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# Semantic conventions for Azure AI Inference client operations

**Status**: [Development][DocumentStatus]

The Semantic Conventions for [Azure AI Inference](https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/ai-studio) extend and override the [GenAI Semantic Conventions](README.md).

## Spans

### Inference

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**Status:** ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue)

Semantic Conventions for [Azure AI Inference](https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/ai-studio/reference/reference-model-inference-api) client spans extend and override the semantic conventions for [Gen AI Spans](gen-ai-spans.md).

`gen_ai.system` MUST be set to `"az.ai.inference"` and SHOULD be provided **at span creation time**.

**Span name** SHOULD be `{gen_ai.operation.name} {gen_ai.request.model}` when the
model name is available and `{gen_ai.operation.name}` otherwise.

**Span kind** SHOULD be `CLIENT`.

**Span status** SHOULD follow the [Recording Errors](/docs/general/recording-errors.md) document.

| Attribute  | Type | Description  | Examples  | [Requirement Level](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/semconv/general/attribute-requirement-level/) | Stability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [`gen_ai.operation.name`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | string | The name of the operation being performed. [1] | `chat`; `generate_content`; `text_completion` | `Required` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`error.type`](/docs/attributes-registry/error.md) | string | Describes a class of error the operation ended with. [2] | `timeout`; `java.net.UnknownHostException`; `server_certificate_invalid`; `500` | `Conditionally Required` if the operation ended in an error | ![Stable](https://img.shields.io/badge/-stable-lightgreen) |
| [`gen_ai.output.type`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | string | Represents the content type requested by the client. [3] | `text`; `json`; `image` | `Conditionally Required` [4] | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.request.choice.count`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | int | The target number of candidate completions to return. | `3` | `Conditionally Required` if available, in the request, and !=1 | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.request.model`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | string | The name of the GenAI model a request is being made to. [5] | `gpt-4` | `Conditionally Required` If available. | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.request.seed`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | int | Requests with same seed value more likely to return same result. | `100` | `Conditionally Required` if applicable and if the request includes a seed | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`server.port`](/docs/attributes-registry/server.md) | int | GenAI server port. [6] | `80`; `8080`; `443` | `Conditionally Required` If not default (443). | ![Stable](https://img.shields.io/badge/-stable-lightgreen) |
| [`az.namespace`](/docs/attributes-registry/azure.md) | string | [Azure Resource Provider Namespace](https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/azure-services-resource-providers) as recognized by the client. [7] | `Microsoft.CognitiveServices` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.request.frequency_penalty`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | double | The frequency penalty setting for the GenAI request. | `0.1` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.request.max_tokens`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | int | The maximum number of tokens the model generates for a request. | `100` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.request.presence_penalty`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | double | The presence penalty setting for the GenAI request. | `0.1` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.request.stop_sequences`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | string[] | List of sequences that the model will use to stop generating further tokens. | `["forest", "lived"]` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.request.temperature`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | double | The temperature setting for the GenAI request. | `0.0` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.request.top_p`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | double | The top_p sampling setting for the GenAI request. | `1.0` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.response.finish_reasons`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | string[] | Array of reasons the model stopped generating tokens, corresponding to each generation received. | `["stop"]`; `["stop", "length"]` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.response.id`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | string | The unique identifier for the completion. | `chatcmpl-123` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.response.model`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | string | The name of the model that generated the response. [8] | `gpt-4-0613` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.usage.input_tokens`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | int | The number of prompt tokens as reported in the usage prompt_tokens property of the response. | `100` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`gen_ai.usage.output_tokens`](/docs/attributes-registry/gen-ai.md) | int | The number of completion tokens as reported in the usage completion_tokens property of the response. | `180` | `Recommended` | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| [`server.address`](/docs/attributes-registry/server.md) | string | GenAI server address. [9] | `example.com`; `10.1.2.80`; `/tmp/my.sock` | `Recommended` | ![Stable](https://img.shields.io/badge/-stable-lightgreen) |

**[1] `gen_ai.operation.name`:** If one of the predefined values applies, but specific system uses a different name it's RECOMMENDED to document it in the semantic conventions for specific GenAI system and use system-specific name in the instrumentation. If a different name is not documented, instrumentation libraries SHOULD use applicable predefined value.

