# open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java

OpenTelemetry Java SDK

Repository: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/opentelemetry-java
Homepage: https://opentelemetry.io
Language: Java
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: opentelemetry
Last push: 2026-08-26T15:17:40+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 98/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 96, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2745, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 26, "gap_med": 27, "n_releases_24m": 28}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2447, forks 1018 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:52.735233+00:00)

## What it is
The official OpenTelemetry Java SDK, providing the Java implementation of the OpenTelemetry API for recording traces, metrics, and logs, plus the SDK for managing and exporting that telemetry. It is vendor-neutral, letting you instrument Java applications once and export to any observability backend.

## Use cases
- instrument a Java application with distributed traces
- collect metrics from a JVM microservice
- export telemetry to Jaeger or Prometheus
- correlate logs and traces across services
- add observability to a Spring Boot app without vendor lock-in
- propagate context and baggage across microservices

## When to choose
- you want vendor-neutral tracing, metrics, and logs in a Java or JVM application
- you need to switch observability backends without changing instrumentation code
- you are building microservices and need cross-service context propagation
- you want the standard, actively maintained OpenTelemetry implementation for Java 8+

## When to avoid
- you need a full observability backend with storage and visualization - OpenTelemetry only generates and exports data
- you want zero-code auto-instrumentation only - use the separate OpenTelemetry Java agent instead
- your project is not on the JVM

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: tracing, monitoring, logging, sdk
- domain: monitoring, microservices, developer-tools
- platform: jvm, cross-platform
- tags: opentelemetry, observability, telemetry, distributed-tracing, metrics, apm, vendor-neutral, devops, android

## Member repositories
- open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java (main) score 98

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:52.735233+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:30:31.010503+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:52.735233+00:00, sha fbf44e571318)
  - homepage: https://opentelemetry.io (fetched 2026-08-29T10:11:52.054418+00:00, sha 51756d27c4f1)
  - site_page: https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/signals/baggage (fetched 2026-08-29T10:11:52.067159+00:00, sha fc18d0d07d4b)
  - site_page: https://opentelemetry.io/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T10:11:52.056876+00:00, sha 06566227bba9)
  - site_page: https://opentelemetry.io/docs/what-is-opentelemetry (fetched 2026-08-29T10:11:52.058486+00:00, sha dd58475f7d30)
  - site_page: https://opentelemetry.io/docs/demo (fetched 2026-08-29T10:11:52.060137+00:00, sha 03a34a004b8f)
  - site_page: https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/signals/traces (fetched 2026-08-29T10:11:52.061700+00:00, sha 123b7f8bc630)
  - site_page: https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/signals/metrics (fetched 2026-08-29T10:11:52.063560+00:00, sha 5fe9fc342c92)
  - site_page: https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/signals/logs (fetched 2026-08-29T10:11:52.065328+00:00, sha 126e1fa6c0a2)
  - site_page: https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/instrumentation/zero-code (fetched 2026-08-29T10:11:52.068625+00:00, sha c811260b8c51)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.