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open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector

A vendor-agnostic service that receives, processes and exports traces, metrics and logs to multiple observability backends.

Open-source alternative to:Datadog Agent

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What is it?

The OpenTelemetry Collector is a standalone service that sits between applications and monitoring back-ends. It receives telemetry data in open formats such as OTLP, Jaeger and Prometheus, processes it with configurable pipelines, and exports it to one or more open-source or commercial back-ends. This removes the need to run and maintain a separate agent for each data format and destination.

The collector can be deployed as an agent beside applications or as a central gateway. It handles traces, metrics and logs in a single codebase, and its components (receivers, processors, exporters and extensions) are configured in YAML. Official distributions are published as container images, which are signed with Cosign.

The project is written in Go and is intended to be extended through components rather than by modifying the core.

Key features

  • 01Receives telemetry in OTLP, Jaeger, Prometheus and other formats.
  • 02Processes traces, metrics and logs through configurable pipelines.
  • 03Exports data to multiple open-source or commercial back-ends.
  • 04Configured with YAML; extended through pluggable components.
  • 05Deployable as an agent or a central gateway.
  • 06Official container images are signed with Cosign.

Use cases

  • Centralizing telemetry from many services before sending it to one observability vendor.
  • Converting between legacy trace or metric formats and OTLP without changing application code.
  • Running a shared gateway that filters or enriches telemetry from a fleet of hosts.

Topics

#observability#opentelemetry#tracing#metrics#logging#monitoring#open-telemetry#telemetry

FAQ

What is opentelemetry-collector?
A vendor-agnostic service that receives, processes and exports traces, metrics and logs to multiple observability backends. The OpenTelemetry Collector is a standalone service that sits between applications and monitoring back-ends. It receives telemetry data in open formats such as OTLP, Jaeger and Prometheus, processes it with configurable pipelines, and exports it to one or more open-source or commercial back-ends. This removes the need to run and maintain a separate agent for each data format and destination.
Is opentelemetry-collector free to use? What license does it have?
opentelemetry-collector is open source under the Apache-2.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is opentelemetry-collector still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to opentelemetry-collector was on Oct 16, 2026.
What can I use opentelemetry-collector for?
Centralizing telemetry from many services before sending it to one observability vendor. Converting between legacy trace or metric formats and OTLP without changing application code. Running a shared gateway that filters or enriches telemetry from a fleet of hosts.
Where can I get opentelemetry-collector?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector

Summary generated by AI from the project's README. GitHub stats refresh daily.

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