Avoiding Breaking Changes in Your Project: Lessons From the OpenTelemetry Collector

This conference talk explores strategies for maintaining API stability in open source projects, using the OpenTelemetry Collector as a case study. Learn how the Collector Special Interest Group (SIG) implements tools and methodologies to prevent breaking changes while supporting diverse users including end users, component developers, and other CNCF projects like Prometheus and Jaeger. Discover practical approaches for designing library APIs that minimize breakage risks, techniques for understanding how users interact with your project, and effective implementation of feature gates when changes are unavoidable. The speakers also address specific challenges like supporting both stable and unstable protocols simultaneously, and share future strategies being considered. Gain valuable insights applicable to any project where maintaining backward compatibility is crucial for building a sustainable ecosystem.