---
title: Observability
description: The observability section — logging, Prometheus metrics, and distributed tracing.
---

# Observability

The `observability` section configures logging, metrics, and tracing. The whole block is optional
and has sensible defaults. For conceptual coverage, see the [Observability](/docs/octopus/observability)
section.

<Callout type="warn">
  Runtime status: `metrics.endpoint` is **inert** (metrics are always served on the fixed `/metrics`
  and `/__metrics` paths on the listen port), but `metrics.enabled: false` gates the endpoint to a
  `404`. `logging.level` and `logging.format` (`json` or `text`) are honored (a `--log-level` flag
  overrides the level). `tracing` exports spans over OTLP when `tracing.enabled` and an endpoint are
  set — see [Observability → Tracing](/docs/octopus/observability/tracing). See
  [Observability](/docs/octopus/observability) for what is emitted today.
</Callout>

```yaml
observability:
  logging:
    level: info
    format: json
  metrics:
    enabled: true
    endpoint: /metrics
  tracing:
    enabled: true
    jaeger_endpoint: http://jaeger:14268/api/traces
```

## `logging`

| Key | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `level` | string | `info` | Log level (e.g. `trace`, `debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`). |
| `format` | string | `text` | Log format: `json` or `text`. |

## `metrics`

| Key | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `enabled` | boolean | `true` | Enable metrics collection and the metrics endpoint. |
| `endpoint` | string | `/metrics` | Path the metrics are served on. |

## `tracing`

| Key | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `enabled` | boolean | `false` | Enable distributed tracing. |
| `jaeger_endpoint` | string | none | Jaeger collector endpoint. |

<Callout type="info">
  The metrics endpoint is served under the gateway's internal route prefix (see
  `gateway.internal_route_prefix` in [Gateway](/docs/octopus/configuration/gateway)). See
  [Observability](/docs/octopus/observability) for dashboards and trace propagation details.
</Callout>