opentelemetry-distro
OpenTelemetry Python Distro
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you are building observability into a Python application and can tolerate beta-stage software. The package has low install friction, active maintenance, no known vulnerabilities, and a permissive license. However, do not use in production—the description explicitly states these libraries are in beta and shouldn't generally be used in production environments. Suitable for development, testing, and pre-production evaluation.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.10 or later; currently in beta status and not recommended for production use.
- Low friction installation with active maintenance—released 29 days ago with recent commits.
- Depends on three core OpenTelemetry packages (opentelemetry-api, opentelemetry-instrumentation, opentelemetry-sdk), all part of the same ecosystem.
License · maintenance · safety
Apache-2.0 (permissive) — Apache-2.0 permissive license allows use in commercial and proprietary projects with minimal restrictions; attribution required.
last release 2026-07-16 (29 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-13 · 1,086 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 28,698,053 downloads/mo, #828 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install opentelemetry-distro
from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import TracerProvider
from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export import SimpleSpanProcessor
tracer_provider = TracerProvider()
tracer = tracer_provider.get_tracer(__name__)- Which specific instrumentation packages are included or recommended with this distro distribution.
- Whether this distro provides pre-configured exporters or requires separate exporter setup.
- Performance overhead and telemetry data volume characteristics in typical deployments.
What it is and what it does
opentelemetry-distro is a bundled Python package that brings together OpenTelemetry's core components—the API, instrumentation framework, and SDK—into a single distribution. It is designed to simplify getting started with observability by providing the foundational libraries needed for automatic telemetry collection without requiring developers to manually instrument every function call. The package targets application developers who want to add distributed tracing, metrics, and logging to their Python applications.
The distro depends on opentelemetry-api (the standard interface), opentelemetry-instrumentation (the auto-instrumentation framework), and opentelemetry-sdk (the reference implementation). It is currently in beta status and explicitly not recommended for production use. The project is actively maintained with a monthly release cadence and welcomes community contributions through its open governance model.
Use it for
- Set up distributed tracing in a Python microservices architecture to track requests across service boundaries.
- Enable automatic instrumentation of web frameworks and database libraries without modifying application code.
- Collect metrics and logs alongside traces for comprehensive observability in cloud-native deployments.
- Integrate with OpenTelemetry-compatible backends (Jaeger, Zipkin, Datadog, etc.) for centralized telemetry analysis.
- Establish observability standards across multiple Python projects using a consistent distro baseline.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you are building observability into a Python application and can tolerate beta-stage software.
The package has low install friction, active maintenance, no known vulnerabilities, and a permissive license. However, do not use in production—the description explicitly states these libraries are in beta and shouldn't generally be used in production environments. Suitable for development, testing, and pre-production evaluation.
Install
opentelemetry-distro on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction installation with active maintenance—released 29 days ago with recent commits. Depends on three core OpenTelemetry packages (opentelemetry-api, opentelemetry-instrumentation, opentelemetry-sdk), all part of the same ecosystem.
Requires Python 3.10 or later; currently in beta status and not recommended for production use.
License in practice
Apache-2.0 permissive license allows use in commercial and proprietary projects with minimal restrictions; attribution required.
Quickstart
pip install opentelemetry-distro
from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import TracerProvider
from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export import SimpleSpanProcessor
tracer_provider = TracerProvider()
tracer = tracer_provider.get_tracer(__name__)Verify before relying
- Which specific instrumentation packages are included or recommended with this distro distribution.
- Whether this distro provides pre-configured exporters or requires separate exporter setup.
- Performance overhead and telemetry data volume characteristics in typical deployments.
Package facts
| License | Apache-2.0 permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 3 packagesopentelemetry-apiopentelemetry-instrumentationopentelemetry-sdk |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 29 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 28,698,053 / month, #828 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 4 - BetaIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software LicenseProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Typing :: Typed |
Evidence: opentelemetry_distro-0.65b0-py3-none-any.whl
Tags
Let your AI agent find packages like this
Example. Real query, live index.
You found this page by searching. An agent finds it by wishing: SkillFed indexes 14,416 PyPI packages by what they can do, searchable in plain language.
wish › “auto-instrumentation telemetry”
- opentelemetry-distroProvides a Python distribution package for OpenTelemetry that bundles…
- opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai-agents-v2Automatically captures telemetry data from OpenAI Agents v2…
- aws-opentelemetry-distroProvides AWS-integrated OpenTelemetry auto-instrumentation for Python…
Give your agent the search over MCP, or paste the wish link into any chat.
More Monitoring packages
Wraps any iterable to display a real-time progress bar in the terminal or Jupyter notebook, showing iteration count, elapsed time, and estimated time remaining.
Provides generated Python code for OpenTelemetry semantic conventions, enabling standardized attribute naming and constant definitions for instrumentation and telemetry collection.
Install it if you are using OpenTelemetry and want to follow semantic conventions correctly.
Provides the reference implementation of the OpenTelemetry API for collecting and exporting traces, metrics, and logs from Python applications.
Provides the abstract API and interfaces for OpenTelemetry instrumentation in Python, defining how to emit traces, metrics, and logs without tying code to a specific SDK implementation.
Exports OpenTelemetry observability data to an OpenTelemetry Collector using Protobuf-encoded messages over HTTP.
Install it if you are using OpenTelemetry in Python and need to send data to a Collector over HTTP.
Provides automatic instrumentation commands and programmatic APIs to inject distributed tracing into Python applications without code changes, detecting and instrumenting packages used by your program.
Install it if you need distributed tracing without code changes and have compatible instrumented packages in your environment.
See also opentelemetry-test-utils · opentelemetry-contrib-instrumentations · vercel-internal-telemetry · opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai-agents-v2 · opentelemetry-container-distro · azure-monitor-opentelemetry · opentelemetry-instrumentation-logging