Explain OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS

[martincostello]

Explain how the value of OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS is derived.

[grafsean]

We have a custom Hugo shortcode for notes https://grafana.com/docs/writers-toolkit/write/shortcodes/#admonition

[martincostello]

This content is only rendered in GitHub so we need to use their syntax, not Hugo's.

[grafsean]

Left some comments. Do you think it will be useful adding our OpenTelemetry VS Code copilot-instructions.md to this repo?

[martincostello]

Do you think it will be useful adding our OpenTelemetry VS Code copilot-instructions.md to this repo?

Do you have a link to which repo? Having the docs-specific ones in the distro repo feels OTT to me considering their length compared to this mostly being a code repo, not a docs one.

[CLAassistant]

All committers have signed the CLA.

[grafsean]

Do you have a link to which repo? Having the docs-specific ones in the distro repo feels OTT to me considering their length compared to this mostly being a code repo, not a docs one.

We can scope instructions to specific paths and file types. Here's the file https://github.com/grafana/opentelemetry-docs/blob/main/.github/copilot-instructions.md

[martincostello]

@grafsean Just finally coming back to this - that instructions file is in a private repo. Is it OK for me to copy into this public repo as-is?

[grafsean]

@grafsean Just finally coming back to this - that instructions file is in a private repo. Is it OK for me to copy into this public repo as-is?

Yes that's fine. You can also add it is a user instruction file if you prefer.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR enhances the documentation by explaining how to construct the OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS authentication token value. The change replaces a placeholder token with a more descriptive one and adds a detailed explanation of the base64 encoding process for Basic authentication with Grafana Cloud.

• Clarifies that the Basic authentication token is a base64-encoded string
• Adds comprehensive explanation with concrete example showing Instance ID and API key encoding
• Improves user understanding of the authentication mechanism

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

File	Description
README.md	Updated authentication header example and added detailed explanation of base64 encoding process
.github/copilot-instructions.md	Added comprehensive Grafana Labs documentation style guide and writing standards

[matt-hensley]

API keys have been deprecated, replaced with with "service account tokens".

Exact naming is inconsistent depending on where you generate a token (service account token/API token/token/Grafana Cloud Access token/etc) but they are distinct from the older key based auth.