4. Observability standard (OpenTelemetry)
Date: 2026-05-03
Status
Accepted
Context
Debugging production behavior—especially with frequent changes and automated contributions—requires structured signals. Ad hoc logging is insufficient for cross-service diagnosis and SLO tracking.
Decision
For services and backends we operate, adopt OpenTelemetry as the default for traces, metrics, and structured logs integration. Instrument new code accordingly; existing components adopt OTel when touched materially.
Consequences
- Positive: Vendor-neutral telemetry and alignment with industry tooling.
- Positive: Incident response and performance work improve as coverage grows.
- Tradeoff: Initial instrumentation effort; static sites (e.g. this docs build) may only need build-time and CDN logs unless requirements expand.