Summary

The spec requires a command span for every command, nested under its operation span (L264-268). Samplers decide separately for each span, so the operation span can be dropped while its command span is created anyway. Two things go wrong:

1. Orphaned spans. With a sampler that decides from span names or attributes, the command span can be recorded and exported while its parent operation span is not. Backends show it with a missing parent.
2. Wasted work. Driver starts a command span that the SDK immediately makes non-recording.

Motivation

Who is the affected end user?

Drivers users who use OpenTelemetry

How does this affect the end user?

Users observe orphaned spans in their OpenTelemetry backends.

How likely is it that this problem or use case will occur?

Main path? Edge case?

If the problem does occur, what are the consequences and how severe are they?

Minor annoyance at a log message? Performance concern? Outage/unavailability? Failover can't complete?

Is this issue urgent?

Does this ticket have a required timeline? What is it?

Is this ticket required by a downstream team?

No

Is this ticket only for tests?

No

Acceptance Criteria

Drivers do not create command spans under an unrecorded operation span