Semantic conventions for tracing compatibility components
August 31, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
Status: Deprecated
Warning
OpenTracing compatibility requirements are deprecated in the OpenTelemetry Specification. This document is kept for reference only - the conventions below are no longer current guidance and there is no replacement.
This document defines trace semantic conventions used by the compatibility components, e.g. OpenTracing Shim layer.
OpenTracing
Links created by the OpenTracing Shim MUST set opentracing.ref_type
with one of the accepted values, describing the direct causal relationships
between a child Span and a parent Span, as defined by
OpenTracing.
Attributes:
| Key | Stability | Requirement Level | Value Type | Description | Example Values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
opentracing.ref_type |  OpenTracing compatibility requirements are deprecated in OpenTelemetry Specification | Recommended | string | Parent-child Reference type [1] | child_of; follows_from |
[1] opentracing.ref_type: The causal relationship between a child Span and a parent Span.
opentracing.ref_type has the following list of well-known values. If one of them applies, then the respective value MUST be used; otherwise, a custom value MAY be used.
| Value | Description | Stability |
|---|---|---|
child_of | The parent Span depends on the child Span in some capacity |  |
follows_from | The parent Span doesn't depend in any way on the result of the child Span | |