Agent skill · software engineering · aaronontheweb
opentelemetry-net-instrumentation
Provides guidance for implementing OpenTelemetry instrumentation in .NET codebases, covering tracing (Activities/Spans), metrics, logs, naming conventions, error handling, performance, SDK setup, resources, context propagation, and API design best practices.
Why this skill is useful
Provides specific guidance on implementing OpenTelemetry in .NET, including API usage and performance optimization that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
About 10k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-03. 1,095 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
OpenTelemetry .NET Instrumentation Skill When to Use Adding OpenTelemetry instrumentation to .NET code (traces, metrics, logs) Creating or modifying ActivitySources, Meters, or ILogger usage Setting up the OpenTelemetry SDK, resources, exporters, or sampling Reviewing telemetry implementations for spec compliance Optimizing instrumentation performance Designing telemetry APIs that become part of the public surface Implementing context propagation across service boundaries Architecture: .NET Is Different CRITICAL: The .NET OpenTelemetry implementation is fundamentally different from other platforms. .NET provides tracing, metrics, and logging APIs in the framework itself. That means OTel does not provide a separate instrumentation API — it uses the built-in .NET APIs and acts as the collection/export layer. The Three Built-in .NET APIs (Primary — Zero Dependencies) Signal .NET Framework API Namespace -------- ------------------- ----------- Tracing ActivitySource / Activity System.Diagnostics Metrics Meter / Counter<T> / Histogram<T> / etc. System.Diagnostics.Metrics Logging ILogger<T> Microsoft.Extensions.Logging These are the primary and only APIs library authors should use for instrumentation. They ship with the .NET runtime — no NuGet packages required. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills aaronontheweb/opentelementry-dotnet-instrumentation