OpenTelemetry Collector Builder v0.163.0 - Choose resource detectors

OpenTelemetry Collector Builder cmd/builder/v0.163.0 was published on October 16, 2026. Its main builder change is dist.resource.detection.detectors, which lets custom distributions select a smaller set of resource detectors through generated Go build tags. GitHub does not mark this release as a prerelease.

The release entry is on the GitHub release page.

The builder notes point to the Collector distribution release for images and binaries. That page links the matching core and contrib changelogs. The highlights below cover the builder setting and the resource detection changes relevant to custom distributions.

Choose detectors in builder configuration

The new dist.resource.detection.detectors setting makes detector selection part of builder configuration. The core changelog describes this as an opt in capability, so a narrower detector set is a choice for distribution authors.

For a Collector built for a specific environment, this is a place to record which detectors it needs. The builder generates the Go build tags used to reduce the included set. That puts the selection in the build definition, where it can be reviewed alongside the distribution’s other choices.

Because the selection affects compilation, changing it calls for a new build. For rollout, I would first check that the rebuilt Collector still produces the resource attributes its users expect. Check actual attributes in emitted telemetry as well as successful process startup.

Omit individual detectors at build time

The matching contrib changes add omission tags for individual detectors. Examples include omit_detector_azure, omit_detector_hetzner, and omit_detector_aws_ec2. Local and container detection also have controls, including omit_detector_env, omit_detector_system, and omit_detector_docker.

These are compilation controls. My practical check would be to compare the selected detector set with every deployment that uses the resulting binary. A Collector shared across different environments needs a selection that covers those environments.

EC2 metadata failures respect configuration

If your custom distribution keeps the EC2 detector, the corresponding resource detection fix matters too. The detector now honors fail_on_missing_metadata during instance identity document and hostname lookups.

With the setting false, an HTTP 404 from the identity endpoint produces an empty resource instead of an error. A failed hostname lookup returns the resource without host.name. Other identity lookup errors still propagate. This addresses startup failures on OpenStack Nova hosts that expose EC2 compatible metadata but lack the AWS identity endpoint.

Where to get it

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