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otel-migration

Guide for retrofitting OpenTelemetry into an existing, uninstrumented application. Trigger phrases: "migrate existing app to OTel", "add OpenTelemetry to existing project", "retrofit OTel into my codebase", "thread context through my code", "context propagation", "bridge Prometheus metrics to OTel", "logging bridge", "migrate logging to OTel", "slog bridge", "logback bridge", "verify my instrumentation", "traces are disconnected", "orphaned spans", "migrate to OpenTelemetry", "OTel migration plan", "how do I sequence an OTel migration", "add tracing to existing code", "refactor for context propagation", "Fiber context gotcha", "keep existing logging working with OTel", "add OTel without breaking Prometheus", "bridge existing metrics", "coexist with existing monitoring", or any request about retrofitting OpenTelemetry into an existing application. This skill is for migrating existing codebases, NOT greenfield instrumentation (use otel-instrumentation) or Beeline-specific migration (use beeline-migration).

86

1.03x
Quality

80%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

97%

1.03x

Average score across 3 eval scenarios

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No known issues

Fix and improve this skill with Tessl

tessl review fix ./honeycomb/skills/otel-migration/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

70%

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

This is a well-structured migration guide with excellent workflow clarity and progressive disclosure. The six-phase approach with verification checkpoints and real-world calibration data is valuable. The main weakness is that actionable code examples are entirely deferred to reference files, leaving the SKILL.md itself without any executable snippets, and some sections could be more concise.

Suggestions

Add at least one inline executable code example per phase (e.g., SDK init snippet for Phase 1, middleware setup for Phase 2) so the skill is actionable without consulting references.

Trim the 'When to Use This Skill' section — the routing logic between skills is better suited to frontmatter or a single sentence, not a bulleted list that repeats the description.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The content is mostly efficient but includes some unnecessary framing (e.g., 'When to Use This Skill' section repeats what should be in frontmatter, and some guidance like 'This is the hardest phase' is somewhat padded). The framework table and phase descriptions are well-structured but could be tighter in places.

2 / 3

Actionability

The skill provides structured guidance with a useful framework context table and clear phase ordering, but lacks executable code examples — all concrete code and commands are deferred to reference files. The guidance is specific enough to be useful but not copy-paste ready on its own.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The six-phase migration is clearly sequenced with explicit ordering ('each phase is independently deployable and verifiable'), verification after each phase is called out, and the effort breakdown provides calibration. The workflow includes validation checkpoints via the verification section and reference checklist.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

Excellent progressive disclosure structure: the SKILL.md serves as a clear overview with well-signaled, one-level-deep references to specific files (framework-middleware.md, context-propagation-patterns.md, bridge-libraries.md, verification-checklist.md, etc.). Navigation is intuitive and references are clearly labeled by purpose.

3 / 3

Total

10

/

12

Passed

Description

89%

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

This is a strong skill description with excellent trigger term coverage and clear boundaries distinguishing it from related skills. Its main weakness is that the core capability statement is somewhat thin—it says it's a 'guide for retrofitting' but doesn't enumerate the specific actions or outputs the skill provides (e.g., generates migration plans, identifies instrumentation gaps, configures bridges). The extensive trigger phrase list compensates well for routing purposes but the description reads more like a keyword index than a capability summary.

Suggestions

Expand the opening sentence to list 2-3 concrete actions the skill performs, e.g., 'Generates migration plans, configures logging and metrics bridges, diagnoses context propagation issues, and sequences OTel adoption for existing uninstrumented applications.'

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description names the domain (retrofitting OpenTelemetry) and mentions some actions like 'thread context through code', 'bridge Prometheus metrics', 'logging bridge', but these are embedded in trigger phrases rather than stated as concrete capabilities the skill performs. The actual 'what it does' is vague: 'Guide for retrofitting OpenTelemetry into an existing, uninstrumented application.'

2 / 3

Completeness

The description answers 'what' (guide for retrofitting OpenTelemetry into existing uninstrumented applications) and 'when' with extensive explicit trigger phrases. It also includes negative boundaries ('NOT greenfield instrumentation... NOT Beeline-specific migration') with skill redirects, which strengthens the 'when' guidance.

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Excellent coverage of natural trigger terms including variations like 'migrate existing app to OTel', 'add OpenTelemetry to existing project', 'context propagation', 'traces are disconnected', 'orphaned spans', 'slog bridge', 'logback bridge', and many more. These cover a wide range of natural phrases users would actually say.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Highly distinctive with a clear niche (retrofitting OTel into existing codebases) and explicit boundary statements differentiating it from greenfield instrumentation (otel-instrumentation) and Beeline-specific migration (beeline-migration). This makes conflict with related skills very unlikely.

3 / 3

Total

11

/

12

Passed

Validation

100%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation11 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

No warnings or errors.

Repository
honeycombio/agent-skill
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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