diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1c68326c12b..02255ee2d20 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ Google products under `cloud.infrastructure_service` ([#1496](https://github.com
 - `http.url` MUST NOT contain credentials ([#1502](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/1502))
 - Add `aws.eks.cluster.arn` to EKS specific semantic conventions ([#1484](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/1484))
 - Rename `zone` to `availability_zone` in `cloud` semantic conventions ([#1495](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/1495))
+- Add section describing that libraries and the collector should autogenerate
+the semantic convention keys. ([#1515](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/1515))
 
 ## v1.0.1 (2021-02-11)
 
diff --git a/specification/overview.md b/specification/overview.md
index 827c0d77cb4..a188a09ef94 100644
--- a/specification/overview.md
+++ b/specification/overview.md
@@ -75,6 +75,15 @@ The **Semantic Conventions** define the keys and values which describe commonly
 * [Span Conventions](trace/semantic_conventions/README.md)
 * [Metrics Conventions](metrics/semantic_conventions/README.md)
 
+Both the collector and the client libraries SHOULD autogenerate semantic
+convention keys and enum values into constants (or language idomatic
+equivalent). Generated values shouldn't be distributed in stable packages
+until semantic conventions are stable.
+The [YAML](../semantic_conventions/README.md) files MUST be used as the
+source of truth for generation. Each language implementation SHOULD
+provide language-specific support to the
+[code generator](https://github.com/open-telemetry/build-tools/tree/main/semantic-conventions#code-generator).
+
 ### Contrib Packages
 
 The OpenTelemetry project maintains integrations with popular OSS projects which have been identified as important for observing modern web services.