ClaudSkills / Engineering / observability

Opentelemetry Instrumentation

Q: What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Opentelemetry Instrumentation skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Opentelemetry Instrumentation is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Engineering category. Learn more at https://claudskills.com/learn/what-is-skill-md/.

Category: Engineering · Sub-category: observability · Last updated: 2026-06-08

Use when adding distributed tracing, debugging missing spans, fixing W3C traceparent propagation, configuring OTLP exporters (gRPC vs HTTP), choosing sampling strategies, setting resource attributes, or wiring auto-instrumentation libraries. Triggers: spans missing in Datadog/Honeycomb/Jaeger, "service.name = unknown_service", trace assembly broken across services, async work losing context, OTLP collector unreachable, sampling rate decisions, ESM vs CJS auto-instrumentation loader bugs. NOT for vendor-specific SDKs (Datadog APM, New Relic), structured-logging-only setups, or pre-OTel tracers (Jaeger client, Zipkin Brave).

About this skill (catalog notes)

Opentelemetry Instrumentation includes 9 code blocks for direct copy-paste. The SKILL.md runs to about 1,311 words, in the catalog's typical mid-range.

Original author: curiositech
Indexed lastmod: 2026-06-08
Catalog position: Engineering · observability
Indexed related skills: 10

How Opentelemetry Instrumentation fits the catalog

Opentelemetry Instrumentation sits in the Engineering category under the observability sub-topic in the ClaudSkills catalog. There are 10 related skills indexed alongside it; comparing a few before installing usually reveals which fits your workflow best.

These notes are auto-generated from features detected in the SKILL.md file and from this catalog's structure — they aren't part of the source repository.

From the source SKILL.md

OpenTelemetry is the vendor-neutral standard for traces, metrics, and logs. The SDK is split between what gets recorded (Tracer/Meter/Logger), how it's sampled, how it's exported, and what context propagates. Most pain comes from misaligning those four.

What this skill does

Opentelemetry Instrumentation is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the observability sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/opentelemetry-instrumentation/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.

When to invoke it: Use when adding distributed tracing, debugging missing spans, fixing W3C traceparent propagation, configuring OTLP exporters (gRPC vs HTTP), choosing sampling strategies, setting resource attributes, or wiring auto-instrumentation libraries. Triggers: spans missing in Datadog/Honeycomb/Jaeger, "service.

Who uses this skill

The Opentelemetry Instrumentation Claude Code skill is built for software engineers, backend developers, full-stack teams, and technical leads building and maintaining production systems. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 94,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).

How to install

Free

Manual install (2 steps)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/opentelemetry-instrumentation
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/opentelemetry-instrumentation/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/opentelemetry-instrumentation/SKILL.md

Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/opentelemetry-instrumentation/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.

Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/opentelemetry-instrumentation/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\opentelemetry-instrumentation\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.

📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram

Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →

Pro

One-click install via the desktop app

The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.

Pro

For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.

See pricing → Download desktop app

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Opentelemetry Instrumentation Claude Code skill?

Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/opentelemetry-instrumentation/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.

What does the Opentelemetry Instrumentation skill do?

Is this skill free to install?

Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.

When should I use the Opentelemetry Instrumentation skill?

Use Opentelemetry Instrumentation when your Claude Code task falls under the Engineering category — specifically in the observability area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Opentelemetry Instrumentation" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at /category/engineering/.

What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Opentelemetry Instrumentation skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Opentelemetry Instrumentation is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Engineering category. Learn more at /learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.

Attribution & license

Source: https://github.com/curiositech/windags-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/opentelemetry-instrumentation/SKILL.md
Author: curiositech

Cite this skill

If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:

APA

curiositech. (2026). Opentelemetry Instrumentation [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/opentelemetry-instrumentation/

BibTeX

@misc{opentelemetry-instrumentation-2026,
  author    = {curiositech},
  title     = {Opentelemetry Instrumentation [Claude Code skill]},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {ClaudSkills},
  url       = {https://claudskills.com/skills/opentelemetry-instrumentation/}
}

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