Equivalent command-line argument not available for OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN environment variable

[swamisriman]

Describe your environment

OS: macOS Tahoe 26.1 (25B78)
Python version: Python 3.13.3
Package version: 0.59b0

What happened?

Equivalent command-line argument for OTEL_SEMCONV_STABILITY_OPT_IN environment variable is not available for the opentelemetry-instrument command

Steps to Reproduce

Run a Python file with opentelemetry-instrument command and semconv_stability_opt_in cli argument as follows

opentelemetry-instrument \
    --semconv_stability_opt_in http \
    python3 main.py

Expected Result

The command runs without any errors and telemetry generated as per stable version of semconv.

Actual Result

Observing this error in output

usage: opentelemetry-instrument [-h] [--auto_instrumentation_experimental_gevent_patch AUTO_INSTRUMENTATION_EXPERIMENTAL_GEVENT_PATCH] [--configurator CONFIGURATOR]
                                [--disabled_instrumentations DISABLED_INSTRUMENTATIONS] [--distro DISTRO] [--logs_exporter LOGS_EXPORTER]
                                [--metrics_exporter METRICS_EXPORTER] [--propagators PROPAGATORS] [--context CONTEXT] [--id_generator ID_GENERATOR]
                                [--meter_provider METER_PROVIDER] [--tracer_provider TRACER_PROVIDER] [--traces_exporter TRACES_EXPORTER]
                                [--attribute_count_limit ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT] [--attribute_value_length_limit ATTRIBUTE_VALUE_LENGTH_LIMIT]
                                [--blrp_export_timeout BLRP_EXPORT_TIMEOUT] [--blrp_max_export_batch_size BLRP_MAX_EXPORT_BATCH_SIZE]
                                [--blrp_max_queue_size BLRP_MAX_QUEUE_SIZE] [--blrp_schedule_delay BLRP_SCHEDULE_DELAY] [--bsp_export_timeout BSP_EXPORT_TIMEOUT]
                                [--bsp_max_export_batch_size BSP_MAX_EXPORT_BATCH_SIZE] [--bsp_max_queue_size BSP_MAX_QUEUE_SIZE] [--bsp_schedule_delay BSP_SCHEDULE_DELAY]
                                [--event_attribute_count_limit EVENT_ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT] [--experimental_resource_detectors EXPERIMENTAL_RESOURCE_DETECTORS]
                                [--exporter_jaeger_agent_host EXPORTER_JAEGER_AGENT_HOST] [--exporter_jaeger_agent_port EXPORTER_JAEGER_AGENT_PORT]
                                [--exporter_jaeger_agent_split_oversized_batches EXPORTER_JAEGER_AGENT_SPLIT_OVERSIZED_BATCHES]
                                [--exporter_jaeger_certificate EXPORTER_JAEGER_CERTIFICATE] [--exporter_jaeger_endpoint EXPORTER_JAEGER_ENDPOINT]
                                [--exporter_jaeger_grpc_insecure EXPORTER_JAEGER_GRPC_INSECURE] [--exporter_jaeger_password EXPORTER_JAEGER_PASSWORD]
                                [--exporter_jaeger_timeout EXPORTER_JAEGER_TIMEOUT] [--exporter_jaeger_user EXPORTER_JAEGER_USER]
                                [--exporter_otlp_certificate EXPORTER_OTLP_CERTIFICATE] [--exporter_otlp_client_certificate EXPORTER_OTLP_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE]
                                [--exporter_otlp_client_key EXPORTER_OTLP_CLIENT_KEY] [--exporter_otlp_compression EXPORTER_OTLP_COMPRESSION]
                                [--exporter_otlp_endpoint EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT] [--exporter_otlp_headers EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS]
                                [--exporter_otlp_insecure EXPORTER_OTLP_INSECURE] [--exporter_otlp_logs_certificate EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_CERTIFICATE]
                                [--exporter_otlp_logs_client_certificate EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE]
                                [--exporter_otlp_logs_client_key EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_CLIENT_KEY] [--exporter_otlp_logs_compression EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_COMPRESSION]
                                [--exporter_otlp_logs_endpoint EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_ENDPOINT] [--exporter_otlp_logs_headers EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_HEADERS]
                                [--exporter_otlp_logs_insecure EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_INSECURE] [--exporter_otlp_logs_protocol EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_PROTOCOL]
                                [--exporter_otlp_logs_timeout EXPORTER_OTLP_LOGS_TIMEOUT] [--exporter_otlp_metrics_certificate EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_CERTIFICATE]
