OpenLabs handbook
OpenTelemetry Visual Handbook
Watch the telemetry move, then read the bytes that moved.
Every concept as a model you can take apart: the service graph on top, the OTLP payload underneath, and the same running state producing both.
Roadmap
The order in which the concepts hold each other up. Not a queue — later phases reach back, and the map shows it.
Phase 1 · The Problem
Phase 2 · The Model
W3C Trace Context
OTLP
Protobuf encoding
Phase 3 · The Architecture
gRPC over HTTP/2
Phase 4 · Instrumentation
Semantic conventions
Phase 5 · Operating at Scale
- done
- where you are
- not written yet
- The Wire · reference, not a step
- 01 The Problem Why three signals with no thread between them leave you blind.
- 02 The Model Trace, metric, log: the shape each one has before any vendor touches it.
- 03 The Architecture SDK, Collector, backend — and what each one is allowed to change.
- 04 Instrumentation Getting the signal out of code you wrote and code you did not.
- 05 Operating at Scale Sampling, backpressure, and the rollout that does not page anyone.
Articles and labs
Each phase pairs prose with a model. The article says what is true; the lab is the thing running, and you can break it.
01 The Problem
Why three signals with no thread between them leave you blind.
Articles
- What a signal is ready
- The seam between the signals ready
Labs
02 The Model
Trace, metric, log: the shape each one has before any vendor touches it.
Articles
- A trace is a tree nobody owns ready
- Context is the product ready
- What a metric remembers coming
- The envelope is the object graph ready
Labs
- Anatomy of a Trace ready
- Hard context and baggage ready
- Reading an OTLP payload ready
- The shape of a metric ready
- A log that knows its trace ready
03 The Architecture
SDK, Collector, backend — and what each one is allowed to change.
Articles
Labs
- The three providers ready
- The Collector pipeline ready
- Agent or gateway ready
04 Instrumentation
Getting the signal out of code you wrote and code you did not.
Articles
- Instrumenting what you did not write coming
- A library depends on the API only coming
- Context does not cross a queue by itself coming
Labs
- Manual spans ready
- Zero-code instrumentation ready
- Propagating through a queue ready
- Host and Kubernetes signals ready
05 Operating at Scale
Sampling, backpressure, and the rollout that does not page anyone.
Articles
- What an attribute costs ready
- The cost of keeping everything coming
- Sampling is a statement about what you will not know ready
- The rollout nobody noticed coming
Labs
- Head vs tail sampling ready
- Backpressure and drops ready
- Cardinality and the bill ready
- The rollout ready
Handbook assessment
The cumulative assessment has not been authored yet. Available labs and articles remain open for study.