# G11 — Semantic conventions for generative client AI spans

- Publisher: OpenTelemetry project
- Primary source: [Semantic conventions for generative client AI spans](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions-genai/main/docs/gen-ai/gen-ai-spans.md)
- Observed: 2026-10-22 (Europe/Berlin session date)
- Publication date: unknown — no reliable date established from the read
- Updated date: unknown — no reliable date established from the read
- Read status: opened and relevant section read through web tool
- Evidence locator: Status; Spans; Embeddings token attribute note; Capturing instructions inputs and outputs
- Evidence class: primary maintainer/provider guidance; not an independent impact study

## Short evidence fragment

> Detailed usage attributes are subsets of total and aggregate counts.

## Researcher's reading note

The conventions cover logical operations including retries, token fields and provider/model identifiers; component token fields can overlap aggregates.

## Limits and use

Development status and mutable main branch; pin the convention version in implementation. Do not sum nested spans or aggregate/subset token fields blindly.

## Retention

This card preserves a short evidence fragment and an original reading note; full source text is not copied. FinOps/FOCUS adaptations should credit the FinOps Foundation / FOCUS as applicable (their pages state CC BY 4.0). Re-open mutable documentation before implementing controls.