PR #77680: fix(gateway): default OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL to http/json

• Repository: openclaw/openclaw
• Author: Sanjays2402
• State: open | merged: False
• Link: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/77680

Description (problem / solution / changelog)

Summary

Default OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL to http/json in docker-compose.yml. JSON is the safer default for OTLP/HTTP collectors: most accept it, while http/protobuf is a binary optimization that requires explicit collector support. Operators pointing the gateway at JSON-only collectors (e.g. Quencher /v1/traces) currently get every span batch rejected with HTTP 415 and have no clean fix — the generated env file warns against editing it, and any manual override gets overwritten on regeneration.

Changes

• docker-compose.yml: change the OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL default from http/protobuf to http/json. The override path (${OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL:-...}) is preserved, so anyone explicitly setting http/protobuf in .env keeps that behavior.

This was the only hard-coded http/protobuf env-default in the repo's generated env paths. scripts/docker/setup.sh already defaults it to empty and inherits whatever compose substitutes.

Testing

Searched for test assertions against the docker-compose default value — none found:

• extensions/diagnostics-otel/src/service.test.ts only asserts protocol behavior inside the OTel exporter extension.
• src/config/schema.help.quality.test.ts validates schema enum values for diagnostics.otel.protocol.
• extensions/anthropic/cli-shared.test.ts only checks OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL is in the clearEnv allowlist.
• src/agents/cli-runner.spawn.test.ts exercises env-var passthrough, not defaults.
• src/docker-setup.e2e.test.ts does not inspect compose contents.

No tests needed updating. Skipped full repo test suite per task scope.

Caveats

This PR addresses option 1 from the issue (change default). Options 2 (per-profile config override) and 3 (preserve operator edits) remain open for future work.

One thing worth noting for follow-up: the in-tree extensions/diagnostics-otel/src/service.ts exporter explicitly rejects anything other than http/protobuf (line 586) and the zod schema for diagnostics.otel.protocol only allows http/protobuf or grpc. This change does not affect the internal extension — it only changes the value injected into the container's process env, which is consumed by external OTel SDKs (Claude Code, etc.) that DO honor http/json. If anyone wants the in-tree extension to also support http/json, that's the larger work flagged as option 2/3.

Fixes openclaw/openclaw#77646

Changed files

• docker-compose.yml (modified, +1/-1)