MCAF: Observability

Trigger On

• a change affects runtime visibility or failure diagnosis
• logs, metrics, traces, or alerts are missing or vague
• the team cannot answer "how will we know this broke?"

Value

• produce a concrete project delta: code, docs, config, tests, CI, or review artifact
• reduce ambiguity through explicit planning, verification, and final validation skills
• leave reusable project context so future tasks are faster and safer

Do Not Use For

• feature behaviour work with no runtime visibility impact
• generic monitoring talk with no concrete flow to instrument

Inputs

• the critical user or system flow under change
• current logs, metrics, traces, dashboards, and alerts
• operator expectations for diagnosis and response

Quick Start

1. Read the nearest AGENTS.md and confirm scope and constraints.
2. Run this skill's Workflow through the Ralph Loop until outcomes are acceptable.
3. Return the Required Result Format with concrete artifacts and verification evidence.

Workflow

1. Identify the critical user or system flow that needs visibility.
2. Define what must be observable:
   • success and failure
   • latency and throughput
   • correlation across boundaries
   • actionable alerting
3. Treat observability as part of done, not an afterthought.
4. Load only the references that match the affected runtime concern.

Deliver

• observability requirements for the changed flow
• updated logging, metrics, traces, or alerting guidance
• clear operator and engineer visibility expectations

Validate

• a failure can be detected and diagnosed from the chosen signals
• alerts are actionable, not noise
• cross-boundary correlation is possible where the flow needs it
• the observability plan matches user impact and operator needs

Ralph Loop

Use the Ralph Loop for every task, including docs, architecture, testing, and tooling work.

1. Brainstorm first (mandatory):
   • analyze current state
   • define the problem, target outcome, constraints, and risks
   • generate options and think through trade-offs before committing
   • capture the recommended direction and open questions
2. Plan second (mandatory):
   • write a detailed execution plan from the chosen direction
   • list final validation skills to run at the end, with order and reason
3. Execute one planned step and produce a concrete delta.
4. Review the result and capture findings with actionable next fixes.
5. Apply fixes in small batches and rerun the relevant checks or review steps.
6. Update the plan after each iteration.
7. Repeat until outcomes are acceptable or only explicit exceptions remain.
8. If a dependency is missing, bootstrap it or return status: not_applicable with explicit reason and fallback path.

Required Result Format

• status: complete | clean | improved | configured | not_applicable | blocked
• plan: concise plan and current iteration step
• actions_taken: concrete changes made
• validation_skills: final skills run, or skipped with reasons
• verification: commands, checks, or review evidence summary
• remaining: top unresolved items or none

For setup-only requests with no execution, return status: configured and exact next commands.

Load References

• read references/observability.md first
• open references/alerting.md, references/best-practices.md, references/correlation-id.md, references/log-vs-metric-vs-trace.md, or references/pitfalls.md only when needed

Example Requests

• "Add observability requirements for this background worker."
• "We have logs but still cannot debug failures. Fix the plan."
• "Define alerts and traces for this API flow."