Tutorial unifies Python, PHP, Prometheus, Loki and OpenTelemetry into one Docker Compose stack

A DEV Community tutorial series has culminated in a single Docker Compose configuration that integrates all previously built observability components, including Python and PHP mini-apps, Prometheus, Loki, and Grafana. The key addition in this final article is an OpenTelemetry Collector, which acts as a central intermediary to receive distributed traces from both applications via the OTLP protocol. Previously, apps exported spans directly to the console for testing; now they forward telemetry to the collector, which handles routing to any backend without requiring changes to individual applications. The setup uses a debug exporter to confirm the full pipeline works end-to-end, while noting that a dedicated tracing backend like Grafana Tempo or Jaeger would be needed for visual span exploration. The author positions this as a natural next step for developers looking to deepen their observability practice beyond this introductory series.