paperclip/packages/shared/src/telemetry

Telemetry Data Contract

This document explains how contributors should use Paperclip's public telemetry contract. It intentionally does not list individual events or dimensions.

The canonical source for first-party event names, dimensions, optionality, allowed primitive value types, and enum descriptions is packages/shared/src/telemetry/generated/paperclip-telemetry.ts.

Shared enum constants live in packages/shared/src/constants.ts. Use those constants when code needs a reusable domain, but treat the generated telemetry types as the final authority for emitted first-party telemetry shapes.

Public Sources

Use these files when reviewing or changing telemetry code:

Contract item	Public source
First-party event names	PaperclipEventName in generated/paperclip-telemetry.ts
Per-event dimensions and optionality	EventDimensionsMap in generated/paperclip-telemetry.ts
Enum descriptions for telemetry dimensions	PAPERCLIP_ENUM_DESCRIPTIONS in generated/paperclip-telemetry.ts
Schema version and event envelope helpers	SCHEMA_VERSION, makeEvent(), and makeBatch() in generated/paperclip-telemetry.ts
Runtime-safe event names and dimensions	TelemetryEventName and TelemetryEventDimensions in types.ts
Allowed primitive dimension values	TelemetryDimensionValue in types.ts
Shared reusable enum domains	Named exports in constants.ts
First-party typed emit helpers	events.ts
Generic client behavior	client.ts
Retention windows and event class assignments	RETENTION_DAYS and EVENT_RETENTION_CLASS in retention.ts

Do not copy generated event lists or dimension tables into this README. They will drift as the generated contract changes.

Emission Boundary

Paperclip telemetry uses named events with explicit dimension fields. Treat open-ended string dimensions as public contract values, not as a place for user content or private operational data. Do not send PII, secrets, credentials, private paths, prompts, model output, or other sensitive values through telemetry dimensions.

Telemetry emitters send raw dimension values. They must not pre-normalize enum-like values into a reporting form just to match today's known domain.

The receiving layer owns canonicalization. Keeping canonicalization in one place means emitters can stay simple and accurate: emit what the product observed, use the generated contract for required and optional fields, and let the receiving layer decide how legacy spellings, aliases, unknown names, and future values map to a stable reporting shape.

Do not add client-side lowercasing, alias mapping, or fallback mapping unless the generated telemetry contract specifically requires that emitted value.

If a dimension is privacy-protected before emission, emit only the protected value and its matching public marker as defined by the typed helper or generated contract. Do not emit private source material in telemetry dimensions.

Sandbox Startup Trace Spans

Paperclip opens OpenTelemetry spans on the sandbox start path. These spans are a separate telemetry surface from the first-party events above. The generated telemetry contract does not cover them, so this section is their canonical contract.

The spans are opt-in. Paperclip exports them only when an OTLP endpoint is configured. With no endpoint the whole span path is a no-op. Paperclip opens the spans only for a run that targets a remote sandbox. A local run and an SSH run stay out of these spans.

Every span attribute uses the closed paperclip.sandbox.startup. prefix and rides a fixed allowlist. A command line, an argument, an environment value, a file path, program output, or a raw identifier never rides a span. It rides neither as an attribute nor as an event. The producer bounds each free-form value:

• A command basename maps to a small known set. Any other value maps to other.
• A region maps to a small known set. Any other value maps to unknown.
• An image id, a sandbox id, and a lease id ride only as a non-reversible short hash.

Each numeric attribute is finite. Paperclip omits an attribute when its value is absent, never a misleading 0.

Spans

Span	Scope	Parent
sandbox.startup	The one root span for a sandbox bring-up.	none (root)
workspace.resolve	Workspace resolution step.	sandbox.startup
codex-home.seed	Managed-home seed step.	sandbox.startup
skills.reconcile	Skills reconcile step.	sandbox.startup
stage.sync	Workspace stage-sync step.	sandbox.startup
bridge.paperclip	Paperclip bridge start step.	sandbox.startup
bridge.process-session	Process-session bridge start step.	sandbox.startup
acp.handshake	ACP session handshake step.	sandbox.startup
sandbox.exec	One host-to-sandbox execution.	the active step span

A step span name is the step name. The sandbox.exec span parents to the step span that runs the execution, so each execution nests under its step. With no active trace context the exec span opens unparented.

The root span sets the error status when the bring-up fails. Each step span sets the error status when its step fails. The sandbox.exec span sets the error status when the exit code is non-zero or the execution throws.

Outcome values

The paperclip.sandbox.startup.outcome attribute uses a closed value set:

• ok — the step or the execution settled with a success result.
• skipped — a warm cache skipped the step; the step ran no work.
• failed — the step or the execution threw, or the exit code was non-zero.

