Review Blog Post

Review workflow for OpenTelemetry blog posts. The repo tooling — the front-matter-check hook, prettier, markdownlint (gh-url-hash), cSpell, and the publish-labels workflow — enforces the mechanical rules; this skill covers the judgment layer those tools cannot check.

Arguments {#arguments}

• If $ARGUMENTS is empty, ask for a file path or PR number.
• If $ARGUMENTS contains / or ends in .md, treat it as a repo-relative file path.
• If $ARGUMENTS is a GitHub URL containing /pull/, extract the PR number after /pull/.
• If $ARGUMENTS is a bare number or starts with #, treat it as a PR number.
• Otherwise, stop and ask for a valid file path or PR number.

Location

Blog posts live under content/en/blog/YYYY/. Use a single short-name.md when there are no images, or a short-name/index.md directory when there are. short-name is kebab-case — no dates, no special characters.

Scaffold from the archetype with Hugo:

npx hugo new content/en/blog/$(date +%Y)/short-name.md             # no images
npx hugo new content/en/blog/$(date +%Y)/short-name/index.md       # with images

Front matter

A PreToolUse hook on Write/Edit (scripts/validate/front-matter-check/) blocks any content/en/blog/**/*.md change whose front matter is missing title, linkTitle, date (must be YYYY-MM-DD), or author (must be a Markdown link), or that introduces an H1 in the body. When reviewing an existing PR where the hook didn't run, double-check those fields against archetypes/blog.md.

Judgment calls beyond the hook:

• title — sentence case is typical; a few proper-noun-heavy posts use Title Case. Keep it descriptive.

• author — single-author posts use a single-line Markdown link; multi- author posts must use the YAML folded form (>-) because the list spans lines. The trailing (Organization) suffix is optional but common.

  author: '[Juraci Paixao Krohling](https://github.com/jpkrohling) (OllyGarden)'
  

  author: >-
    [Johanna Öjeling](https://github.com/johannaojeling) (Grafana Labs),
    [Juliano Costa](https://github.com/julianocosta89) (Datadog), [Tristan
    Sloughter](https://github.com/tsloughter) (community)
  

• draft: true — work-in-progress; required for future-dated posts.

• canonical_url — set when the post is a cross-post; points to the original. Preferred over the older crosspost_url.

• body_class: otel-with-contributions-from — set when secondary contributors are credited in the intro paragraph (see Authoring rules).

• issue — references the pre-submission issue. A pre-submission issue is mandatory; PRs without one can be closed without review.

• sig — sponsoring SIG (e.g. Developer Experience SIG). Required. The PR should carry a matching sig:<name> label.

• cSpell:ignore — see Spelling.

Submission prerequisites

From content/en/docs/contributing/blog.md:

• Non-commercial, broadly relevant; no vendor product pitches.
• Prefer CNCF projects in examples (Jaeger for traces, Prometheus for metrics).
• A pre-submission issue is mandatory — PRs without an accepted issue can be closed without review. A SIG sponsor is required, and the sponsor must be from a different company than the author. The SIG sponsor must complete their review before the Comms SIG reviews the post.
• "Call for Contributors" posts follow the project-management process in open-telemetry/community.

Authoring rules {#authoring-rules}

• Start headings at ## (no H1; the H1 is auto-generated from title) and don't skip levels.
• Wrap prose at 80 columns (npm run format, prettier with proseWrap: always). Don't hand-wrap — run the formatter. Skip URLs, code blocks, and front matter values.
• Place images beside index.md; descriptive kebab-case filenames; always include meaningful alt text.
• Always tag fenced code blocks with a language.
• Credit secondary contributors who aren't in the author field in the intro: "With contributions from Name, …" and set body_class: otel-with-contributions-from.
• Prefer active voice. Link external tools and OTel concepts on first mention only — don't over-link.

GitHub links (gh-url-hash)

A blog-only markdownlint rule (scripts/_md-rules/gh-url-hash/index.mjs, enabled via content/en/blog/.markdownlint.yaml) blocks default-branch links (main/master) and short commit hashes in GitHub blob/tree URLs. Tags, release refs, and full 40-character SHAs are allowed.

Run npm run fix:markdown to auto-fix default-branch links by resolving the current HEAD commit. Auto-fix needs network access; on rate-limit or unreachable failures, fix manually with a full SHA or a release tag.

Spelling {#spelling}

Spell-checking uses cSpell (.cspell.yml). Repo-wide additions go in .cspell/en-words.txt; post-local words go in the cSpell:ignore front matter field. Add # prettier-ignore immediately above cSpell:ignore only when the line is long enough that the formatter would wrap it:

# prettier-ignore
cSpell:ignore: jpkrohling Krohling logdedup OllyGarden OTTL Paixao telemetrygen

OTel terminology

• OpenTelemetry is one word; OTel is acceptable shorthand only after the first full mention.
• Signal names are lowercase: traces, metrics, logs.
• Component names are cased: SDK, API, Collector.
• Proper nouns: Jaeger, Zipkin, Prometheus, Kubernetes.
• Semantic-convention attribute names should match the current names in docs/specs/semconv/.

Publish timing

• The date field drives publication. Use draft: true while the date is in the future.
• A daily workflow (blog-publish-labels.yml, 7 AM UTC) adds ready-to-be-merged only when all hold: docs-approver approval, SIG/component-owner approval, and date: is in the past or today. The workflow only labels — a human still merges.

Cross-posting

Decide which version is canonical (typically the original OpenTelemetry post). On any external copy, mention the original, link back to it, and set the platform's canonical-URL tag if available. When the OTel post is the copy, set canonical_url in its front matter.

Reviewing a PR

Walk the post top-to-bottom against the sections above. The mechanical checks below are what humans most often miss after the hook + linters pass:

1. Run npm run format (wrap), npm run fix:markdown (gh-url-hash), npm run check:spelling. All must be clean.
2. Author front matter: single-line vs. folded >- form correct? (Organization) accurate?
3. Multi-author intro credits + body_class: otel-with-contributions-from set if needed.
4. gh-url-hash: no main/master or short SHAs; tags or full SHAs only.
5. Submission prerequisites: pre-submission issue linked (mandatory — flag PRs without one for closure), non-commercial, CNCF tools preferred, SIG sponsor identified and from a different company than the author, sponsor has completed their review before Comms SIG review.
6. OTel terminology consistent throughout.
7. date and draft set so the publish workflow gates the merge as intended.

References

• archetypes/blog.md — canonical front matter template.
• content/en/docs/contributing/blog.md — submission process, cross-posting, gh-url-hash rationale.
• content/en/blog/.markdownlint.yaml — enables gh-url-hash for blog posts.
• scripts/_md-rules/gh-url-hash/index.mjs — authoritative rule behavior.
• scripts/validate/front-matter-check/ — write-time hook source + tests.
• .github/workflows/blog-publish-labels.yml — publish date and approval gating.
• .cspell.yml, .cspell/en-words.txt — spell-check configuration.
• package.json — prettier.proseWrap: always drives 80-char wrapping.