# telemetry - Functional Specification

**Version**: v1.0.0 | **Status**: Active | **Last Updated**: February 2026

## Purpose

The `telemetry` module provides a unified observability framework based on the OpenTelemetry standard. It allows the system to record, correlate, and analyze the performance and behavior of distributed workflows.

## Design Principles

### Compatibility

- Adheres to OpenTelemetry (OTLP) specifications.
- Supports standard span attributes (HTTP status, error codes, component names).

### Distributed Traceability

- Enables propagation of trace context across process and network boundaries.
- Supports parent-child span nesting for recursive workflows (e.g., agent task decomposition).

### Metrics and Observability

- Supports recording and aggregating performance metrics (Counters, Gauges, Histograms).
- Provides a centralized dashboard for real-time system visibility.

## Functional Requirements

### Span Management

- Creation and termination of spans with millisecond precision.
- Attachment of semantic attributes and events to spans.
- Automatic span status propagation (OK, ERROR, UNSET).

### Context Propagation

- Support for `W3C Trace Parent` headers.
- Thread-safe and async-aware local context management.

### Data Export

- OTLP/HTTP and OTLP/gRPC support (where dependencies allow).
- Buffering and batching of span data for high-throughput scenarios.

### Metrics (Consolidated)

- Support for standard metric instruments: Counter, UpDownCounter, Gauge, Histogram.
- Time-series aggregation and periodic export.
- Dimensionality support through metric attributes.

### Dashboard (Consolidated)

- Real-time visualization of traces and metrics.
- Sub-second updates for critical system health indicators.
- Correlated view of logs, traces, and metrics.

## Interface Contracts

### `TraceContext`

- `start_span(name: str, parent: Optional[Span]) -> Span`
- `traced(name: str, attributes: dict)`: Decorator interface.
- `link_span(span: Span, target: Span)`: Context linking.
- `get_current_span() -> Optional[Span]`

### `Metrics`

- `create_counter(name: str) -> Counter`
- `create_gauge(name: str) -> Gauge`
- `create_histogram(name: str) -> Histogram`
- `record_metric(name: str, value: float, attributes: dict)`

### `Dashboard`

- `start_dashboard_server(port: int)`
- `register_view(metric_name: str, chart_type: str)`
- `update_display()`

## Quality Standards

- Comprehensive unit tests for context propagation.
- Benchmarking of span start/end overhead.
- ≥80% test coverage.

## Navigation

- **Human Documentation**: [README.md](README.md)
- **Technical Documentation**: [AGENTS.md](AGENTS.md)
- **Repository Root**: [../../../README.md](../../../README.md)

## API Usage

```python
import codomyrmex.telemetry
```
