From c1c5f30c25c5cd52c14261bfa49cbbb0b16c3823 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Cara Reaume <35357020+clreaume@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:45:36 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Clarifying tag key parameters

Based on some internal confusion here: https://dd.slack.com/archives/C8JDGHUCE/p1773760043260989
---
 content/en/getting_started/tagging/_index.md | 7 ++++---
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/content/en/getting_started/tagging/_index.md b/content/en/getting_started/tagging/_index.md
index 40bbd56aed3..b390adb40b6 100644
--- a/content/en/getting_started/tagging/_index.md
+++ b/content/en/getting_started/tagging/_index.md
@@ -58,7 +58,8 @@ Below are Datadog's tagging requirements:
 
 1. Tags must **start with a letter** and after that may contain the characters listed below:
 
-    - Alphanumerics
+    - Letters (all Unicode letters are supported, e.g., a, ó, 気, 녕, ك, and ดี)
+    - Numbers
     - Underscores
     - Minuses
     - Colons
@@ -68,7 +69,7 @@ Below are Datadog's tagging requirements:
 
     Other special characters are converted to underscores.
 
-2. Tags can be **up to 200 characters** long and support Unicode letters (which includes most character sets, including languages such as Japanese).
+2. Tags can be **up to 200 characters** long.
 3. Tags are converted to lowercase. Therefore, `CamelCase` tags are not recommended. Authentication (crawler) based integrations convert camel case tags to underscores, for example `TestTag` --> `test_tag`.
 4. A tag can be in the format `value` or `<KEY>:<VALUE>`. Commonly used tag keys are `env`, `instance`, and `name`. The key always precedes the first colon of the global tag definition, for example:
 
@@ -171,4 +172,4 @@ For more information, see [Using Tags][1].
 [22]: /getting_started/tagging/using_tags/#developers
 [23]: /account_management/billing/usage_attribution/
 [24]: /getting_started/tagging/using_tags/#ci-visibility
-[25]: /containers/troubleshooting/log-collection?tab=datadogoperator#missing-host-level-tags-on-new-hosts-or-nodes
\ No newline at end of file
+[25]: /containers/troubleshooting/log-collection?tab=datadogoperator#missing-host-level-tags-on-new-hosts-or-nodes

From 4f9994b03712cfd15e806518a8b6baae5d96139a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Cara Reaume <caralreaume@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2026 10:50:03 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] After chatting with Claude, removed commas from
 allowlist, added emoji to denylist, and added context about allowed
 underscores

---
 content/en/getting_started/tagging/_index.md | 11 +++++------
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/content/en/getting_started/tagging/_index.md b/content/en/getting_started/tagging/_index.md
index b390adb40b6..f19ae695612 100644
--- a/content/en/getting_started/tagging/_index.md
+++ b/content/en/getting_started/tagging/_index.md
@@ -56,18 +56,17 @@ Because containers and cloud environments regularly churn through hosts, using t
 
 Below are Datadog's tagging requirements:
 
-1. Tags must **start with a letter** and after that may contain the characters listed below:
+1. Tags must **start with a letter** and after that, may contain the characters listed below:
 
-    - Letters (all Unicode letters are supported, e.g., a, ó, 気, 녕, ك, and ดี)
+    - Letters (all Unicode letters are supported---for example, a, ó, 気, 녕, ك, and ดี)
     - Numbers
-    - Underscores
+    - Underscores (leading/trailing underscores are stripped, and contiguous underscores are collapsed into one)
     - Minuses
     - Colons
-    - Commas
     - Periods
-    - Slashes
+    - Forward slashes
 
-    Other special characters are converted to underscores.
+    All other characters (including, but not limited to, commas, emoji, and spaces) are converted to underscores.
 
 2. Tags can be **up to 200 characters** long.
 3. Tags are converted to lowercase. Therefore, `CamelCase` tags are not recommended. Authentication (crawler) based integrations convert camel case tags to underscores, for example `TestTag` --> `test_tag`.