diff --git a/OpenTelemetryPlan/05-configuration-reference.md b/OpenTelemetryPlan/05-configuration-reference.md
index 90a79e29fc..b75eb7f977 100644
--- a/OpenTelemetryPlan/05-configuration-reference.md
+++ b/OpenTelemetryPlan/05-configuration-reference.md
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ phases. They will be added as the corresponding subsystems are instrumented:
 
 > **TxQ** = Transaction Queue
 
-The parser `makeTelemetrySetup()` in `src/libxrpl/telemetry/TelemetryConfig.cpp` reads the `[telemetry]` `Section` and populates a `Telemetry::Setup` struct, applying the defaults listed in Section 5.1.2 via `section.value_or(...)`. It derives `serviceInstanceId` from the node public key when not overridden, selects the exporter endpoint default by exporter type, and leaves the sampling ratio at its fixed 1.0 default (not read from config — see Section 7.4.2).
+The parser `makeTelemetrySetup()` in `src/libxrpl/telemetry/TelemetryConfig.cpp` reads the `[telemetry]` `Section` and populates a `Telemetry::Setup` struct, applying the defaults listed in Section 5.1.2 via `section.valueOr(...)`. It derives `serviceInstanceId` from the node public key when not overridden, selects the exporter endpoint default by exporter type, and leaves the sampling ratio at its fixed 1.0 default (not read from config — see Section 7.4.2).
 
 ---
 
diff --git a/cfg/xrpld-example.cfg b/cfg/xrpld-example.cfg
index e405ffe477..1d3b3f1d2a 100644
--- a/cfg/xrpld-example.cfg
+++ b/cfg/xrpld-example.cfg
@@ -1706,25 +1706,40 @@ validators.txt
 #
 # service_instance_id=<node_public_key>
 #
-#   OTel resource attribute `service.instance.id`. Uniquely identifies
-#   this node. Default: the node's public key (auto-detected).
+#   OTel resource attribute `service.instance.id`, which tells one node's
+#   telemetry apart from another's. Normally left unset: the node identity
+#   is not known when telemetry is constructed, so the server fills this in
+#   with its own Base58 node public key later during startup. Set it only
+#   to pin a stable instance name of your own choosing; doing so suppresses
+#   the node-public-key fallback.
+#   Default: the node's Base58 public key.
 #
-# endpoint=http://localhost:4318/v1/traces
+# traces_endpoint=http://localhost:4318/v1/traces
 #
-#   The OTLP/HTTP exporter endpoint. The server sends trace data as
-#   protobuf-encoded HTTP POST requests to this URL.
+#   The OTLP/HTTP endpoint spans are exported to. The server sends trace
+#   data as protobuf-encoded HTTP POST requests to this URL. The full URL
+#   including the signal path is used verbatim; no other endpoint is
+#   derived from it.
 #   Default: http://localhost:4318/v1/traces.
 #
 # --- TLS settings for the OTLP exporter connection ---
 #
 # use_tls=0
 #
-#   Enable TLS for the OTLP/HTTP exporter connection. Default: 0 (off).
+#   Whether to hand tls_ca_cert to the exporter as its CA bundle. TLS is
+#   selected by the scheme of traces_endpoint, not by this key; setting it
+#   to 1 only supplies a custom CA file for verifying the collector.
+#   Default: 0 (no CA file is passed, so the exporter keeps its own
+#   default trust store).
 #
 # tls_ca_cert=
 #
-#   Path to a PEM-encoded CA certificate bundle for TLS verification.
-#   Only used when use_tls=1. Default: empty (system CA store).
+#   Path to a PEM-encoded CA certificate bundle for verifying the
+#   collector's certificate. Only used when use_tls=1, and passed to the
+#   exporter unchanged. The path is not checked while the config is parsed,
+#   so a missing or unreadable file surfaces as an export failure at
+#   runtime rather than as a startup error.
+#   Default: empty (system CA store).
 #
 #   Leaving this empty stays valid and selects the system CA store. A path
 #   that is set is checked like the client paths below: with enabled=1 and