and why they only work when the telemetry is intentional and reachable. September 28, 2026 Authors: Nicolas Wörner and Severin Neumann - AI - Instrumentation - Observability - OpenTelemetry[Read Article](/resources/blog/observability-for-humans-and-agents-in-the-ai-age) ![Cover illustration for “What's changed about OpenTelemetry vendor lock-in since 2024”](/images/blog/opentelemetry-vendor-lock-in-since-2024.png)Featured Featuring in OpenTelemetry ## What's changed about OpenTelemetry vendor lock-in since 2024 OpenTelemetry still does not make dashboards portable, but agents, CLIs, and MCP servers have made switching observability backends noticeably less painful. August 21, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling - OpenTelemetry - Observability - Vendor Lock-in - AI[Read Article](/resources/blog/opentelemetry-vendor-lock-in-since-2024) ![Cover illustration for “The Scrape Interval Nobody Chose”](/images/blog/the-scrape-interval-nobody-chose.png)Featured Featuring in OpenTelemetry ## The Scrape Interval Nobody Chose A wrong metric scrape interval inflates ingest, egress, and compute. Learn how to measure DPM and match intervals to the decisions each metric supports. July 31, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling - Metrics - OpenTelemetry - Observability - Cost[Read Article](/resources/blog/the-scrape-interval-nobody-chose) ![Cover illustration for “Teach Your Coding Agent OpenTelemetry”](/images/blog/teach-your-coding-agent-opentelemetry.png)Featured Featuring in OpenTelemetry ## Teach Your Coding Agent OpenTelemetry We’re releasing our Agent Skills for OpenTelemetry as a mature, open source set: 14 skills that give any coding agent accurate, current OpenTelemetry knowledge. July 14, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling - OpenTelemetry - AI Agents - Open Source[Read Article](/resources/blog/teach-your-coding-agent-opentelemetry) All Blog Posts ## See all articles from our telemetry experts ![Cover illustration for “Introducing Minimum Viable Instrumentation”](/images/blog/introducing-minimum-viable-instrumentation.png) Oct 9, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Introducing Minimum Viable Instrumentation Coding agents write the code and AI SRE agents operate it, so telemetry is the source of truth between them. Rose now brings low-volume, high-quality OpenTelemetry instrumentation to every repository. - Rose - Instrumentation - AI[Read Article](/resources/blog/introducing-minimum-viable-instrumentation) ![Cover illustration for “Where Sensitive Data Hides in OpenTelemetry Pipelines, and How to Find It”](/images/blog/where-sensitive-data-hides-in-opentelemetry-pipelines.png) Oct 3, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Where Sensitive Data Hides in OpenTelemetry Pipelines, and How to Find It Trust store passwords in resource attributes, OAuth tokens in query strings, tax IDs in metrics: what we found in real pipelines, why tools cause most of it, and what privacy laws allow. - Security - PII - OpenTelemetry[Read Article](/resources/blog/where-sensitive-data-hides-in-opentelemetry-pipelines) ![Cover illustration for “Observability for Humans and Agents in the AI Age”](/images/blog/observability-for-humans-and-agents-in-the-ai-age.png) Sep 28, 2026 Authors: Nicolas Wörner and Severin Neumann ### Observability for Humans and Agents in the AI Age OllyGarden and Bronto on where AI agents help with instrumentation and analysis today, and why they only work when the telemetry is intentional and reachable. - AI - Instrumentation - Observability[Read Article](/resources/blog/observability-for-humans-and-agents-in-the-ai-age) ![Cover illustration for “What's changed about OpenTelemetry vendor lock-in since 2024”](/images/blog/opentelemetry-vendor-lock-in-since-2024.png) Aug 21, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### What's changed about OpenTelemetry vendor lock-in since 2024 OpenTelemetry still does not make dashboards portable, but agents, CLIs, and MCP servers have made switching observability backends noticeably less painful. - OpenTelemetry - Observability - Vendor Lock-in[Read Article](/resources/blog/opentelemetry-vendor-lock-in-since-2024) ![Cover illustration for “The Scrape Interval Nobody Chose”](/images/blog/the-scrape-interval-nobody-chose.png) Jul 31, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### The Scrape Interval Nobody Chose A wrong metric scrape interval inflates ingest, egress, and compute. Learn how to measure DPM and match intervals to the decisions each metric supports. - Metrics - OpenTelemetry - Observability[Read Article](/resources/blog/the-scrape-interval-nobody-chose) ![Cover illustration for “Teach Your Coding Agent OpenTelemetry”](/images/blog/teach-your-coding-agent-opentelemetry.png) Jul 14, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Teach Your Coding Agent OpenTelemetry We’re releasing our Agent Skills for OpenTelemetry as a mature, open source set: 14 skills that give any coding agent accurate, current OpenTelemetry knowledge. - OpenTelemetry - AI Agents - Open Source[Read Article](/resources/blog/teach-your-coding-agent-opentelemetry) ![Cover illustration for “Are OpenTelemetry Collector Exporters Called Sequentially or in Parallel?”](/images/blog/are-collector-exporters-sequential-or-parallel.png) Jun 29, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Are OpenTelemetry Collector Exporters Called Sequentially or in Parallel? When you configure two exporters in one pipeline, does