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Last updated: August 7, 2026

Resource Detection

Built-in resource detectors for distribution metadata, Kubernetes pod UID, and service name fallback.

The distribution ships three resource detectors registered as standard OpenTelemetry entry points. They are activated automatically when the distribution runs and can also be referenced explicitly via OTEL_EXPERIMENTAL_RESOURCE_DETECTORS.

Distribution detector (dash0_distribution)

Adds metadata identifying the Dash0 distribution:

AttributeValue
telemetry.distro.namedash0-python
telemetry.distro.versionCurrent distribution version

This attribute appears on every span, metric, and log record exported by the distribution. It lets you filter telemetry by the distribution version in Dash0.

Kubernetes detector (dash0_kubernetes)

Detects the Kubernetes pod UID when running inside a Kubernetes pod:

AttributeValue
k8s.pod.uidUUID of the current pod

Detection method. The detector first confirms it is running inside a Kubernetes pod by inspecting /etc/hosts. It then extracts the pod UID from the cgroup filesystem:

  • cgroup v1: reads /proc/self/mountinfo and extracts the pod UID from the kubepods hierarchy.
  • cgroup v2: reads /proc/self/cgroup and parses the pod UID from the cgroup path.

cgroup v1 is tried first; cgroup v2 is the fallback.

Both standard cgroup path formats and Kubernetes slice naming conventions are handled.

If the detector cannot confirm it is inside a Kubernetes pod, or cannot extract the pod UID, it returns an empty resource without failing.

Other k8s.* attributes — such as k8s.namespace.name, k8s.node.name, k8s.deployment.name, and similar — cannot be read from the cgroup filesystem and are not set by this detector. They require access to the Kubernetes API and should be added via the OpenTelemetry Collector's k8sattributesprocessor. The Dash0 Operator handles this automatically for workloads it manages. See the OpenTelemetry Kubernetes attributes best practices guide for a full picture of how to enrich telemetry with Kubernetes metadata.

Service name detector (dash0_service_name)

Sets service.name when it has not been provided explicitly:

AttributeValue
service.nameDerived from OTEL_SERVICE_NAME, OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES, or entrypoint basename
service.instance.idStable per-process UUID

Priority order for service.name:

  1. OTEL_SERVICE_NAME environment variable.
  2. service.name key in OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES.
  3. Basename of the entrypoint script (e.g., app.py → app).

The entrypoint fallback ensures that every process has a human-readable service.name even in injection scenarios where no explicit name has been configured. To disable this fallback, set DASH0_AUTOMATIC_SERVICE_NAME=false.

This detector also wraps the upstream service detector, so there is no need to list both service and dash0_service_name in OTEL_EXPERIMENTAL_RESOURCE_DETECTORS.

Using detectors explicitly

You normally do not need this. In the default execution path (opentelemetry-instrument), the distro injects telemetry.distro.*, k8s.pod.uid, and the service name fallback into OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES and OTEL_SERVICE_NAME before the SDK initializes. The SDK's built-in OTELResourceDetector picks those up automatically. No explicit detector configuration is required.

When you do need it: OTEL_CONFIG_FILE. The experimental declarative SDK configuration (OTEL_CONFIG_FILE) ignores OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES and OTEL_SERVICE_NAME by design. In that case, reference the detectors explicitly in the config file, or via the environment variable:

bash
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export OTEL_EXPERIMENTAL_RESOURCE_DETECTORS=dash0_distribution,dash0_kubernetes,dash0_service_name

You must list all three if you want all three — none of the Dash0 detectors are included by default in the declarative config path.

What OTEL_EXPERIMENTAL_RESOURCE_DETECTORS does to the default detectors. The SDK always appends service_instance and otel (the OTELResourceDetector) to whatever you list. You do not need to add them yourself, and you cannot remove them by omitting them.