[mkoltsov]

Description

Fixes #5139, documentation update to make it look consistent.

Type of change

• This change requires a documentation update

Checklist:

See contributing.md for styleguide, changelog guidelines, and more.

• I am a human and not a bot
• I have run tox -e precommit
• I have run tox -e typecheck

[linux-foundation-easycla]

The committers listed above are authorized under a signed CLA.

• ✅ login: mkoltsov / name: mkoltsov (7de4c0a)

[opentelemetry-pr-dashboard]

Pull request dashboard status

Waiting on the author · refreshed 2026-11-08 20:23 UTC

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[chiragjangiir]

Code Review: docs: document public API check workaround for patches

1. Purpose

Documents the workflow and flag requirements for developers submitting patch releases or internal refactoring PRs where strict public API compatibility checkers (such as check_api.py) trigger false-positive warnings on allowed internal modifications.

2. Documentation Clarity

• Clear markdown step-by-step instructions with code blocks.
• Clarifies the deprecation policy and when an API modification actually requires an enhancement proposal vs. a documentation tag.

Helpful documentation update for open-source contributors.

[chrikrah]

Nothing here blocks a merge. I checked each claim against the workflow, and all three hold: the script diffs main against the head, the label skips the job, and adding a label doesn't trigger a new CI run.

The other item in #5139, contrib tox environments coming from main, already has its note under contrib.yml on the base commit, so Fixes #5139 closes the whole issue.

$ git show c559a20:scripts/public_symbols_checker.py | grep -n 'commit("main")'
26:    for diff_lines in repo.commit("main").diff(repo.head.commit).iter_change_type(change_type):
$ git show c559a20:.github/workflows/misc.yml | sed -n 253,255p
    if: |
      !contains(github.event.pull_request.labels.*.name, 'Approve Public API check')
      && github.actor != 'otelbot[bot]' && github.event_name == 'pull_request'
$ git show c559a20:.github/workflows/ci.yml | sed -n 6,11p      # misc.yml is workflow_call from here
on:
  push:
    branches:
    - 'main'
  pull_request:
  merge_group:
$ git show 3462000:RELEASING.md | grep -n 'Note on `contrib.yml`'      # base of this PR
42:### Note on `contrib.yml` Workflow Behavior

Approving on that basis.

[herin049]

Please remove the changelog entry, it's not needed for docs-only changes.