**[2] `error.type`:** The `error.type` SHOULD match the error code returned by the Generative AI provider or the client library,
the canonical name of exception that occurred, or another low-cardinality error identifier.
Instrumentations SHOULD document the list of errors they report.

**[3] `gen_ai.output.type`:** This attribute SHOULD be set to the output type requested by the client:
- `json` for structured outputs with defined or undefined schema
- `image` for image output
- `speech` for speech output
- `text` for plain text output

The attribute specifies the output modality and not the actual output format.
For example, if an image is requested, the actual output could be a
URL pointing to an image file.

Additional output format details may be recorded in the future in the
`gen_ai.output.{type}.*` attributes.

**[4] `gen_ai.output.type`:** when applicable and if the request includes an output format.

**[5] `gen_ai.request.model`:** The name of the GenAI model a request is being made to. If the model is supplied by a vendor, then the value must be the exact name of the model requested. If the model is a fine-tuned custom model, the value should have a more specific name than the base model that's been fine-tuned.

**[6] `server.port`:** When observed from the client side, and when communicating through an intermediary, `server.port` SHOULD represent the server port behind any intermediaries, for example proxies, if it's available.

**[7] `az.namespace`:** When `az.namespace` attribute is populated, it MUST be set to `Microsoft.CognitiveServices` for all operations performed by Azure AI Inference clients.

**[8] `gen_ai.response.model`:** If available. The name of the GenAI model that provided the response. If the model is supplied by a vendor, then the value must be the exact name of the model actually used. If the model is a fine-tuned custom model, the value should have a more specific name than the base model that's been fine-tuned.

**[9] `server.address`:** When observed from the client side, and when communicating through an intermediary, `server.address` SHOULD represent the server address behind any intermediaries, for example proxies, if it's available.

---

`error.type` has the following list of well-known values. If one of them applies, then the respective value MUST be used; otherwise, a custom value MAY be used.

| Value  | Description | Stability |
|---|---|---|
| `_OTHER` | A fallback error value to be used when the instrumentation doesn't define a custom value. | ![Stable](https://img.shields.io/badge/-stable-lightgreen) |

---

`gen_ai.operation.name` has the following list of well-known values. If one of them applies, then the respective value MUST be used; otherwise, a custom value MAY be used.

| Value  | Description | Stability |
|---|---|---|
| `chat` | Chat completion operation such as [OpenAI Chat API](https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/chat) | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| `create_agent` | Create GenAI agent | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| `embeddings` | Embeddings operation such as [OpenAI Create embeddings API](https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/embeddings/create) | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| `execute_tool` | Execute a tool | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| `generate_content` | Multimodal content generation operation such as [Gemini Generate Content](https://ai.google.dev/api/generate-content) | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| `invoke_agent` | Invoke GenAI agent | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| `text_completion` | Text completions operation such as [OpenAI Completions API (Legacy)](https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/completions) | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |

---

`gen_ai.output.type` has the following list of well-known values. If one of them applies, then the respective value MUST be used; otherwise, a custom value MAY be used.

| Value  | Description | Stability |
|---|---|---|
| `image` | Image | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| `json` | JSON object with known or unknown schema | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| `speech` | Speech | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |
| `text` | Plain text | ![Development](https://img.shields.io/badge/-development-blue) |

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### Embedding

See [common embedding span definition](./gen-ai-spans.md#embeddings).

## Metrics

Azure AI Inference metrics follow generic [Generative AI metrics](gen-ai-metrics.md).

[DocumentStatus]: https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/otel/document-status
