OTel Unplugged Roadmap Voting Results

[austinlparker]

Session Results: Roadmap Session

Participants: 89 | Points per person: 10 | Total points cast: 693

#	Idea	Points	%
1	OpenTelemetry Browser Support	54	8%
2	Collector Stability (v1)	51	7%
3	Entities	45	6%
4	Semantic Convention 1.0	42	6%
5	Otel unplugged 2027	40	6%
6	Prepare for better JS ESM Support	34	5%
7	Prometheus experience	33	5%
8	OpenTelemetry Blueprints	32	5%
9	Declarative Configuration (config v2)	31	4%
10	Ecosystem Explorer	30	4%
11	apt install opentelemetry	28	4%
12	Sampling	25	4%
13	Getting Started Documentation Updates/Refresh	25	4%
14	Custom Collector experience	23	3%
15	Collector plugins, loaded at runtime.	20	3%
16	I will like to see hot reload features in collector	19	3%
17	Semconv metrics out of the box in SDKs (http, RPC, db...)	18	3%
18	OPENTELEMETRY_TRACE_LEVEL	15	2%
19	Performance benchmarking	14	2%
20	Agentic semantic conventions	12	2%
21	Production readiness (Stable By Default)	11	2%
22	OBI	10	1%
23	Include injector on K8s	9	1%
24	Public OTel Collector release cycle with continuous deprecating unmaintained components	7	1%
25	Vendor (backend) neutral OTel Demo, just send data to the OTLP endpoint of your choice	7	1%
26	Collector AI extension point	7	1%
27	OpenTelemetry Arrow	6	1%
28	Documented security commitments	6	1%
29	eBPF consolidation	6	1%
30	Make stable experimental packages semver stable	6	1%
31	Clarify stability of code vs telemetry convention	6	1%
32	Remote management on K8s and classic hosts (through OpAMP)	5	1%
33	Opamp supervisor	4	1%
34	Tooling to sync spec changes w/ language sigs	4	1%
35	Golang Compile-Time Instrumentation	3	0%
36	Standardize experimental flag across project	3	0%
37	Decouple instrumentation and semantic convention stability	2	0%

Results by Group

Other

1. OpenTelemetry Browser Support -- 54 pts (8%)

   Phase 1

2. Collector Stability (v1) -- 51 pts (7%)

   Stabilizing core Collector components

3. Entities -- 45 pts (6%)

   Evolving OpenTelemetry Resources

4. Semantic Convention 1.0 -- 42 pts (6%)

   Let’s say it’s stable so we can ship it to production!

5. Otel unplugged 2027 -- 40 pts (6%)

   This year was pretty good

6. Prepare for better JS ESM Support -- 34 pts (5%)

   E.g. Node.js Diagnostics Channels

7. Prometheus experience -- 33 pts (5%)

   Improve interoperability between Prometheus and OpenTelemetry, e.g. better handling of Resource Attributes, convergence of Prometheus exporters and Collector Receivers, alignment in SDKs, semantic convention translations and many more.

8. OpenTelemetry Blueprints -- 32 pts (5%)

   Deployment and architecture cookbooks

9. Declarative Configuration (config v2) -- 31 pts (4%)
10. Ecosystem Explorer -- 30 pts (4%)

Searchable database of OTel integrations by language or telemetry emitted

11. apt install opentelemetry -- 28 pts (4%)

Consistent system package story

12. Sampling -- 25 pts (4%)

Consistent probability head sampling support in SDKs

13. Getting Started Documentation Updates/Refresh -- 25 pts (4%)
14. Custom Collector experience -- 23 pts (3%)

Evolving tooling, e.g. ocb and ecosystem explorer, to improve the experience of creating and maintaining custom collectors

15. Collector plugins, loaded at runtime. -- 20 pts (3%)
16. I will like to see hot reload features in collector -- 19 pts (3%)
17. Semconv metrics out of the box in SDKs (http, RPC, db...) -- 18 pts (3%)
18. OPENTELEMETRY_TRACE_LEVEL -- 15 pts (2%)

Add a flag to control tracing verbosity

19. Performance benchmarking -- 14 pts (2%)
20. Agentic semantic conventions -- 12 pts (2%)

Extend semantic conventions to capture agentic system intent, decision paths, and outcomes — not just LLM calls.

21. Production readiness (Stable By Default) -- 11 pts (2%)
22. OBI -- 10 pts (1%)
23. Include injector on K8s -- 9 pts (1%)

Streamlined auto instrumentation for all the things on k8s

24. Public OTel Collector release cycle with continuous deprecating unmaintained components -- 7 pts (1%)
25. Vendor (backend) neutral OTel Demo, just send data to the OTLP endpoint of your choice -- 7 pts (1%)
26. Collector AI extension point -- 7 pts (1%)

A local or remote “prescriptive model” extension plan/exploration for different functionalities.

27. OpenTelemetry Arrow -- 6 pts (1%)
28. Documented security commitments -- 6 pts (1%)
29. eBPF consolidation -- 6 pts (1%)

Having a single Collector (Daemonset) component to do all things eBPF

30. Make stable experimental packages semver stable -- 6 pts (1%)

Many JS instrumentations in contrib and even fetch and http instrumentations are semver experimental 0.x.x despite being stable which makes it unreasonably hard for end-users to upgrade.

31. Clarify stability of code vs telemetry convention -- 6 pts (1%)
32. Remote management on K8s and classic hosts (through OpAMP) -- 5 pts (1%)
33. Opamp supervisor -- 4 pts (1%)
34. Tooling to sync spec changes w/ language sigs -- 4 pts (1%)
35. Golang Compile-Time Instrumentation -- 3 pts (0%)
36. Standardize experimental flag across project -- 3 pts (0%)
37. Decouple instrumentation and semantic convention stability -- 2 pts (0%)

[tigrannajaryan]

I am not familiar with how the roadmap session is run. Is it a multiple choice per participant? If it is a multiple choice it would be great to also show a percentage of people who voted for a particular feature, not just the percentage of points out of total available allocated to the particular.

[braydonk]

Similar to Tigran's comment, I'm also curious if the exact prompt is explained anywhere; is this a vote of which things already on the roadmap people are most excited for, or the things people want to see most in the roadmap?

[maryliag]

Providing context on how this worked:
During OTel Unplugged we dedicated time for this session, the order of actions were:

• it was displayed items that are already on the roadmap and they were explained
• the attendees could add their own entries to the list of items they wish to see on the roadmap that were not already listed (and they were given a chance to answer questions or make clarifications)
• voting period, where each attendee had 10 votes to give, however they see fit (e.g. a person could vote 10 times for the same item)
• the final list was defined and it's what is published here

This list doesn't mean that it's a final decision of OTel Roadmap for 2026, it was a chance to let people provide their feedback of what they think is important to them. It's a validation for items already being worked on, that people are excited for their work. It's a signal of what people think is important and should be worked on. Also, if an items had lower votes doesn't mean it can't be worked on.

We decided to share the results here, so people that could not attend OTel Unplugged had an idea what others were thinking and discussing there :)

Hope that helps clarify