diff --git a/cmd/tesseract/gcp/otel.go b/cmd/tesseract/gcp/otel.go
index bd641705..0b8c4f0e 100644
--- a/cmd/tesseract/gcp/otel.go
+++ b/cmd/tesseract/gcp/otel.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ package main
 import (
 	"context"
 	"errors"
+	"os"
 
 	"go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/detectors/gcp"
 	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel"
@@ -27,6 +28,7 @@ import (
 
 	mexporter "github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/opentelemetry-operations-go/exporter/metric"
 	texporter "github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/opentelemetry-operations-go/exporter/trace"
+	"github.com/google/uuid"
 	"k8s.io/klog/v2"
 )
 
@@ -49,14 +51,20 @@ func initOTel(ctx context.Context, traceFraction float64, origin string, project
 		}
 	}
 
+	instanceID, err := os.Hostname()
+	if err != nil {
+		klog.Errorf("os.Hostname() failed, setting OTel service instance ID to UUID. Error: %v", err)
+		instanceID = uuid.NewString()
+	}
 	resources, err := resource.New(ctx,
 		resource.WithTelemetrySDK(),
-		resource.WithFromEnv(), // unpacks OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES
 		// Add your own custom attributes to identify your application
 		resource.WithAttributes(
-			semconv.ServiceNameKey.String(origin),
 			semconv.ServiceNamespaceKey.String("tesseract"),
+			semconv.ServiceNameKey.String(origin),
+			semconv.ServiceInstanceIDKey.String(instanceID),
 		),
+		resource.WithFromEnv(), // unpacks OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES
 		resource.WithDetectors(gcp.NewDetector()),
 	)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 864cadeb..91750735 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/gdamore/tcell/v2 v2.13.8
 	github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql v1.9.3
 	github.com/google/go-cmp v0.7.0
+	github.com/google/uuid v1.6.0
 	github.com/johannesboyne/gofakes3 v0.0.0-20250916175020-ebf3e50324d3
 	github.com/kylelemons/godebug v1.1.0
 	github.com/rivo/tview v0.42.0
@@ -99,7 +100,6 @@ require (
 	github.com/google/flatbuffers v25.2.10+incompatible // indirect
 	github.com/google/renameio/v2 v2.0.0 // indirect
 	github.com/google/s2a-go v0.1.9 // indirect
-	github.com/google/uuid v1.6.0 // indirect
 	github.com/googleapis/enterprise-certificate-proxy v0.3.11 // indirect
 	github.com/googleapis/gax-go/v2 v2.16.0 // indirect
 	github.com/gorilla/handlers v1.5.2 // indirect