Support for native otlp_proto (OTLP protobuf) decoding codec in Kafka source

[tank-500m]

Question

Currently, the opentelemetry source in Vector can receive and decode OTLP (protobuf) payloads directly, parsing them into structured Vector events that can be used in transforms and sinks.
However, when using Kafka as a transport or buffer for OTLP data, there is no official otlp_proto (protobuf) decoding codec available for the Kafka source. This means users must rely on custom transforms, Lua/VRL scripts, or build their own plugins to parse OTLP protobuf data from Kafka topics.
In our case, we use Kafka to buffer and transport OTLP logs, metrics, and traces in protobuf format (as sent from OpenTelemetry SDKs and agents). It would be extremely helpful if Vector could natively decode OTLP protobuf payloads directly in the Kafka source, so downstream transforms and sinks could process them seamlessly.

Are there any plans to support OTLP (protobuf) as a native codec in the Kafka source (like codec = "otlp_proto" or similar)?

Vector Config

No response

Vector Logs

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