# Elastic APM Agent vs Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry roadmap and support

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-apm-agent-vs-elastic-distribution-of-opentelemetry-roadmap-and-support/373731
**Category:** APM
**Tags:** otel
**Created:** [January 27, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-apm-agent-vs-elastic-distribution-of-opentelemetry-roadmap-and-support/373731 "2025-01-27T15:26:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Marchelune](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/marchelune/32/112334_2.png) [@Marchelune](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Marchelune)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-apm-agent-vs-elastic-distribution-of-opentelemetry-roadmap-and-support/373731/1 "2025-01-27T15:26:32Z")

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Hi!  
I have a roadmap question on the APM nodeJS agent (although it's probably a question in general). I wrote and maintain some custom (internal) packages to instrument nodejs apps to better track transactions from an unsupported even system.

With the release and push on the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry (EDOT) for most platforms, should we expect a sunset of the APM agents? This seems relevant to me in order to priorise internal dev effort and start already pivoting to EDOT rather than continue enhancing APM support.

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### Author: ![trentm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/trentm/32/77647_2.png) [@trentm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/trentm)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-apm-agent-vs-elastic-distribution-of-opentelemetry-roadmap-and-support/373731/2 "2025-01-27T16:21:37Z")

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> [@Marchelune](#):
>
> With the release and push on the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry (EDOT) for most platforms, should we expect a sunset of the APM agents?

Hi @Marchelune,

Yes, the non-OTel APM agents will be sunsetted eventually. I don't have a timeline for that, however. I expect it will be a while. We have yet gotten EDOT Node.js to GA status. Here is Elastic's general policy for EOL'ing product major versions: [Elastic Product End of Life Dates | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/support/eol)

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### Author: ![Marchelune](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/marchelune/32/112334_2.png) [@Marchelune](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Marchelune)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2025, 5:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-apm-agent-vs-elastic-distribution-of-opentelemetry-roadmap-and-support/373731/3 "2025-01-27T17:49:11Z")

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Thanks Trent for the clarification !

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![trentm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/trentm/32/77647_2.png) [@trentm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/trentm)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2025, 8:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-apm-agent-vs-elastic-distribution-of-opentelemetry-roadmap-and-support/373731/4 "2025-01-27T20:09:56Z")

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@Marchelune If/when you are interested in taking a look at EDOT Node.js, we'd be very interested in your experiences with it. It might also be interesting and mutually helpful to discuss your custom/internal packages (if you can) to see if porting those over to OpenTelemetry-based instrumentations would be straightforward.
