diff --git a/docs/otel-api-observability/README.md b/docs/otel-api-observability/README.md
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+# OpenTelemetry for Plane self-hosters
+
+Plane's API server can emit OpenTelemetry traces, HTTP metrics, and trace-correlated logs over OTLP. Point it at any OTEL-compatible backend (Jaeger, Tempo, Datadog Agent, Honeycomb, Grafana Cloud, …) and start debugging slow endpoints.
+
+## Quickstart
+
+1. Run an OTEL Collector pointing at your backend of choice. See [`otel-collector.yaml`](./otel-collector.yaml) in this folder for a starting config.
+2. Set two environment variables on the API container (and, for task telemetry, the worker and beat-worker containers):
+   ```bash
+   OTEL_ENABLED=1
+   OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://otel-collector:4317
+   ```
+3. Restart the API/worker containers. That's it.
+
+## What you get
+
+- A server span per HTTP request, with `http.route`, `http.method`, `http.status_code`, `http.target`, and duration.
+- A span per Celery task with `celery.action` / `celery.task_name` / `celery.state`. Traceparent is propagated through the queue, so a request that enqueues a task is linked to that task's execution span in the same trace.
+- Child spans for every Postgres query, Redis op, and outbound `requests` / `httpx` call inside that request or task.
+- HTTP metrics: `http.server.duration` histogram, `http.server.active_requests`, `http.server.request.size`, `http.server.response.size`.
+- JSON logs on stdout with `trace_id` / `span_id` / `service_name` fields **added only when `OTEL_ENABLED=1`**. Off path leaves the existing log schema untouched. Point the collector's `filelog` receiver at your container log directory to link logs ↔ traces.
+
+## Environment variables
+
+| Var                           | Default                    | Purpose                                                                 |
+| ----------------------------- | -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| `OTEL_ENABLED`                | `0`                        | Plane gate. Must be `1` (or `true`/`yes`/`on`).                         |
+| `OTEL_SERVICE_NAME`           | `plane-api`                | Service identifier in your APM backend                                  |
+| `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT` | _(required)_               | Your collector's OTLP receiver                                          |
+| `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL` | `grpc`                     | `grpc` or `http/protobuf`                                               |
+| `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS`  | _(unset)_                  | For SaaS backends needing auth headers                                  |
+| `OTEL_ENVIRONMENT`            | _(unset)_                  | Sets `deployment.environment.name` (falls back to `SENTRY_ENVIRONMENT`) |
+| `OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER`         | `parentbased_traceidratio` | Standard OTEL sampler                                                   |
+| `OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG`     | `0.1`                      | 10 % head sampling. Set to `1.0` to capture every request.              |
+| `OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES`    | _(unset)_                  | Extra resource attrs: `service.version=...`                             |
+
+If `OTEL_ENABLED=1` but `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT` is unset, the API logs a single WARNING at boot and continues without instrumentation — no silent local-host default.
+
+## What's not instrumented yet
+
+- The `live` (Node.js) collaboration server. It has no OTEL bootstrap yet and isn't covered by this Django-side setup.
+
+## Troubleshooting
+
+- **No spans showing up.** Confirm `OTEL_ENABLED=1` is in the API container's env, not just the host shell. Check API logs for the `OpenTelemetry configured` INFO line at boot.
+- **`connection refused` floods stop appearing.** Good — they were dropped batches. The `opentelemetry.*` loggers are pinned to WARNING but the underlying gRPC retries still happen. Fix the collector reachability or unset `OTEL_ENABLED`.
+- **`trace_id` is empty in logs.** Either you're outside a request/task or the sampler dropped the trace. Drop `OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG` to `1.0` while debugging.
diff --git a/docs/otel-api-observability/otel-collector.yaml b/docs/otel-api-observability/otel-collector.yaml
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+# Reference OpenTelemetry Collector config for Plane self-hosters.
+# Run with: otelcol --config=otel-collector.yaml
+# Replace the `debug` exporter with one targeting your backend.
+
+receivers:
+  otlp:
+    protocols:
+      grpc:
+        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4317
+      http:
+        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4318
+
+  filelog:
+    include:
+      - /var/lib/docker/containers/*/*-json.log
+    operators:
+      - type: json_parser
+      - type: move
+        from: attributes.trace_id
+        to: trace_id
+      - type: move
+        from: attributes.span_id
+        to: span_id
+
+processors:
+  batch:
+    timeout: 10s
+    send_batch_size: 1024
+
+exporters:
+  # Replace `debug` with your real backend. Examples (commented):
+  #
+  # otlphttp/tempo:
+  #   endpoint: http://tempo:4318
+  #
+  # datadog:
+  #   api:
+  #     key: ${DD_API_KEY}
+  #
+  # otlphttp/honeycomb:
+  #   endpoint: https://api.honeycomb.io
+  #   headers:
+  #     x-honeycomb-team: ${HONEYCOMB_API_KEY}
+  #
+  # prometheusremotewrite:
+  #   endpoint: https://prometheus.example.com/api/v1/write
+  debug:
+    verbosity: detailed
+
+service:
+  pipelines:
+    traces:
+      receivers: [otlp]
+      processors: [batch]
+      exporters: [debug]
+    metrics:
+      receivers: [otlp]
+      processors: [batch]
+      exporters: [debug]
+    logs:
+      receivers: [filelog]
+      processors: [batch]
+      exporters: [debug]