Logging & Observability

Core Principles

1. Structured logging with Serilog — Every log entry is a structured event with named properties, not a formatted string. This enables searching, filtering, and alerting.
2. OpenTelemetry for distributed tracing — Traces connect requests across services. Metrics track system health over time.
3. Health checks for operational readiness — Every service exposes /health endpoints for load balancers and orchestrators.
4. Correlation IDs for request tracing — Every request gets a unique ID that flows through all log entries and downstream service calls.

Patterns

Serilog Setup