the Collector send to them in parallel? The honest answer is "sequentially, but it usually doesn't matter." The part that does matter changed defaults underneath a lot of advice still floating around. - Collector - OpenTelemetry - Pipelines[Read Article](/resources/blog/are-collector-exporters-sequential-or-parallel) ![Cover illustration for “Creating Your Own Collector Distribution from OllyGarden Tulip”](/images/blog/creating-your-own-collector-distribution-from-tulip.png) May 27, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Creating Your Own Collector Distribution from OllyGarden Tulip Tulip gives you a commercially supported OpenTelemetry Collector with a curated component set. When you need more, you can derive your own distribution while keeping support for the core pipeline. This post walks through how. - Tulip - Collector - OpenTelemetry[Read Article](/resources/blog/creating-your-own-collector-distribution-from-tulip) ![Cover illustration for “Decomposing OpenTelemetry Collector Configuration for Maintainability”](/images/blog/decomposing-opentelemetry-collector-configuration.png) May 11, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Decomposing OpenTelemetry Collector Configuration for Maintainability When your collector configuration grows beyond a few hundred lines, you start feeling the friction. This post examines practical strategies for decomposing collector configurations into maintainable, testable units. - Collector - Configuration - OpenTelemetry[Read Article](/resources/blog/decomposing-opentelemetry-collector-configuration) ![Cover illustration for “OpenTelemetry is not hard”](/images/blog/opentelemetry-is-not-hard.png) May 4, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### OpenTelemetry is not hard When I asked the community about their pain points with OpenTelemetry, one response kept appearing: 'it's complicated.' I think the framing is wrong. - OpenTelemetry - Observability[Read Article](/resources/blog/opentelemetry-is-not-hard) ![Cover illustration for “OllyGarden at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026”](/images/blog/ollygarden-at-kubecon-eu-2026.webp) Apr 15, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### OllyGarden at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026 KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026 in Amsterdam was a big week for OllyGarden. Our team delivered five recorded talks across Observability Day and the main conference, co-chaired the Observability Day program committee, ran a Prometheus Contribfest session, and announced the general availability of Rose. - Events - Community - OpenTelemetry[Read Article](/resources/blog/ollygarden-at-kubecon-eu-2026) ![Cover illustration for “When to Use Each Telemetry Signal: Logs, Traces, and Metrics”](/images/blog/when-to-use-each-telemetry-signal-logs-traces-and-metrics.png) Feb 17, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### When to Use Each Telemetry Signal: Logs, Traces, and Metrics Confused about logs, traces, and metrics? Learn when to use each telemetry signal in OpenTelemetry and build a stronger observability strategy. - Logs - Traces - Metrics[Read Article](/resources/blog/when-to-use-each-telemetry-signal-logs-traces-and-metrics) ![Cover illustration for “You don't have too much telemetry. You have bad telemetry.”](/images/blog/you-dont-have-too-much-telemetry-you-have-bad-telemetry.png) Feb 4, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### You don't have too much telemetry. You have bad telemetry. High observability costs are rarely a volume problem. Learn how to fix bad telemetry at the source before relying on sampling. - Telemetry - Cost - Observability[Read Article](/resources/blog/you-dont-have-too-much-telemetry-you-have-bad-telemetry) ![Cover illustration for “Reducing Log Volume with the OpenTelemetry Log Deduplication Processor”](/images/blog/reducing-log-volume-with-the-opentelemetry-log-deduplication-processor.png) Jan 19, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Reducing Log Volume with the OpenTelemetry Log Deduplication Processor Your logs are probably at least 80% repetitive noise. Connection retries, health checks, heartbeat messages: the same log line repeated thousands of times per day. - Logs - Collector - Cost[Read Article](/resources/blog/reducing-log-volume-with-the-opentelemetry-log-deduplication-processor) ![Cover illustration for “What 10,000 Slack Messages Reveal About OpenTelemetry Adoption Challenges”](/images/blog/what-10000-slack-messages-reveal-about-opentelemetry-adoption-challenges.png) Jan 6, 2026 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### What 10,000 Slack Messages Reveal About OpenTelemetry Adoption Challenges We analyzed 10,000 messages from the OpenTelemetry community Slack to find the most common adoption challenges, from Collector config to instrumentation. - OpenTelemetry - Community - Adoption[Read Article](/resources/blog/what-10000-slack-messages-reveal-about-opentelemetry-adoption-challenges) ![Cover illustration for “Meet Rose: OllyGarden's AI Instrumentation Agent”](/images/blog/meet-rose-ollygardens-ai-instrumentation-agent.png) Oct 29, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Meet Rose: OllyGarden's AI Instrumentation Agent Imagine the perfect observability world: There is an incident, the on-call team gets paged in the middle of the night, wakes up and thanks to your telemetry, resolves it fast. - Rose - AI Agents - Instrumentation[Read