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Overview
OpenTelemetry C++ implements APIs and SDKs for traces, metrics, and logs in C++ applications. Instrumentation stays separate from selectable stdout, OTLP, and other exporters.
Features and best fit
Based on official documentation; not hands-on tested · Content checked:
Key features
Best fit
Fit native services and libraries
It fits C++ servers, desktop applications, and embedded processing that need consistent telemetry.
Sources: [1]
Before adoption
Official sources
- [1]OpenTelemetry C++ README at v1.29.0(2026-10-05)
- [2]C++ simple example CMake at v1.29.0(2026-10-05)
- [3]C++ LICENSE at v1.29.0(2026-10-05)
- [4]C++ v1.29.0 release(2026-10-05)
Supplemental curator note
Verify span creation and shutdown flushing with the ostream example before choosing production export and dependency management.
Try it in 3 steps
- 1
Fetch the pinned source
Install Git, CMake 3.16 or later, Ninja, and a C++14 compiler; fetch v1.29.0 and keep the following commands in otel-cpp-demo.
git clone --branch v1.29.0 --depth 1 https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-cpp.git otel-cpp-demo && cd otel-cpp-demo - 2
Build the stdout simple example
Configure without OTLP dependencies or tests and build the example_simple target, which uses the ostream exporter, at build/examples/simple/example_simple.
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DWITH_EXAMPLES=ON -DWITH_OTLP_GRPC=OFF -DWITH_OTLP_HTTP=OFF -DWITH_TEST=OFF && cmake --build build --target example_simple --parallel 2 - 3
Save and inspect span output
Run example_simple, save its span output in trace-output.txt, and require the captured file to be nonempty.
(set -o pipefail; ./build/examples/simple/example_simple | tee trace-output.txt) && test -s trace-output.txt
Growth
Growth trends · Last 30 days
1,379 Stars
Trend data is still being collected.
Development activity
Last 90 days · weekly
- Commits (last 30 days)
- 83
- Open PRs
- 54
- Issues opened
- 120
- Issues closed
- 96
- PRs opened
- 334
- PRs merged
- 242
Issues
120 / 96
Pull requests
334 / 242
Maintenance
- Median first response
- 7.2 hr
- Issue response rate
- 48.4% (15/31)
Based on up to the 100 newest issues opened by external users in the last 90 days. A first comment from an OWNER, MEMBER, or COLLABORATOR counts as a response; issues whose full comment history cannot be checked are excluded. The median and response rate update weekly.
Built with
Categories and tags
Categories
GitHub data
GitHub dataView detailed GitHub data
GitHub Topics
- distributed-tracing
- metrics
- telemetry
- sdk
- api
- opentelemetry
- Stars
- 1,379
- Forks
- 644
- Watchers
- 37
- Open issues
- 233
- Contributors
- 244
- Owner type
- Organization
- Primary language
- C++
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Repository last updated
- Oct 5, 2026
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