# Resources

LLMS index: [llms.txt](/llms.txt)

---

## Introduction



A [resource](/docs/concepts/resources/) represents the entity producing telemetry as
resource attributes. For example, a process producing telemetry that is
running in a container on Kubernetes has a process name, a pod name, a
namespace, and possibly a deployment name. All four of these attributes can be
included in the resource.

In your observability backend, you can use resource information to better
investigate interesting behavior. For example, if your trace or metrics data
indicate latency in your system, you can narrow it down to a specific container,
pod, or Kubernetes deployment.
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If you use [Jaeger](https://www.jaegertracing.io/) as your observability
backend, resource attributes are grouped under the **Process** tab:

![A screenshot from Jaeger showing an example output of resource attributes associated to a trace](screenshot-jaeger-resources.png)

A resource is added to the `TracerProvider` or `MetricProvider` when they are
created during initialization. This association cannot be changed later. After a
resource is added, all spans and metrics produced from a `Tracer` or `Meter`
from the provider will have the resource associated with them.

## Semantic Attributes with SDK-provided Default Value

There are attributes provided by the OpenTelemetry SDK. One of them is the
`service.name`, which represents the logical name of the service. By default,
SDKs will assign the value `unknown_service` for this value, so it is
recommended to set it explicitly, either in code or via setting the environment
variable `OTEL_SERVICE_NAME`.

Additionally, the SDK will also provide the following resource attributes to
identify itself: `telemetry.sdk.name`, `telemetry.sdk.language` and
`telemetry.sdk.version`.

## Resource Detectors

Most language-specific SDKs provide a set of resource detectors that can be used
to automatically detect resource information from the environment. Common
resource detectors include:

- [Operating System](/docs/specs/semconv/resource/os/)
- [Host](/docs/specs/semconv/resource/host/)
- [Process and Process Runtime](/docs/specs/semconv/resource/process/)
- [Container](/docs/specs/semconv/resource/container/)
- [Kubernetes](/docs/specs/semconv/resource/k8s/)
- [Cloud-Provider-Specific Attributes](/docs/specs/semconv/resource/#cloud-provider-specific-attributes)
- [and more](/docs/specs/semconv/resource/)

## Custom resources

You can also provide your own resource attributes. You can either provide them
in code or via populating the environment variable `OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES`.
If applicable, use the
[semantic conventions for your resource attributes](/docs/specs/semconv/resource).
For example, you can provide the name of your
[deployment environment](/docs/specs/semconv/resource/deployment-environment/)
using `deployment.environment.name`:

```shell
env OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=deployment.environment.name=production yourApp
```