observability-patterns

What problem does it solve?

This Skill establishes a comprehensive observability stack using OpenTelemetry, Datadog, PostHog, and DevCycle. It provides deep insights into application performance, user behavior, and feature rollout, enabling proactive issue detection and informed decision-making.

Core Features & Use Cases

• OpenTelemetry SDK 2.x: Critical instrumentation patterns for traces, metrics, and logs, ensuring correlation across distributed systems and providing end-to-end visibility.
• Structured Logging: Guides on implementing structured JSON logging with automatic trace correlation for easy analysis and filtering in Datadog.
• Custom Metrics: Patterns for defining RED metrics (Rate, Errors, Duration) and business-specific metrics to track key performance indicators.
• PostHog & DevCycle: Integration for product analytics, session replay, and feature flag management, enabling A/B testing and controlled feature rollouts.
• Use Case: A developer needs to add observability to a new microservice. They can use this skill to implement OpenTelemetry instrumentation as the first import, define custom RED metrics, integrate structured logging with trace IDs, and set up feature flags with DevCycle for controlled rollouts.

Quick Start

Implement the OpenTelemetry SDK 2.x instrumentation in 'src/instrumentation.ts' as the very first import in the server entry file, configuring it for Datadog.