newrelic / newrelic/newrelic-java-agent

[Hybrid Agent] OTel Application Logging Improvements

Open
#2,961 3 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@jbedell-newrelic is already working on this.

Since Jun 30, 2026.

Dominant language
Java
Stars
240
Forks
170
Avg merge
3d 2h
Merged PRs (30d)
21

Description

Related to https://new-relic.atlassian.net/browse/NR-575934

The goal of this story is to improve the experience of using the OTel Logs API with the Java hybrid agent. Desired improvements include:

  1. Stop rejecting logs without a message body
  2. At least for OTel events, but perhaps in general, stop prefixing context. on attributes that we add to log messages
  3. Put together a DACI on how to support OTel events
  4. Put together a DACI on how to support OTel events that by convention get transformed to custom events (for example, should they be transformed in the agent and count towards the custom event reservoir?)
  5. Convert errors/exceptions passed via logs into error events in our agents (I believe the Java/Node agents are already doing this today, but other agents are not)

Items 1, 2, and 5 are not necessarily hybrid agent specific, but they may improve the experience in a consistent manner across all logging frameworks and make things better for the hybrid agent experience. If this work does expand beyond the OTel Logs API then additional stories should be created to reflect the increased scope and keep it separate from the Hybrid Agent initiative.

This work will need coordination with the Logging teams and @alanwest . Relevant conversation related to internal testing opportunity: https://newrelic.slack.com/archives/C07PUH00WBZ/p1781125345332209

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Assessment

This issue has not been assessed yet.

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.