Semantic Conventions
Semantic conventions are a crucial part of observability data collection, providing consistent attribute naming across your entire telemetry dataset. Dash0's semantic conventions extend the OpenTelemetry standard with additional attributes that enhance your observability experience.
Semantic Conventions Reference
This reference document details the Dash0-specific semantic conventions for resources, spans, logs and metrics to help you maximize the value of your observability data. These attributes are automatically derived from your incoming telemetry data, enabling enhanced filtering, intelligent grouping, AI-powered insights, and improved visualization capabilities without requiring manual instrumentation changes to your code.
Resource Attributes
Resource attributes describe the entity producing the telemetry data. These attributes help you identify and categorize the sources of your telemetry. See our dedicated documentation on resource equality to learn more about resource classification and identity.
| Attribute | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
dash0.resource.id | Unique identifier for the resource in Dash0, based on the resource equality rules. | 12958705279560104980 |
dash0.resource.type | Type classification of the resource, based on the resource equality rules. | k8s.pod, host, vercel.project |
dash0.resource.name | Human-readable name for the resource | |
dash0.auth.token | Auth token used to transmit telemetry about this resource. Note: Only the first few characters of the auth token are stored. | abcdef1 |
Scope Attributes
The following otel.scope.* attributes map directly to fields within the OTLP protocol and provide the foundation for telemetry correlation and analysis in Dash0.
| Attribute | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
otel.scope.name | The name of the instrumentation scope | io.opentelemetry.contrib.mongodb |
otel.scope.version | The version of the instrumentation scope | 1.0.0 |
Span Attributes
Span attributes provide context for distributed tracing data, helping you understand the nature and details of operations within your system. The underlying rules for naming and typing, specifically for operations, are described within our operation naming document.
| Attribute | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
dash0.span.name | Dash0-normalized name for the span, which may differ from the original span name | SELECT … FROM my-table WHERE … |
dash0.span.type | Classification of the span type in Dash0's taxonomy | http, rpc, database, messaging |
dash0.operation.name | Name of the logical operation this span is part of | GET /articles/<article-id> |
dash0.operation.type | Type classification of the operation. | http, rpc, database, messaging |
otel.trace.id | The unique identifier for a trace, representing the entire operation across multiple services | 4bf92f3577b34da6a3ce929d0e0e4736 |
otel.span.id | The unique identifier for a span within a trace | 00f067aa0ba902b7 |
otel.parent.id | The identifier of the parent span, establishing the causal relationship | ff11bbcc22dd44ee |
otel.span.name | The official OpenTelemetry span name | GET /users/:id |
otel.span.kind | Describes the relationship between the span, its parents, and its children | SERVER, CLIENT, PRODUCER |
otel.span.duration | The duration of a span in seconds (float value) | 0.125 |
otel.span.start_time | The start time of a span in Unix nanoseconds | 1610000000000000000 |
otel.span.end_time | The end time of a span in Unix nanoseconds | 1610000000125000000 |
otel.span.status.code | The status code of a span | OK, ERROR |
otel.span.status.message | Additional information about the span status | Connection timed out |
Log Attributes
Log attributes enrich log data with additional context and AI-enhanced information to make troubleshooting faster and more effective.
| Attribute | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
dash0.log.processor.type | Type of log processor that handled this log entry | json |
dash0.log.template | Log AI inferred log template with variables replaced by placeholders | [Batch <batch_id>] Reconciling batch of <topic_count> topics |
dash0.log.attribute.<key> | Log attributes automatically extracted through log AI | dash0.log.attribute.topic_count=10 |
otel.log.body | The main content of the log record | Request processed successfully |
otel.log.time | The timestamp when the log was created | 2023-04-01T12:34:56.789Z |
otel.log.severity.number | Numerical representation of log severity | 17 (for ERROR) |
otel.log.severity.text | Text representation of log severity | ERROR, INFO |
otel.log.severity.range | Categorical range of severity, where smaller numbers indicate less severe events | ERROR, WARN, INFO |
Metric Attributes
| Attribute | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
otel.metric.name | The name of the metric (not necessarily the Prometheus-compatible name) | http.server.active_requests |
otel.metric.description | Human-readable description of what the metric represents | Number of active HTTP server requests |
otel.metric.type | The type of the metric | GAUGE, HISTOGRAM |
otel.metric.unit | The unit of measure for the metric | ms, bytes, 1 |
Last updated: May 19, 2025