From 1eee1980b1ded9d40aa0f2f7598a098738d859aa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Tyler Helmuth <12352919+TylerHelmuth@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2024 11:39:38 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] [chore] Add rules for `NewDefault*` pattern (#9640)

**Description:**
Adds new rules for configuration packages and a `NewDefault*` function
to enable backwards-compatible use of the configuration.

**Link to tracking Issue:**
Related to
https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/issues/9508
---
 CONTRIBUTING.md | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index f4da4a16bad..1f99bb80c8c 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -278,6 +278,11 @@ and should be followed.
 
 Within the project, there are some packages that are yet to follow the recommendations and are being address, however, any new code should adhere to the recommendations.
 
+### Default Configuration
+
+To guarantee backwards compatible behavior, all configuration packages should supply a `NewDefault[config name]` functions that create a default version of the config. The package does not need to guarantee that `NewDefault[config name]` returns a usable configuration, only that default values will be set. For example, if the configuration requires that a field, such as `Endpoint` be set, but there is no valid default value, then `NewDefault[config name]` may set that value to `""` with the expectation that the user will set a valid value.
+
+Users should always initialize the config struct with this function and overwrite anything as needed.
 
 ### Startup Error Handling