diff --git a/docs/release_8_0_0.md b/docs/release_8_0_0.md
new file mode 100644
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@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+# Release 8.0.0
+
+## Breaking changes
+
+### Python 3.7 and 3.8 are no longer supported
+
+As of version 8.0.0, Python 3.7 and 3.8 are no longer supported.
+The minimum required Python version is now **3.9**.
+
+If your add-on runs on Python 3.7 or 3.8, you must upgrade your environment
+before upgrading solnlib to 8.0.0.
+
+### New required dependencies
+
+The `observability` module introduces the following new dependencies:
+
+* `opentelemetry-api >=1.39.1,<2`
+* `opentelemetry-sdk >=1.39.1,<2`
+* `opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-grpc >=1.39.1,<2`
+* `grpcio >=1.74.0`
+
+These are installed automatically when installing solnlib via pip.
+
+## New features
+
+### ObservabilityService
+
+A new `solnlib.observability` module has been added. It provides OpenTelemetry
+metric instrumentation for Splunk modular inputs, with automatic integration
+with the Splunk Spotlight collector.
+
+The module exposes two public components:
+
+* `ObservabilityService` — initializes a `MeterProvider` with two built-in
+  event counters and attempts to connect to the local Spotlight OTLP collector.
+  Falls back silently when the collector is not available, so observability
+  failures never break the add-on.
+* `LoggerMetricExporter` — an OpenTelemetry `MetricExporter` that writes
+  data points to a Python logger. Useful for local development and debugging.
+
+**Built-in counters:**
+
+| Attribute               | Metric name                   | Unit  |
+|-------------------------|-------------------------------|-------|
+| `event_count_counter`   | `splunk.addon.events`         | `1`   |
+| `event_bytes_counter`   | `splunk.addon.events.bytes`   | `By`  |
+
+**Example usage:**
+
+```python
+import logging
+from solnlib.observability import ObservabilityService, ATTR_MODINPUT_NAME
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+obs = ObservabilityService(
+    modinput_type="my-input",
+    logger=logger,
+    ta_name="my_ta",
+    ta_version="1.0.0",
+)
+
+# In your event collection loop:
+if obs.event_count_counter:
+    obs.event_count_counter.add(len(events), {ATTR_MODINPUT_NAME: stanza_name})
+if obs.event_bytes_counter:
+    obs.event_bytes_counter.add(total_bytes, {ATTR_MODINPUT_NAME: stanza_name})
+```
+
+When `ta_name` and `ta_version` are not provided, they are read automatically
+from `app.conf` via `get_conf_stanzas`. Pass them explicitly when running
+outside a full Splunk environment.
+
+Additional instruments can be registered using `ObservabilityService.register_instrument`.
+
+For full API reference see [observability.py](observability.md).
diff --git a/mkdocs.yml b/mkdocs.yml
index 20543cd9..a90ecf45 100644
--- a/mkdocs.yml
+++ b/mkdocs.yml
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ nav:
   - Home: index.md
   - Release 6.0.0: release_6_0_0.md
   - Release 7.0.0: release_7_0_0.md
+  - Release 8.0.0: release_8_0_0.md
   - References:
       - modular_input:
           - "checkpointer.py": modular_input/checkpointer.md