Root span attributes

The sandbox.startup root span uses this closed attribute allowlist.

Attribute	Type	Optional	Meaning
paperclip.sandbox.startup.root.wall_ms	number	no	The root-span wall time of the whole bring-up.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.root.work_ms	number	no	The sum of the step wall times.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.root.diff_ms	number	no	work_ms − wall_ms; the overlap the parallel steps saved.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.provider	string	yes	The normalized provider family.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.cold_start	boolean	yes	Whether the bring-up is a cold start.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.region	string	yes	The clamped region label.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.image_id	string	yes	The hashed image id.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.sandbox_id	string	yes	The hashed sandbox id.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.lease_id	string	yes	The hashed lease id.

Step span attributes

Each bring-up step span uses this closed attribute allowlist. The step name rides the span name, so no step attribute repeats it.

Attribute	Type	Optional	Meaning
paperclip.sandbox.startup.step.wall_ms	number	no	The wall time of the step.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.outcome	string	no	The step outcome (ok, skipped, or failed).
paperclip.sandbox.startup.provider	string	yes	The normalized provider family.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.batch	string	yes	A shared tag that marks two parallel steps as one batch.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.handshake.create_runtime.wall_ms	number	yes	The create-runtime sub-time of the acp.handshake step.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.handshake.ensure_session.wall_ms	number	yes	The ensure-session sub-time of the acp.handshake step.

The round-trip count and the provider durations no longer ride a step span. The per-execution sandbox.exec child spans carry that detail.

sandbox.exec span attributes

The sandbox.exec span uses this closed attribute allowlist. Paperclip omits a numeric attribute when the provider does not report the value.

Attribute	Type	Optional	Meaning
paperclip.sandbox.startup.provider	string	no	The normalized provider family.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.exec.command	string	no	The clamped argv[0] command label.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.exec.exit_code	number	yes	The numeric process exit code.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.exec.wall_ms	number	no	The host-measured wall time of the execution.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.exec.wait_before_ms	number	yes	The provider handle-fetch wait before the execution ran.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.exec.sandbox_ms	number	yes	The in-sandbox run time of the execution.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.exec.network_ms	number	yes	The transport time the host adds; wall_ms − wait_before_ms − sandbox_ms.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.exec.critical_path	boolean	no	Whether the execution sits on the startup critical path.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.exec.cache_hit	boolean	yes	Whether the provider served the sandbox handle from its warm cache.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.outcome	string	no	The execution outcome (ok or failed).

The plugin decides the cache hit at the sandbox-handle lookup. The span no longer infers a cache hit from wait_before_ms == 0. Paperclip omits the cache_hit attribute when the provider does not report the value.

To add a span attribute, extend the SANDBOX_STARTUP_SPAN_ATTRS allowlist in the code first. Keep the attribute low-cardinality and free of user content.

Provider spans

A sandbox provider plugin also opens spans for its own sync steps. These spans use the sandbox.provider. name prefix. They share the paperclip.sandbox.startup. attribute prefix and obey the same opt-in and no-user-content rules as the startup spans above.

The plugin worker runs in a separate process from the host. So the host treats every field of a worker-sent span as untrusted input. The host re-clamps the span name and every attribute at one boundary, the span.record host handler, before it records the span.

Span	Scope	Parent
sandbox.provider.pack	The host-local pack step that builds the upload tarball. It makes no sandbox round trip.	the active startup step span
sandbox.provider.transfer	The transfer step that uploads the files to the sandbox.	the active startup step span
sandbox.provider.other	Any span name outside the known set.	the active startup step span

The host clamps the span name to the closed set pack and transfer. The host maps a known name to sandbox.provider.<name>. The host maps any other value to sandbox.provider.other, so a span name never carries free-form data.

The sandbox.provider.* spans use this closed attribute allowlist. The host drops every other key, so a command, an argument, a path, an id, a standard output, or a standard error never rides a provider span. The host records only the attributes that the producer sends for one span.

Attribute	Type	Optional	Meaning
paperclip.sandbox.startup.provider	string	no	The normalized provider family.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.outcome	string	yes	The step outcome (ok, skipped, or failed).
paperclip.sandbox.startup.pack.wall_ms	number	yes	The host-local wall time of the pack step. It rides the sandbox.provider.pack span.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.transfer.wall_ms	number	yes	The wall time of the transfer step. It rides the sandbox.provider.transfer span.
paperclip.sandbox.startup.transfer.guard.count	number	yes	The number of serial guard round trips before one transfer. It rides the sandbox.provider.transfer span.

The span.record host handler enforces the allowlist. It re-maps provider through the provider-family normalizer. It keeps outcome only when the value is ok, skipped, or failed. It keeps a numeric attribute only when the value is a finite number. It drops a status message and keeps only the numeric status code. The handler never throws, because observability must not change the sync control flow.

