How open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib works
OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib is a catalog of optional Collector components, not a single runnable pipeline. Users select components for a custom distribution; the broader Collector runtime connects receiver, processor, and exporter components to receive, transform, and deliver telemetry. The tree and sampled files expose diverse receivers, processors, exporters, extensions, and connector implementations. The README documents component selection, but does not specify runtime wiring among these modules, so those connections are not drawn. Several indexed core modules were not sampled; their nodes represent their exact paths, not inspected internals.
Main entry points: server.go Fluent Forward · handler.go AWS Lambda · apiserver/manager.go Prometheus API · targetallocator/manager.go Target allocator
Components 17
Telemetry receivers
- Fluent Forward
receiver/fluentforwardreceiver/server.go - AWS Lambda
receiver/awslambdareceiver/handler.go - Prometheus API
receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal/apiserver/manager.go - Target allocator
receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal/targetallocator/manager.go - PostgreSQL client
receiver/postgresqlreceiver/client.go - MongoDB queries
receiver/mongodbreceiver/top_query_scraper.go - Kubernetes client
processor/k8sattributesprocessor/internal/kube/client.go
Telemetry processing
- Trace grouping
processor/groupbytraceprocessor/storage_subtrace.go - Trace memory store
processor/groupbytraceprocessor/storage_memory.go
Telemetry exporters
- Alertmanager export
exporter/alertmanagerexporter/alertmanager_exporter.go - Splunk HE client
exporter/splunkhecexporter/client.go - OpenSearch templates
exporter/opensearchexporter/index_template_manager.go
Extensions and storage
- Tail storage
extension/tailstorage/pebbletailstorageextension/storage.go - Azure log decoding
extension/encoding/azureencodingextension/internal/unmarshaler/logs/category_storage.go
Pipeline connectors
- Kafka client
internal/kafka/franz_client.go
Other components
- Collector user
- Custom distribution
Connections 16
- Collector user → Custom distribution: selects components
README.md - Custom distribution → Fluent Forward: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → AWS Lambda: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → Prometheus API: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → Target allocator: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → PostgreSQL client: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → MongoDB queries: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → Kubernetes client: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → Trace grouping: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → Trace memory store: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → Alertmanager export: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → Splunk HE client: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → OpenSearch templates: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → Tail storage: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → Azure log decoding: includes
README.md - Custom distribution → Kafka client: includes
README.md