Architecture Development Notes

Sep 8, 2026 · Artificial Intelligence

OpenTelemetry GenAI Semantic Conventions: Modeling Agent Runs as Span Trees

The article explains how OpenTelemetry GenAI semantic conventions address the gap in agent observability by defining a standardized span tree structure (invoke_agent, execute_tool, chat, etc.) and three critical fields (gen_ai.agent.name, gen_ai.conversation.id, gen_ai.operation.name) to capture tool calls, retries, and child-agent handoffs that auto-instrumentation misses.