Standalone mode for OpAMP k8s bridge

.chloggen/standalone-mode.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# One of 'breaking', 'deprecation', 'new_component', 'enhancement', 'bug_fix'
+change_type: enhancement
+
+# The name of the component, or a single word describing the area of concern, (e.g. collector, target allocator, auto-instrumentation, opamp, github action)
+component: opamp-bridge
+
+# A brief description of the change. Surround your text with quotes ("") if it needs to start with a backtick (`).
+note: OpAMP Bridge standalone mode 
+
+# One or more tracking issues related to the change
+issues: [4913]
+
+# (Optional) One or more lines of additional information to render under the primary note.
+# These lines will be padded with 2 spaces and then inserted directly into the document.
+# Use pipe (|) for multiline entries.
+subtext: |
+  Standalone mode for OpAMP Bridge allows users to manage collector configuration from a remote
+  OpAMP server without the need to deploy full Otel Operator.

Makefile

@@ -347,6 +347,28 @@ deploy-no-crds: set-image-controller
 undeploy-no-crds: set-image-controller
 	$(KUSTOMIZE) build config/no-crds | kubectl delete --ignore-not-found=$(ignore-not-found) -f -
 
+##@ Standalone OpAMP Bridge (no operator / CRDs required)
+
+STANDALONE_BRIDGE_MANIFESTS ?= cmd/operator-opamp-bridge/manifests/standalone
+
+# Deploy the standalone OpAMP bridge into the current Kubernetes context.
+# Does not require the operator, CRDs, or cert-manager.
+.PHONY: deploy-standalone-bridge
+deploy-standalone-bridge: kustomize
+	cd $(STANDALONE_BRIDGE_MANIFESTS) && $(KUSTOMIZE) edit set image operator-opamp-bridge=${OPERATOROPAMPBRIDGE_IMG}
+	$(KUSTOMIZE) build $(STANDALONE_BRIDGE_MANIFESTS) | kubectl apply -f -
+	kubectl rollout status deployment/otel-opamp-bridge-standalone -n opentelemetry-opamp-bridge --timeout=120s
+
+# Undeploy the standalone OpAMP bridge from the current Kubernetes context.
+.PHONY: undeploy-standalone-bridge
+undeploy-standalone-bridge: kustomize
+	$(KUSTOMIZE) build $(STANDALONE_BRIDGE_MANIFESTS) | kubectl delete --ignore-not-found=true -f -
+
+# Build, load, and deploy the standalone bridge to a kind cluster.
+# Assumes a kind cluster is already running (use start-kind first).
+.PHONY: deploy-standalone-bridge-kind
+deploy-standalone-bridge-kind: load-image-operator-opamp-bridge deploy-standalone-bridge
+
 # Generates the released manifests
 .PHONY: release-artifacts
 release-artifacts: set-image-controller
@@ -463,7 +485,7 @@ e2e-multi-instrumentation: chainsaw
 # OpAMPBridge CR end-to-tests
 .PHONY: e2e-opampbridge
 e2e-opampbridge: chainsaw
-	$(CHAINSAW) test --test-dir ./tests/e2e-opampbridge --report-name e2e-opampbridge
+	OPERATOROPAMPBRIDGE_IMG=$(OPERATOROPAMPBRIDGE_IMG) $(CHAINSAW) test --test-dir ./tests/e2e-opampbridge --report-name e2e-opampbridge
 
 # end-to-end-test for testing pdb support
 .PHONY: e2e-pdb

bundle/community/manifests/opentelemetry-operator.clusterserviceversion.yaml

@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ metadata:
     categories: Logging & Tracing,Monitoring,Observability
     certified: "false"
     containerImage: ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/opentelemetry-operator
-    createdAt: "2026-06-13T17:24:50Z"
+    createdAt: "2026-06-17T17:01:16Z"
     description: Provides the OpenTelemetry components, including the Collector
     operators.operatorframework.io/builder: operator-sdk-v1.29.0
     operators.operatorframework.io/project_layout: go.kubebuilder.io/v3

bundle/openshift/manifests/opentelemetry-operator.clusterserviceversion.yaml

@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ metadata:
     categories: Logging & Tracing,Monitoring,Observability
     certified: "false"
     containerImage: ghcr.io/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-operator/opentelemetry-operator
-    createdAt: "2026-06-13T17:24:51Z"
+    createdAt: "2026-06-17T17:01:17Z"
     description: Provides the OpenTelemetry components, including the Collector
     operators.operatorframework.io/builder: operator-sdk-v1.29.0
     operators.operatorframework.io/project_layout: go.kubebuilder.io/v3

cmd/operator-opamp-bridge/README.md

@@ -20,6 +20,67 @@ There are two main ways to install the OpAMP Bridge:
 
 ## Usage
 
+### Standalone mode
+
+Standalone mode lets the bridge manage Collector configuration stored in Kubernetes `ConfigMap` resources, without creating `OpenTelemetryCollector` CRDs. This is useful when the Collector workload is managed outside the operator, but the config still needs to be reported to and updated from an OpAMP server.
+
+Start the bridge with `mode: standalone` in its config file, or pass `--mode=standalone`:
+
+```yaml
+endpoint: "<OPAMP_SERVER_ENDPOINT>"
+mode: standalone
+healthListenAddr: ":8081"
+capabilities:
+  AcceptsRemoteConfig: true
+  ReportsEffectiveConfig: true
+  ReportsRemoteConfig: true
+standalone:
+  agents:
+    - namespace: default
+      type: otel-collector
+      workloadRef:
+        apiVersion: apps/v1
+        kind: Deployment
+        name: my-collector
+      config:
+        collector:
+          kind: configmap
+          name: collector-config
+          key: collector.yaml
+```
+
+In this mode, the bridge creates one OpAMP client connection for each entry under `standalone.agents`. Each key under an agent's `config` section is the OpAMP config file name reported to the server. The value describes the local Kubernetes resource that backs that file. Config resources are resolved in the workload namespace. In the example above, the OpAMP server sees a config file named `collector`, and the bridge maps it locally to `ConfigMap/default/collector-config`, key `collector.yaml`.
+
+After applying a config update, the bridge restarts the configured workload by updating the workload pod template's `kubectl.kubernetes.io/restartedAt` annotation. Supported workload refs are `apps/v1` `Deployment`, `DaemonSet`, and `StatefulSet`.
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: ConfigMap
+metadata:
+  name: collector-config
+  namespace: default
+data:
+  collector.yaml: |
+    receivers:
+      otlp:
+        protocols:
+          grpc:
+          http:
+    exporters:
+      otlphttp:
+        endpoint: http://example-collector:4318
+    service:
+      pipelines:
+        traces:
+          receivers: [otlp]
+          exporters: [otlphttp]
+```
+
+
+The bridge will not create or delete ConfigMaps in standalone mode. Remote config updates are only applied to the configured local resource and key.
+
+Standalone mode needs RBAC for ConfigMaps and configured workload types. The repository includes a starter manifest at [`manifests/standalone/rbac.yaml`](manifests/standalone/rbac.yaml).
+
 ### OpAMPBridge CRD
 
 The [OpAMPBridge](../../docs/api/opampbridges.md) CRD is used to create an OpAMP Bridge instance.