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name: common-observability description: Enforce structured JSON logging, OpenTelemetry distributed tracing, and RED metrics across backend services. Use when adding request correlation, setting up tracing spans, defining SLO burn-rate alerts, or instrumenting middleware. metadata: triggers: files: - "/*.service.ts" - "/.handler.ts" - "**/.middleware.ts" - "/*.interceptor.ts" - "/.go" - "**/.java" - "/*.kt" - "/*.py" keywords: - logging - tracing - metrics - opentelemetry - observability - slo

Common Observability Standards

Priority: P1 (HIGH)

Logging & Tracing

• JSON Logs: Always emit JSON structured logs. Never plain-text in prod.
• Correlation: Extract X-Request-Id or traceparent. Attach to async context.
• Tracing: Use OpenTelemetry. Propagate W3C traceparent.
• Spans: Name spans like <HTTP_METHOD> <route> (GET /users/:id).

See implementation examples for structured logger setup with Pino.

Metrics

• Required: Request rate, Error rate, Latency histogram (p50/p95/p99), Saturation.
• SLOs: Alert on SLO burn rates, not raw threshold spikes.

Instrumentation Workflow

1. Define the operation and route-normalized span name before adding code.
2. Propagate request/trace context across every async or service boundary.
3. Log one structured event with correlation fields; redact secrets and request bodies.
4. Add RED metrics with route-safe labels, then define an SLO and burn-rate alert.
5. Exercise a success and failure path; confirm spans close and IDs join logs to traces.

Anti-Patterns

• Console.log: not use in prod; use structured logger (pino, zap).
• PII in Logs: Never log tokens, passwords, or full request bodies.
• Dynamic Span Names: GET /users/123 causes cardinality explosion. Use GET /users/:id.
• Missing Cleanup: Always end tracing spans.

References

• Observability Data Formats