[entities] Update terminology for entity attributes #4721
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Update terminology in specification/entities/data-model.md. Replace "Identifying Attributes" with "Entity Identity" and "Descriptive Attributes" with "Description Attributes". Related to open-telemetry#4700
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This PR was marked stale due to lack of activity. It will be closed in 7 days. |
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I wonder how others feel about "description-key attributes" and "identity-key attributes"? |
jsuereth
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Nov 18, 2025
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This PR was marked stale due to lack of activity. It will be closed in 7 days. |
jack-berg
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| | Type | string | Defines the type of the entity. MUST not change during the lifetime of the entity. For example: "service" or "host". This field is required and MUST not be empty for valid entities. | | ||
| | Id | map<string, attribute value> | Attributes that identify the entity.<p>MUST not change during the lifetime of the entity. The Id must contain at least one attribute.<p>Follows OpenTelemetry [attribute definition](../common/README.md#attribute). SHOULD follow OpenTelemetry [semantic conventions](https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions) for attributes. | | ||
| | Description | map<string, attribute value> | Descriptive (non-identifying) attributes of the entity.<p>MAY change over the lifetime of the entity. MAY be empty. These attributes are not part of entity's identity.<p>Follows OpenTelemetry [attribute definition](../common/README.md#attribute). SHOULD follow OpenTelemetry [semantic conventions](https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/blob/main/docs/README.md) for attributes. | |
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This language occurs in the protobuf comments as well: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-proto/blob/a5f0eac5b802f7ae51dfe41e5116fe5548955e64/opentelemetry/proto/common/v1/common.proto#L119-L128
If we agree with the direction of this PR, we'll want to open a corresponding PR in that repo to keep the language consistent.
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Update terminology in specification/entities/data-model.md. Replace "Identifying" and "Descriptive" terms with "Entity Identity" and "Entity Description".
Related to #4700