proposal: Prometheus internal telemetry as an OTel semantic convention registry - #86
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I would like to assess what alternatives we have that could be built-in e.g. client_golang and would be lighter. And I would also want to better understand the scope of this: |
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…n registry Define every metric the Prometheus binary exposes in a single OTel semantic convention registry, and use it as the source of truth for instrumentation code, documentation, and contract testing. Instrumentation code and per-package documentation are generated from the registry with Weaver, so neither can drift from the schema. Weaver is confined to build-time authoring. Contract testing runs without a Collector or a Weaver binary. `promtool check metrics --schema` validates a running Prometheus from outside and works for any exporter in any language. An in-process check over `Collector.Describe()` also covers metrics that never produce a sample, which telemetry-based validation cannot see. Both need a small, dependency-free addition to client_golang, since `prometheus.Desc` exposes no structural accessors today. Stability levels are recorded as schema information so lifecycle can be expressed and changes to it reviewed. Defining what `stable` obligates, how long a deprecation cycle runs, and which existing metrics are stable is left to a follow-on proposal. A consumable registry also lets downstream projects detect drift themselves. awesome-prometheus-alerts hardcodes 37 distinct prometheus_* metric names and perses/community-mixins writes them into dashboard queries, with no way to validate either against a release. Publishing a versioned schema of renames between releases stays a follow-on.
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@roidelapluie thanks for comment, I've updated a few things in the doc aiming to cover what you raised, let me know your thoughts |
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This proposal defines all metrics exported by the Prometheus binary as a formal OTel semantic convention registry. Making the schema machine-readable enables auto-generated instrumentation code, always-in-sync documentation, contract testing against live instances, and a lifecycle model for safe metric evolution across the Prometheus ecosystem.
Proof-of-concept implementation: prometheus/prometheus#17868