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Maven Telemetry Service

Discussion: https://github.com/support-and-care/maven-support-and-care/discussions/199

Original Item: "Maven Telemetry Service (Tamás)"

Problem Statement

The Maven ecosystem lacks reliable, comprehensive usage data. Understanding which plugins, dependencies, Maven versions, and Java versions are most widely used is essential for prioritizing maintenance effort, deprecation decisions, and roadmap planning. Maven Central download statistics provide only a partial picture, as Maven Repository Managers (MRMs) and other artifact sources skew the data significantly.

Previous attempts at collecting IDE usage telemetry (e.g., Eclipse M2E) faced community backlash due to insufficient transparency and consent mechanisms.

Current State / Starting Point

  • No centralized, anonymized telemetry exists for Maven CLI usage
  • Maven Central provides download counts, but these are skewed by MRM caching and mirroring
  • No data on which Maven or Java versions are in active use
  • Plugin maintainers have no visibility into which plugin versions are still widely deployed
  • Related observability work is discussed in Build Observability and Reporting and Open Tracing Support (#73)

Expected Outcomes / Benefits

  1. Opt-In Telemetry Collection: A strictly opt-in, privacy-respecting mechanism for Maven to report anonymized usage data, including:
  2. Maven and Java version combinations in use
  3. Most used plugins and plugin versions
  4. Most used dependencies

  5. Build environment characteristics (OS, CI vs. local)

  6. Aggregated Usage Dashboard: A public dashboard providing the Maven community and maintainers with actionable insights:

  7. Adoption rates for new Maven versions
  8. Plugin popularity and version distribution

  9. Dependency usage trends

  10. Data-Driven Decision Making: Enable the Maven project to make informed decisions about:

  11. Which plugin versions to maintain or deprecate
  12. Where to focus compatibility testing

  13. Migration progress (e.g., Maven 3 to Maven 4 adoption)

  14. Privacy by Design: Ensure community trust through:

  15. Explicit opt-in (no data collection by default)
  16. Full anonymization of collected data
  17. Transparent data collection scope and retention policies
  18. Open-source telemetry infrastructure

Final Discussion (2026-02-24)

  • Discussion:
  • Use telemetry standards as far as possible (e.g., OpenTelemetry, Prometheus)
  • Propose telemetry infrastructure
  • Provide documentation about good practices for telemetry (e.g. with Grafana etc.)
  • Decision: Request Funding