otel-collector-builder

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Build custom OpenTelemetry Collector distributions with OCB (OpenTelemetry Collector Builder). Use when authoring or debugging a builder manifest (builder.yaml), choosing component and provider versions, building a collector that bundles a custom or out-of-distribution component, setting up CI or Docker builds of a distribution, or troubleshooting OCB build failures. Triggers on "ocb", "collector builder", "custom collector distribution", "builder manifest", "builder-config", and version-mismatch errors from OCB builds.

1installs

Sourceollygarden/opentelemetry-agent-skills

Added on2026-08-16

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add ollygarden/opentelemetry-agent-skills otel-collector-builder

SKILL.md Content

View Translation Comparison →

OpenTelemetry Collector Builder (OCB)

OCB generates and compiles a custom Collector binary from a YAML manifest that lists exactly the components to include. Source of truth: cmd/builder in opentelemetry-collector.

Use OCB when the stock

otelcol

/

otelcol-contrib

distributions don't fit: you need a component that ships in no distribution, a private/local component, or a slimmer binary with only the components you run.

This skill covers building the distribution. For configuring individual components, see

otel-collector

; for writing a new component, see the component-authoring guidance; for generating test traffic against the built binary, see

otel-telemetrygen

.

Workflow

Install OCB at the version matching your target Collector version (see Install).
Write the manifest —
```
dist:
```
block plus component lists. Start from the minimal manifest; full key reference in references/manifest.md.
Align versions. All core components share one
```
v0.x.0
```
version, contrib components use the same
```
v0.x.0
```
, and confmap providers use the paired stable
```
v1.y.0
```
. Getting this wrong is the #1 build failure — see Version alignment.
Build with
```
ocb --config=builder.yaml
```
(binary is named
```
builder
```
when installed via
```
go install
```
). CI, Docker, multi-arch, and local-component workflows are in references/workflows.md.
Verify: run
```
./dist/<name> validate --config=<collector-config>.yaml
```
, then start it and send test data (
```
otel-telemetrygen
```
skill). If the build fails, see references/troubleshooting.md.

Install

Pick the OCB version equal to the Collector core version you're targeting.

bash

# Release binary (named ocb): https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/releases?q=cmd/builder
# Go install (binary is named `builder`, not `ocb`):
go install go.opentelemetry.io/collector/cmd/builder@v0.158.0

The commands below use

ocb

, the release-archive binary name. If you install with

go install

, invoke the same commands as

builder ...

instead.

ocb init

(experimental) scaffolds a new distribution repo — manifest, Makefile, sample config, README — in

--path

(default

).

Minimal manifest

yaml

# builder.yaml
dist:
  name: otelcol-custom
  description: Custom OpenTelemetry Collector distribution
  output_path: ./dist
  version: 1.0.0

receivers:
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/receiver/otlpreceiver v0.158.0

processors:
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/processor/batchprocessor v0.158.0

exporters:
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter/otlpexporter v0.158.0
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/exporter/debugexporter v0.158.0

providers:
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/confmap/provider/fileprovider v1.64.0
  - gomod: go.opentelemetry.io/collector/confmap/provider/envprovider v1.64.0

providers:
semantics. Omitting the key entirely keeps OCB's built-in default set (env, file, http, https, yaml at the paired stable version). But setting

providers:

at all replaces that set. The generated Collector defaults

conf_resolver.default_uri_scheme

to

env

, so an explicit list without

envprovider

fails configuration validation unless you set another included provider as the default. Either omit the key, or include

envprovider

plus every scheme the collector's config will use.

Contrib components use the same list syntax:

yaml

processors:
  - gomod: github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/processor/tailsamplingprocessor v0.158.0

Version alignment

Two version streams exist and must be paired:

Stream	Modules	Example
`v0.x.0`	OCB itself, all core components ( `go.opentelemetry.io/collector/...` ), all contrib components	`v0.158.0`
`v1.y.0` (stable)	confmap providers ( `confmap/provider/...` ), other 1.x modules (pdata, etc.)	`v1.64.0`

Rules:

Use the same
v0.x.0
for every core and contrib component, matched to the OCB version.
The paired provider version for a given release is authoritative in that release's embedded default manifest:
```
https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/blob/cmd/builder/v0.158.0/cmd/builder/internal/config/default.yaml
```
— check it rather than guessing (for
```
v0.158.0
```
it is
```
v1.64.0
```
).
Versions require the
```
v
```
prefix (
```
v0.158.0
```
, not
```
0.158.0
```
).
```
--skip-strict-versioning
```
defaults to
```
true
```
, so mismatches surface as Go module resolution errors, not friendly OCB errors. Align versions up front instead of debugging
```
go mod tidy
```
output.

Build commands and flags

bash

ocb --config=builder.yaml                                  # full build: generate + go mod tidy + compile
ocb --config=builder.yaml --skip-compilation               # generate sources only (two-stage CI)
ocb --config=builder.yaml --skip-generate --skip-get-modules  # compile pre-generated sources untouched

Flag	Default	Purpose
`--config`	embedded default manifest	Manifest path. With no `--config` , OCB builds `otelcorecol` , a minimal test-only distribution.
`--skip-generate`	`false`	Don't regenerate Go sources
`--skip-compilation`	`false`	Generate sources, don't compile
`--skip-get-modules`	`false`	Don't run `go mod tidy` /downloads. Since v0.154.0 also leaves `go.mod` unregenerated.
`--skip-strict-versioning`	`true`	Set to `false` to make OCB verify resolved versions against the manifest
`--ldflags` / `--gcflags`	—	Extra `go build` flags
`--verbose`	`false`	Log the underlying Go commands

Generated output in

output_path

:

main.go

,

components.go

,

main_others.go

,

main_windows.go

,

go.mod

,

go.sum

, and the compiled binary named

dist.name

. By default binaries are stripped (

-s -w

); set

dist.debug_compilation: true

for Delve-friendly builds.

Reference files

references/manifest.md — every manifest key:
```
dist:
```
fields, component spec (
```
gomod
```
/
```
import
```
/
```
name
```
/
```
path
```
), providers,
```
replaces
```
,
```
excludes
```
,
```
conf_resolver
```
,
```
telemetry
```
references/workflows.md — local component development, CI two-stage builds, Docker and multi-arch builds, relationship to
```
opentelemetry-collector-releases
```
references/troubleshooting.md — version mismatches, module conflicts, CGO, missing providers, runtime failures