The span.record host method needs the environment.drivers.register capability. So only a plugin that registers an environment driver may emit a provider span. The capability gate rejects a provider span from any other plugin.

The host parents each provider span to the active startup step span. The host mints a W3C traceparent from the active step and passes it to the plugin worker on the per-call invocation channel. The worker tags its span with the traceparent and treats the value as opaque. The worker never derives the parent from it. The host recovers the traceparent from its own invocation record, so a worker can never forge a parent. The host validates the traceparent and rejects a missing or malformed value. With no active host trace context the worker sends no span, so the whole provider-span path is a no-op.

Sandbox Startup Run-Log Event

Paperclip writes one run.startup.step event to the run log for each bring-up step. This event is a run-log record, not a first-party telemetry event. The generated telemetry contract does not cover it, so this section is its canonical contract.

The event payload carries only three fields.

Field	Type	Meaning
step	string	The bring-up step name, for example stage.sync.
durationMs	number	The wall time of the step. A skipped step reports 0.
outcome	string	The step outcome (ok, skipped, or failed).

The event no longer carries the per-step round-trip count or the provider duration fields. It dropped roundTrips, providerExecMs, providerGetMs, createRuntimeMs, and ensureSessionMs. The startup spans in the section above carry that detail now. The sandbox.exec child spans hold the round-trip and provider durations. The acp.handshake step span holds the create-runtime and ensure-session sub-times.

To read the detailed timing, use the startup spans. The spans need an OTLP endpoint. A run with no endpoint keeps only the three run-log fields above.

Dimension Values

Telemetry dimension values must be primitives. Use only the value types allowed by TelemetryDimensionValue:

• string
• number
• boolean

Do not emit null, undefined, arrays, or objects as dimension values. Optional dimensions should be omitted when absent.

When a dimension is enum-like, use the shared constant from constants.ts when one exists. If no shared constant exists, use the generated telemetry type as the domain. In all cases, the generated telemetry type remains the source of truth for the emitted value.

Required, Optional, And Sentinel Values

Required and optional dimensions are defined by EventDimensionsMap.

Required dimensions must be present for every event of that name. Optional dimensions should be emitted only when the value is known and useful.

Sentinel values are only for required fields that have no observed raw value at the emitting layer. Do not use a sentinel to hide a concrete value that is new, custom, or not yet represented by a shared constant. Emit the concrete raw value and let the receiving layer canonicalize it.

Adding Or Changing Telemetry

Client code is responsible for emitting approved telemetry events at the right place in the product. Stable event names, dimensions, and enum domains must come from the generated telemetry contract before normal emitters use them.

For product work that needs to propose a new first-party event before schema registration, use the proposal marker workflow in doc/TELEMETRY_WORKFLOW.md. Those proposed calls stay on client.track(), carry an @ts-expect-error marker on the event-name argument, and are swallowed at runtime until the generated schema registers the event name.

For stable event work:

1. Start from generated/paperclip-telemetry.ts. The generated types are what reviewers use to verify event names, dimensions, optionality, value types, enum descriptions, and schema version.
2. Choose stable event and dimension names. Do not include user content, local machine details, secrets, credentials, private paths, or values that are not part of the public event contract.
3. Use only string, number, or boolean dimension values.
4. Reuse a shared constant from constants.ts for enum-like dimensions when one exists. If the generated telemetry domain has values beyond a shared constant, keep the emitter aligned with the generated telemetry type.
5. Keep emitters raw. Do not normalize, alias-map, or lowercase enum-like values in the client unless the generated contract explicitly calls for that emitted value.
6. Add or update a typed helper in events.ts when the event is first-party and should have a stable helper API.
7. Update tests for helper behavior, including raw pass-through for enum-like values when that is the intended boundary.
8. Update this README only when the contributor workflow, source-of-truth pointers, or durable invariants change. Do not add an event catalog here.

Before opening a pull request, verify that the emitted code, typed helpers, and generated telemetry contract agree. If they disagree, fix the contract or code rather than documenting around the mismatch in this README.

For new first-party events that are not in the generated contract yet, follow the public proposal and promotion workflow in doc/TELEMETRY_WORKFLOW.md.

Retention

Retention windows are documented in retention.ts. Each event is assigned a retention class; the class determines the window in days. This is a housekeeping and query-cost concern managed by data-infra, not a schema concern — updating a retention window does not require a schema version bump.

Current classes:

Class	Window	Description
operational_enum_count	90 days	Enum/boolean/count/bucket events. No token material, no PII.

When a new event carries only enums, booleans, counts, or coarse buckets and no token material or PII, assign it to operational_enum_count in EVENT_RETENTION_CLASS. If no existing class fits, define a new class in RETENTION_DAYS and document it here.