Article](/resources/blog/meet-rose-ollygardens-ai-instrumentation-agent) ![Cover illustration for “Introducing OllyGarden Tulip: Our Open-Source Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector”](/images/blog/introducing-tulip-supported-otel-collector.webp) Oct 16, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Introducing OllyGarden Tulip: Our Open-Source Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector OllyGarden Tulip is a commercially supported OpenTelemetry Collector distribution: stable quarterly releases, LTS every 18 months, open source and free. - Tulip - Collector - Open Source[Read Article](/resources/blog/introducing-tulip-supported-otel-collector) ![Cover illustration for “The Variability Principle: How to Decide What Deserves a Span”](/images/blog/what-deserves-a-span.png) Oct 6, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### The Variability Principle: How to Decide What Deserves a Span Discover how to manage spans effectively using the Variability Principle to improve trace readability and control costs in OpenTelemetry. - Traces - Spans - OpenTelemetry[Read Article](/resources/blog/what-deserves-a-span) ![Cover illustration for “How to Name Your Metrics”](/images/blog/how-to-name-your-metrics.png) Sep 9, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### How to Name Your Metrics Learn how to name OpenTelemetry metrics: follow semantic conventions, keep the 'who' in attributes, and apply units and naming patterns that scale. - Metrics - Naming - OpenTelemetry[Read Article](/resources/blog/how-to-name-your-metrics) ![Cover illustration for “How to Name Your Span Attributes”](/images/blog/how-to-name-your-span-attributes.png) Aug 26, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### How to Name Your Span Attributes A practical guide to naming OpenTelemetry span attributes: when to use semantic conventions, how to namespace custom attributes, and pitfalls to avoid. - Traces - Spans - Naming[Read Article](/resources/blog/how-to-name-your-span-attributes) ![Cover illustration for “How to Name Your Spans”](/images/blog/how-to-name-your-spans.png) Aug 5, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### How to Name Your Spans Good span names make traces readable. Learn the {verb} {object} pattern for naming OpenTelemetry spans and avoid the most common naming mistakes. - Traces - Spans - Naming[Read Article](/resources/blog/how-to-name-your-spans) ![Cover illustration for “🌱 Cultivating Unique service.instance.id on NGINX Ingress with OpenTelemetry”](/images/blog/cultivating-unique-serviceinstanceid-on-nginx-ingress-with-opentelemetry.png) Jul 31, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### 🌱 Cultivating Unique service.instance.id on NGINX Ingress with OpenTelemetry The NGINX Ingress Controller has no knob for the OpenTelemetry service.instance.id attribute. Here's how to inject a unique ID per pod with the Helm chart. - Collector - Kubernetes - OpenTelemetry[Read Article](/resources/blog/cultivating-unique-serviceinstanceid-on-nginx-ingress-with-opentelemetry) ![Cover illustration for “Introducing OllyGarden”](/images/blog/introducing-ollygarden.png) Jul 9, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Introducing OllyGarden OllyGarden comes out of stealth with pre-seed funding to fight bad telemetry: helping teams understand, score, and improve the telemetry they generate. - Company - Telemetry - Observability[Read Article](/resources/blog/introducing-ollygarden) ![Cover illustration for “Introducing the Instrumentation Score”](/images/blog/instrumentation-score.png) Jun 11, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Introducing the Instrumentation Score The Instrumentation Score is an open, standardized measure of OpenTelemetry instrumentation quality, scoring OTLP data against best-practice rules. - Instrumentation - OpenTelemetry - Observability[Read Article](/resources/blog/instrumentation-score) ![Cover illustration for “Concrete Applications of Purposeful Instrumentation”](/images/blog/concrete-applications-of-purposeful-instrumentation.png) Jun 4, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Concrete Applications of Purposeful Instrumentation From NASA-grade telemetry design to code-level tips: concrete techniques for applying purposeful instrumentation in real-world OpenTelemetry systems. - Instrumentation - Observability[Read Article](/resources/blog/concrete-applications-of-purposeful-instrumentation) ![Cover illustration for “Purposeful Instrumentation”](/images/blog/purposeful-instrumentation.png) May 1, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### Purposeful Instrumentation Purposeful instrumentation means gathering the right telemetry, not all of it. Cut noise, troubleshoot faster, and lower observability costs. - Instrumentation - Telemetry - Cost[Read Article](/resources/blog/purposeful-instrumentation) ![Cover illustration for “There's a Lot of Bad Telemetry Out There”](/images/blog/theres-a-lot-of-bad-telemetry-out-there.jpeg) Mar 28, 2025 Author: Juraci Paixão Kröhling ### There's a Lot of Bad Telemetry Out There Most telemetry is never queried. Learn what separates good telemetry from bad, what bad data costs you, and how to start improving quality at the source. - Telemetry - Observability - Cost[Read Article](/resources/blog/theres-a-lot-of-bad-telemetry-out-there) Learn More ## Trending today Check our posts, videos, and much more in our social media. See our latest videos. 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