--- title: The case for OpenTelemetry maintainership | daily.dev description: OpenTelemetry's biggest constraint is a shortage of engaged maintainers, not ideas or adoption, a Grafana Labs maintainer argues. From September 2024 to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-case-for-opentelemetry-maintainership-vlh70sqd5 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The case for OpenTelemetry maintainership | daily.dev og:description: OpenTelemetry's biggest constraint is a shortage of engaged maintainers, not ideas or adoption, a Grafana Labs maintainer argues. From September 2024 to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-case-for-opentelemetry-maintainership-vlh70sqd5 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/vlh70sqd5.png og:image:alt: The case for OpenTelemetry maintainership og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The case for OpenTelemetry maintainership **[OpenTelemetry](https://daily.dev/sources/opentelemetry)** · 12 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary OpenTelemetry's biggest constraint is a shortage of engaged maintainers, not ideas or adoption, a Grafana Labs maintainer argues. From September 2024 to September 2026, incoming pull requests grew 153.5% while engaged reviewers grew only 62.1%, pushing the PR-to-reviewer ratio up 56%. Over 75% of maintainers work on OpenTelemetry as part of their day job, mostly at observability vendors. The post argues both individuals and companies benefit from sponsoring maintainership, citing career signal, visibility, security triage, and influence over the project's direction, and outlines the contributor ladder from member to maintainer as one route to get involved. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much has the OpenTelemetry PR-to-reviewer ratio grown between 2024 and 2026? The ratio of incoming pull requests per engaged reviewer grew 56.3% between September 2024 and September 2026, rising from 13.50 to 21.10. Incoming PRs rose 153.5% (from 1,390 to 3,523) while engaged reviewers grew only 62.1% (from 103 to 167), meaning contribution volume is outpacing reviewer capacity. _Anyone tracking OpenTelemetry's health can follow maintainer capacity trends like this on daily.dev._ ### What percentage of OpenTelemetry maintainers work for observability vendors? More than 75% of OpenTelemetry maintainers are affiliated with observability vendors, based on analysis of the project's contributor base. Most maintainers do the work as part of their paid day job rather than purely as volunteers, which shapes how the project depends on company sponsorship to sustain maintainer time. _Developers evaluating OpenTelemetry's governance can keep tabs on ecosystem dynamics like this through daily.dev._ ### What is the contributor ladder for becoming an OpenTelemetry maintainer? The OpenTelemetry contributor ladder progresses from member to triager to approver to maintainer, with different special interest groups (SIGs) setting their own norms for progression. Getting invited requires exercising good judgment and showing up consistently with an ownership mentality, including reviewing code even before being an approver. _Engineers weighing an open source maintainership path can research contributor ladders like this via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Welcome to Maintainer Month: Celebrating the people behind the code](https://daily.dev/posts/welcome-to-maintainer-month-celebrating-the-people-behind-the-code-d3icr7lm4) · GitHub Blog · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [OpenTelemetry co-founder tools up for project graduation party](https://daily.dev/posts/opentelemetry-co-founder-tools-up-for-project-graduation-party-zsrxa5ifs) · DEVCLASS · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Open standards in 2026: The backbone of modern observability](https://daily.dev/posts/open-standards-in-2026-the-backbone-of-modern-observability-j0kzey2wb) · Grafana Labs · 6 upvotes · 0 comments - [Sustaining OpenTelemetry: What a 10-week contributor cohort actually looks like](https://daily.dev/posts/sustaining-opentelemetry-what-a-10-week-contributor-cohort-actually-looks-like-ubfsadb23) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [OTel Isn't Going Well \(And I Made A Spreadsheet About It\)](https://daily.dev/posts/otel-isn-t-going-well-and-i-made-a-spreadsheet-about-it--l7b8edsap) · Mat Duggan · 20 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#observability](https://daily.dev/tags/observability), [#opentelemetry](https://daily.dev/tags/opentelemetry) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-case-for-opentelemetry-maintainership-vlh70sqd5) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The case for OpenTelemetry maintainership","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-case-for-opentelemetry-maintainership-vlh70sqd5","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-case-for-opentelemetry-maintainership-vlh70sqd5"},"datePublished":"2026-10-26T17:07:39.149Z","dateModified":"2026-10-26T17:11:09.111Z","description":"OpenTelemetry's biggest constraint is a shortage of engaged maintainers, not ideas or adoption, a Grafana Labs maintainer argues. 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