diff --git a/docker/telemetry/workload/README.md b/docker/telemetry/workload/README.md
index 9d96499051..4c0ce078ca 100644
--- a/docker/telemetry/workload/README.md
+++ b/docker/telemetry/workload/README.md
@@ -469,7 +469,7 @@ absence is a skip rather than a failure:
 The orchestrator (`run-full-validation.sh`) generates node configs with:
 
 - `[telemetry] enabled=1` with all five trace categories: `trace_rpc`, `trace_transactions`, `trace_consensus`, `trace_peer`, `trace_ledger`
-- `[insight] server=otel` with `endpoint=http://localhost:4318/v1/metrics` and `prefix=xrpld` — `beast::insight` metrics reach Prometheus over OTLP, because the collector declares no `statsd` receiver
+- `[insight] server=otel` with `endpoint=http://localhost:4318/v1/metrics` — `beast::insight` metrics reach Prometheus over OTLP, because the collector declares no `statsd` receiver. No `prefix` is set: it would be inert, since `OTelCollector` applies no prefix to instrument names and exported names are the lowercased raw names (`jobq_job_count`, not `xrpld_jobq_job_count`)
 - `[signing_support] true` — required for `tx_submitter.py` to submit signed transactions via WebSocket
 - `[ips]` (not `[ips_fixed]`) — ensures peer connections are counted in the PeerFinder active-peer gauges, exported as `peer_finder_active_inbound_peers` / `peer_finder_active_outbound_peers` (fixed peers are excluded from these counters by design). The `beast::insight` group/name pair is `Peer_Finder` / `Active_Inbound_Peers`; `formatName()` lowercases it for export.
 
diff --git a/docker/telemetry/workload/run-full-validation.sh b/docker/telemetry/workload/run-full-validation.sh
index ef3cc6cb45..5acbbfbfc5 100755
--- a/docker/telemetry/workload/run-full-validation.sh
+++ b/docker/telemetry/workload/run-full-validation.sh
@@ -329,12 +329,17 @@ trace_ledger=1
 
 [insight]
 # Native OTel metrics via OTLP/HTTP. The collector has no StatsD receiver
-# (metrics pipeline is [otlp, spanmetrics]), so beast::insight must export
-# over OTLP for system metrics to reach Prometheus. prefix=xrpld matches the
-# OTel resource service name and the metric names the dashboards query.
+# (its metrics pipeline is [otlp, spanmetrics]), so beast::insight must export
+# over OTLP for system metrics to reach Prometheus at all. server=otel is the
+# only load-bearing key here -- it selects the OTel collector; endpoint is
+# read but already matches the built-in default.
+#
+# No prefix is set on purpose. It would be inert: OTelCollector applies no
+# prefix to instrument names, so exported names are the lowercased raw names
+# (jobq_job_count, rpc_requests_total, total_bytes_in). The service is
+# identified by the OTel resource service.name, not by a name prefix.
 server=otel
 endpoint=http://localhost:4318/v1/metrics
-prefix=xrpld
 
 [rpc_startup]
 # info is required here, not cosmetic, and is the minimum that works. The
diff --git a/docker/telemetry/workload/xrpld-validator.cfg.template b/docker/telemetry/workload/xrpld-validator.cfg.template
index 875abd63ab..623b781707 100644
--- a/docker/telemetry/workload/xrpld-validator.cfg.template
+++ b/docker/telemetry/workload/xrpld-validator.cfg.template
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@
 # cfg inline. Kept as the reference layout for a validator run as a container,
 # whose entrypoint would substitute the placeholders below.
 #
+# Because nothing reads this file, nothing catches it drifting from the cfg the
+# runner actually generates. Any change to the [telemetry], [insight] or
+# [rpc_startup] stanzas here must be mirrored in run-full-validation.sh, and
+# vice versa.
+#
 # Placeholders:
 #   {{NODE_INDEX}}        — Node number (1-based)
 #   {{RPC_PORT}}          — HTTP RPC port
@@ -90,13 +95,18 @@ trace_peer=1
 trace_ledger=1
 
 # --- Native OTel metrics (beast::insight over OTLP/HTTP) ---
-# The collector has no StatsD receiver (metrics pipeline is [otlp, spanmetrics]),
-# so beast::insight exports natively over OTLP. prefix=xrpld matches the OTel
-# resource service name and the metric names the dashboards query.
+# The collector has no StatsD receiver (its metrics pipeline is
+# [otlp, spanmetrics]), so beast::insight must export natively over OTLP for
+# system metrics to reach Prometheus at all. `server=otel` is the only
+# load-bearing key here -- it selects the OTel collector.
+#
+# No `prefix` is set on purpose. It would be inert: OTelCollector applies no
+# prefix to instrument names, so exported names are the lowercased raw names
+# (`jobq_job_count`, `rpc_requests_total`, `total_bytes_in`). The service is
+# identified by the OTel resource `service.name`, not by a name prefix.
 [insight]
 server=otel
 endpoint={{OTEL_METRICS_ENDPOINT}}
-prefix=xrpld
 
 [rpc_startup]
 { "command": "log_level", "severity": "{{LOG_LEVEL}}" }