From d6e8971dcb0e71ccc01201458162f6711d8bc850 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nikita Salnikov-Tarnovski <gnikem@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:03:23 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] Don't set Span.Status for 4xx http status codes for SERVER
 spans (#1998)

* Don't set Span.Status for 4xx http status codes for SERVER spans
---
 CHANGELOG.md                                     | 3 +++
 specification/trace/semantic_conventions/http.md | 7 +++++--
 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 81aaba4eadc..774dd8ee067 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ release.
 - BREAKING: Remove db.cassandra.keyspace and db.hbase.namespace, and clarify db.name
   ([#1973](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/1973))
 
+- Don't set Span.Status for 4xx http status codes for SERVER spans.
+  ([#1998](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/1998))
+
 ### Compatibility
 
 ### OpenTelemetry Protocol
diff --git a/specification/trace/semantic_conventions/http.md b/specification/trace/semantic_conventions/http.md
index 82f7696f78a..b5050a783e8 100644
--- a/specification/trace/semantic_conventions/http.md
+++ b/specification/trace/semantic_conventions/http.md
@@ -46,8 +46,11 @@ default span name.
 the response body; or 3xx codes with max redirects exceeded), in which case status
 MUST be set to `Error`.
 
-For HTTP status codes in the 4xx and 5xx ranges, as well as any other code the client
-failed to interpret, status MUST be set to `Error`.
+For HTTP status codes in the 4xx range span status MUST be left unset in case of `SpanKind.SERVER`
+and MUST be set to `Error` in case of `SpanKind.CLIENT`.
+
+For HTTP status codes in the 5xx range, as well as any other code the client
+failed to interpret, span status MUST be set to `Error`.
 
 Don't set the span status description if the reason can be inferred from `http.status_code`.