instrumentation-planning
Plan backend observability using RED + USE + 4 Golden Signals + JTBD
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skills listSkill Instructions
name: instrumentation-planning description: "Plan backend observability using RED + USE + 4 Golden Signals + JTBD" triggers:
- "what should I measure"
- "what metrics do I need"
- "observability plan"
- "instrumentation strategy"
- "which metrics matter" priority: 1
Instrumentation Planning
"What job is this telemetry helping someone accomplish?"
Every metric/span should answer a job. If you can't name the job, don't add the telemetry.
Framework Selection
| Service Type | Use |
|---|---|
| HTTP/gRPC APIs | RED (Rate, Errors, Duration) |
| Resources (pools, memory) | USE (Utilization, Saturation, Errors) |
| Comprehensive SRE | 4 Golden Signals |
Prioritization Tiers
| Tier | What | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| T0: Foundation | Must have | Service tags, HTTP middleware, error tracking, health checks |
| T1: Performance | Should have | RED per endpoint, DB tracing, external service spans, context propagation |
| T2: Resources | Should have | USE for pools, memory/GC, queue depth |
| T3: Business | Nice to have | JTBD tags, user tier, feature flags |
| T4: Resilience | Nice to have | Circuit breaker state, retry counts, timeouts |
JTBD Context
Link observability to user value:
| Job | Success | Failure | Friction |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Place order" | Order created <2s | Order error | Retries >0, duration >5s |
| "Process payment" | Payment success | Declined | Gateway timeout |
Anti-Patterns
- Measure everything → Noise, cost, no signal
- High-cardinality labels → User IDs explode storage
- 100% sampling → Unnecessary overhead
- Missing context → Can't debug without job/step
Output
Present prioritized instrumentation plan organized by tier, with specific metrics and implementation order.
References
Load based on need:
references/methodology/red-methodology.mdreferences/methodology/use-methodology.mdreferences/methodology/four-golden-signals.mdreferences/methodology/jtbd-for-backend.md
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