[Discussion] Establish component naming convention

[dmitryax]

During a meeting discussing #14099, inconsistent component naming across core and contrib repos was brought to attention:

• Some components use underscores: memory_limiter, docker_stats, tail_sampling, k8s_cluster, headers_setter, receiver_creator
• Others use all-lowercase: otlphttp, k8sattributes, awsxray, basicauth

This inconsistency affects discoverability and user experience.

Current state: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/blob/main/docs/coding-guidelines.md#module-organization provide guidance on module/package naming (e.g., memorylimiterprocessor), but there is no guidance on component type names used in configuration files.

Questions for discussion:

1. Which pattern should we establish and document as a standard: with underscore (memory_limiter) or without (memorylimiter)?
2. Should we migrate existing components to match the chosen pattern, or keep them as-is for backwards compatibility?

cc @open-telemetry/collector-approvers @open-telemetry/collector-contrib-approvers

[codeboten]

This inconsistency was discussed in the configuration working group as well when deciding on otlp_grpc, otlp_http, and the decision to use underscore there was driven by having a consistent end user experience, even though the names didn't match the names in the collector.

I would be in favour of using underscores for all components, and supporting aliases in the short term to avoid breaking compatibility for existing users. It's possible that we would end up needing to support both until a new major version is released.

[axw]

I'm also in favour of lower_snake_case & aliases. Although onelongglommedtogetherphrase is more common for Go package names, that's not particularly readable or friendly to end users.

[dmitryax]

I'm in favor of using lower_snake_case for all components as well

[andrzej-stencel]

I'm in favor of using lower_snake_case for all new components.

For the existing components like the otlphttp exporter, I'm in favor of creating aliases with underscores like otlp_http and leaving the original names available for a long time, e.g. for 1 or even 2 years. Similar thing had been done for the Logging/Debug exporter rename and despite some hesitations we all had back then, in retrospective my opinion is that it was a good change and it went well. We should and can still do it before components are marked as v1. Only the components that obey the naming convention should be marked v1.

[codeboten]

This was discussed in the Collector stability call on 15-Dec-2025. supporting a single alias for components as an option to the factory seems like the way to go in the short term.

Starting with lower_snake_case as the convention is the preferred approach.