CONCEPT Cited by 1 source
OTLP Profiles signal¶
The OTLP Profiles signal is the OpenTelemetry project's wire- format and semantic-convention standard for continuous profiling data, reaching alpha status in early 2026. It is the fourth first-class OpenTelemetry signal, joining metrics, logs, and traces.
Why it matters¶
Before the Profiles signal, each profiling backend had its own wire format — Pyroscope's native format, Elastic's format, Datadog's, Parca's, and so on. Instrumentation was tightly coupled to the backend you chose. OpenTelemetry's arrival for the three older signals (traces 2019, metrics 2021, logs 2022) decoupled instrumentation from backend; agents and SDKs speak OTLP, vendors accept OTLP, teams change backends without re-instrumenting. The Profiles signal extends that decoupling to profiling.
Per Grafana Labs' Pyroscope 2.0 launch post:
"OpenTelemetry recently declared its Profiles signal as alpha, marking a clear step toward profiling becoming a first-class observability signal."
(Source: sources/2026-04-22-grafana-introducing-pyroscope-2-0)
Pyroscope 2.0 native OTLP profiles ingest¶
Pyroscope 2.0 launched (2026-04-22) with native OTLP profiling ingest. Teams can start sending profiles via the emerging standard today, rather than via Pyroscope's native format. This is the interop-parity milestone: wire-format lock-in for profiling now goes away the same way it did for traces and metrics. (Source: sources/2026-04-22-grafana-introducing-pyroscope-2-0)
Alpha status caveat¶
Alpha spec means the wire format and semantic conventions can still change. Early adopters should expect breakage across spec revisions and plan for the follow-up spec-stabilisation work that traces and metrics both went through (which in those cases took roughly a year from alpha to GA). Don't bet critical long-term retention on alpha-spec formats without a backfill plan.
Prior art: the three older signals¶
The Profiles signal follows the OTel path laid by its siblings:
- Traces — OpenTracing and OpenCensus merged into OpenTelemetry (2019); GA in 2021.
- Metrics — Alpha 2020, stable 2022.
- Logs — Stable 2023.
Profiles at alpha in 2026 is on the same trajectory, roughly 4-5 years behind traces.
Related¶
- systems/opentelemetry — the parent project and standards body.
- systems/pyroscope-2 — first major OSS profiling backend with native OTLP profiles ingest on launch.
- concepts/continuous-profiling — the signal class the format standardises.
- concepts/symbolic-information-payload — the profiling- specific payload trait the format has to accommodate.