                                [--exporter_otlp_metrics_client_certificate EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE]
                                [--exporter_otlp_metrics_client_key EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_CLIENT_KEY] [--exporter_otlp_metrics_compression EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_COMPRESSION]
                                [--exporter_otlp_metrics_default_histogram_aggregation EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_DEFAULT_HISTOGRAM_AGGREGATION]
                                [--exporter_otlp_metrics_endpoint EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_ENDPOINT] [--exporter_otlp_metrics_headers EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_HEADERS]
                                [--exporter_otlp_metrics_insecure EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_INSECURE] [--exporter_otlp_metrics_protocol EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_PROTOCOL]
                                [--exporter_otlp_metrics_temporality_preference EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_TEMPORALITY_PREFERENCE]
                                [--exporter_otlp_metrics_timeout EXPORTER_OTLP_METRICS_TIMEOUT] [--exporter_otlp_protocol EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL]
                                [--exporter_otlp_timeout EXPORTER_OTLP_TIMEOUT] [--exporter_otlp_traces_certificate EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_CERTIFICATE]
                                [--exporter_otlp_traces_client_certificate EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE]
                                [--exporter_otlp_traces_client_key EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_CLIENT_KEY] [--exporter_otlp_traces_compression EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_COMPRESSION]
                                [--exporter_otlp_traces_endpoint EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_ENDPOINT] [--exporter_otlp_traces_headers EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_HEADERS]
                                [--exporter_otlp_traces_insecure EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_INSECURE] [--exporter_otlp_traces_protocol EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_PROTOCOL]
                                [--exporter_otlp_traces_timeout EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_TIMEOUT] [--exporter_prometheus_host EXPORTER_PROMETHEUS_HOST]
                                [--exporter_prometheus_port EXPORTER_PROMETHEUS_PORT] [--exporter_zipkin_endpoint EXPORTER_ZIPKIN_ENDPOINT]
                                [--exporter_zipkin_timeout EXPORTER_ZIPKIN_TIMEOUT] [--link_attribute_count_limit LINK_ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT] [--log_level LOG_LEVEL]
                                [--metrics_exemplar_filter METRICS_EXEMPLAR_FILTER] [--metric_export_interval METRIC_EXPORT_INTERVAL]
                                [--metric_export_timeout METRIC_EXPORT_TIMEOUT] [--resource_attributes RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES] [--sdk_disabled SDK_DISABLED]
                                [--service_name SERVICE_NAME] [--span_attribute_count_limit SPAN_ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT]
                                [--span_attribute_value_length_limit SPAN_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE_LENGTH_LIMIT] [--span_event_count_limit SPAN_EVENT_COUNT_LIMIT]
                                [--span_link_count_limit SPAN_LINK_COUNT_LIMIT] [--traces_sampler TRACES_SAMPLER] [--traces_sampler_arg TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG] [--version]
                                command ...
opentelemetry-instrument: error: unrecognized arguments: --semconv_stability_opt_in

Additional context

As per this doc, env vars and cli arguments can be mapped to each other.
So, one would assume that it's the same with this env var too

Would you like to implement a fix?

None

Tip

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[xrmx]

I think the docs you linked says that every cli argument can be made to an environment variable, not the other way around. Said that I think what is missing for the semconv vars to be is some metadata, the module path where they are declared should be added as opentelemetry_environment_variables entry point in the pyproject.toml of the package they are contained.