diff --git a/dd-java-agent/agent-bootstrap/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/api/Tags.java b/dd-java-agent/agent-bootstrap/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/api/Tags.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..09a19230a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dd-java-agent/agent-bootstrap/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/api/Tags.java
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+package datadog.trace.instrumentation.api;
+
+// standard tag names (and span kind values) from OpenTracing (see io.opentracing.tag.Tags)
+public class Tags {
+
+  public static final String SPAN_KIND_SERVER = "server";
+  public static final String SPAN_KIND_CLIENT = "client";
+  public static final String SPAN_KIND_PRODUCER = "producer";
+  public static final String SPAN_KIND_CONSUMER = "consumer";
+
+  public static final String HTTP_URL = "http.url";
+  public static final String HTTP_STATUS = "http.status_code";
+  public static final String HTTP_METHOD = "http.method";
+  public static final String PEER_HOST_IPV4 = "peer.ipv4";
+  public static final String PEER_HOST_IPV6 = "peer.ipv6";
+  public static final String PEER_SERVICE = "peer.service";
+  public static final String PEER_HOSTNAME = "peer.hostname";
+  public static final String PEER_PORT = "peer.port";
+  public static final String SAMPLING_PRIORITY = "sampling.priority";
+  public static final String SPAN_KIND = "span.kind";
+  public static final String COMPONENT = "component";
+  public static final String ERROR = "error";
+  public static final String DB_TYPE = "db.type";
+  public static final String DB_INSTANCE = "db.instance";
+  public static final String DB_USER = "db.user";
+  public static final String DB_STATEMENT = "db.statement";
+}