opentelemetry
Installation
SKILL.md
OpenTelemetry — Core Patterns
Signal Selection
Pick the right signal before writing code:
| Signal | Use for | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Traces | Request lifecycle, latency attribution, distributed causality | High (per-request) |
| Metrics | Aggregated counts, rates, histograms — dashboards and alerting | Low (pre-aggregated) |
| Logs | Discrete events with context — errors, audit, debug | Medium |
Rule of thumb: metrics answer "how often / how fast", logs answer "what happened", traces answer "why". Don't use traces where metrics suffice.