observability-modeling

Design telemetry semantics mapping diagnostic questions to logs, metrics, traces, and events.

1|Updated May 6, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/jacob-balslev/skill-graph --skill observability-modeling
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: observability-modeling
Source: https://github.com/jacob-balslev/skill-graph/tree/main/marketplace/skills/observability-modeling
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/jacob-balslev/skill-graph --skill observability-modeling

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve?

Observability-modeling helps teams define telemetry semantics up front so systems emit logs, metrics, traces, and events that answer concrete diagnostic questions when something goes wrong.

Core Features & Use Cases

  • Diagnostic-question-driven design: start from the questions you need answered, then map each question to the signals required to answer it.
  • Signal semantics and correlation: define stable attribute/event/span naming and correlation identifiers across async and external boundaries.
  • Operational safety considerations: plan for cardinality limits, privacy redaction, sampling rules, and actionable alert signals tied to symptoms.

Quick Start

Ask your team to design observability by listing the diagnostic questions for a key workflow, mapping each to required telemetry signals (logs/metrics/traces/events), and defining correlation IDs and stable attribute semantics before instrumenting.

Frequently Asked Questions about observability-modeling

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I design telemetry that makes system failures diagnosable?

Design telemetry by first defining concrete diagnostic questions for key workflows, then mapping each question to required logs, metrics, traces, or events, and finally specifying correlation identifiers to reliably reconstruct failures.

What correlation IDs are needed for tracing across async queues and external boundaries?

Correlation identifiers must be defined to span async boundaries like queues and external API calls, ensuring that distributed traces and diagnostic events maintain context across system transitions for accurate failure reconstruction.

How do I align SLO alerting with actionable symptoms instead of raw metrics?

Align SLO alerting to actionable symptoms by mapping diagnostic questions to specific telemetry signals, ensuring alerts reflect user-impactful failures rather than raw metric thresholds, and validating with an evaluation checklist.

What cardinality and privacy constraints should I enforce when defining telemetry semantics?

Enforce telemetry constraints by specifying cardinality limits to prevent metric explosion, applying privacy redaction to sensitive attributes, and defining sampling rules to control data volume while preserving diagnosability.

Can I use observability modeling for agent workflows and async jobs?

Yes, observability modeling applies to agent workflows, async jobs, APIs, and queues, defining telemetry semantics for logs, metrics, traces, and diagnostic events to support reliable failure reconstruction across these systems.

When should I not use diagnostic-question-driven telemetry design?

Diagnostic-question-driven telemetry design may be excessive for simple, stateless scripts where basic logging suffices, as the overhead of defining correlation IDs, span attributes, and SLOs provides limited diagnosability value.