Summary

• Adds an optional OTEL emission path for merged control execution events in the Python SDK.
• When OTEL is configured, the SDK registers an OTEL-backed ControlEventSink and uses the existing merged-event flow to emit reconstructed local and server ControlExecutionEvents as OTEL spans.
• This keeps the default SDK/server observability behavior unchanged while enabling OTEL export for the merged-event path.
• Also adds a new example that shows control creation, merged event reconstruction, OTEL export, and collector-style payload inspection end to end.

Scope

• User-facing/API changes:
• Adds SDK settings for OTEL event emission:
• AGENT_CONTROL_OTEL_ENABLED
• AGENT_CONTROL_OTEL_ENDPOINT
• AGENT_CONTROL_OTEL_HEADERS
• AGENT_CONTROL_OTEL_SERVICE_NAME
• Adds exported SDK OTEL helpers:
• create_otel_event_sink(...)
• configure_otel_event_sink(...)
• control_event_to_otel_span(...)
• control_event_to_otel_attributes(...)
• is_otel_event_emission_configured(...)
• Adds a new runnable example under examples/otel_merged_events

Internal changes:

• Adds sdks/python/src/agent_control/telemetry/otel.py
• Registers the OTEL sink automatically during agent_control.init(...) when OTEL is configured and no other control event sink is already registered
• Reuses the existing merged-event emission path instead of changing the default local/server event behavior
• Maps reconstructed control-event fields and metadata into OTEL span attributes
• Out of scope:
• Galileo-side OTEL ingestion, normalization, or persistence
• Any changes to default OSS event queueing/server ingestion behavior
• New backend OTEL collector integration in this repo

Expected Behavior

• Default behavior is unchanged:
• local events continue through the existing SDK observability queue
• server-side events continue to be built and ingested by the server
• OTEL only kicks in when OTEL is configured in SDK settings/env vars and no other control event sink has already been registered.
• In that case:
• agent_control.init(...) auto-registers an OTEL ControlEventSink
• evaluation switches into the existing merged-event mode
• the SDK reconstructs local and server control execution events after evaluation
• the SDK emits one merged batch through the OTEL sink
• each merged event is converted into an OTEL span with AgentControl-specific attributes
• If OTEL is not configured, or OTEL packages are not installed, this path stays inert and existing behavior remains unchanged.
• Explicitly registered sinks still take precedence over OTEL auto-registration.

Risk and Rollout

• Risk level: medium
• Rollback plan:
• Remove or disable OTEL sink auto-registration in init(...)
• Unset OTEL-related SDK settings/env vars to fall back to existing behavior
• Revert the new OTEL telemetry module and example if needed

Testing

• Added or updated automated tests
• Ran make check (or explained why not)
• Manually verified behavior
• Added example to demonstrate the behvior

Notes:

• Added focused tests for OTEL configuration, attribute mapping, sink registration, and OTEL span emission behavior.
• I did not run full make check here.
• Manually verified the new OTEL merged-events example and iterated on its output to show:
• control creation
• local/server evaluation responses
• merged event reconstruction
• final collector-facing OTEL payloads

Checklist

• Linked issue/spec (if applicable)
• Updated docs/examples for user-facing changes
• Included any required follow-up tasks

Suggested follow-up tasks:

• Galileo-side OTEL ingestion support for AgentControl-specific OTEL spans

• End-to-end CI smoke test for the OTEL merged-events example

• Document the OTEL attribute contract formally if this path will be consumed by downstream ingestion systems

• Included any required follow-up tasks