---
name: maintain-observability
description: Change NeMo Relay event fields, subscribers, ATIF output, or typed OpenTelemetry and OpenInference projections. Do not use for instrumentation examples that leave observability contracts unchanged.
license: Apache-2.0
---


# Maintain Observability Surfaces

Use this skill when changing event fields, exporter behavior, subscriber config,
or binding parity for ATIF or the `full`, `gen_ai`, and `openinference`
OpenTelemetry projections.

## Surfaces To Keep In Sync

- Core event model and emitted fields
- `crates/core/src/observability/atif.rs`
- `crates/core/src/observability/otel.rs`
- `crates/core/src/observability/openinference.rs`
- FFI and binding-native wrappers where the config or lifecycle is exposed
- Python, Go, and Node.js config objects and subscriber/exporter methods
- Observability config version 3, where one `opentelemetry` section contains
  typed endpoints and OpenInference has no standalone public surface
- Docs under `docs/about-nemo-relay/concepts/subscribers.mdx` and
  `docs/configure-plugins/observability/`

## Design Checklist

- [ ] Is this an event-model change, exporter-config change, or lifecycle change?
- [ ] Do all bindings expose the same logical knobs and semantics?
- [ ] Does every OpenTelemetry endpoint require a type and nonblank destination?
- [ ] Does each endpoint resolve `header_env` values at activation and reject
  missing, blank, or duplicate headers?
- [ ] Do layered ATOF sink, ATIF storage, and OpenTelemetry endpoint lists
  concatenate with higher-precedence entries first?
- [ ] Are OpenTelemetry and OpenInference dependencies unconditional rather
  than Cargo feature-gated?
- [ ] Does `gen_ai` avoid `nemo_relay.*`, project sanitized LLM instructions
  and messages into the standard content attributes, and emit minimal spans
  for scopes without GenAI semantics so their parentage is preserved?
- [ ] Does `enable_full_payloads` preserve complete sanitized LLM request input
  and annotations while leaving credential removal and sanitizers active?
- [ ] Does Relay derive compliant trace and span IDs consistently across typed
  OpenTelemetry endpoints while preserving lifecycle parentage?
- [ ] Are mark events, start/end events, and orphan cases still handled correctly?
- [ ] Does a sanitized tool result annotation remain opaque under
      `category_profile.tool_result_annotation`, ATIF observation-result
      `extra.tool_result_annotation`, and the single
      `nemo_relay.tool.result.annotation` attribute in `full` and
      `openinference`, while `gen_ai` omits it?
- [ ] Do examples and docs use each exporter's documented flush/deregister
  order before shutdown?
- [ ] Are span or trajectory fields still derived from the intended event data?

## Validation

- Run the affected Rust crate tests plus `just test-rust` if event
  fields changed.
- Run only the binding suites whose exposed configuration, lifecycle, event, or
  exporter contract changed.
- Update and validate docs or examples when the public workflow, documented
  observability contract, or emitted output changed.

## References

- `docs/about-nemo-relay/concepts/subscribers.mdx`
- `docs/configure-plugins/observability/about.mdx`
- `docs/configure-plugins/observability/opentelemetry.mdx`
- `crates/core/src/observability/atif.rs`
- `crates/core/src/observability/otel.rs`
- `crates/core/src/observability/openinference.rs`