Monica Opentelemetry

Monica OpenTelemetry

Use this skill to design Monica module telemetry that is compatible with OpenTelemetry without making infrastructure modules depend on OpenTelemetry exporters.

Core Rule

Monica modules emit standard .NET metrics through System.Diagnostics.Metrics. Hosts configure OpenTelemetry exporters, Prometheus scraping, OTLP, Azure Monitor, storage, and dashboards.

Monica module -> System.Diagnostics.Metrics -> host OpenTelemetry setup -> backend/UI

Do not add OpenTelemetry.* package references to Monica infrastructure modules unless the module is explicitly an observability host/integration module.

Folder Placement

Use Metrics/ for telemetry names, instruments, app-owned metric state, and instrumentation adapters.

Monica.{Name}/
├── Metrics/
│   ├── {Name}MetricNames.cs             # public constants when hosts need meter names
│   ├── {Feature}Metrics.cs              # internal singleton metric owner
│   └── {Feature}MetricsInterceptor.cs   # optional adapter, e.g. EF Core interceptor

For feature-folder modules, place telemetry under the feature:

Monica.Repository/
└── Persistence/
    └── Metrics/

Snapshot DTOs exposed to Facades or UI stay in Models/, not Metrics/.

Standard Pattern

Create one internal singleton metric owner per coherent telemetry area. Use IMeterFactory, not static new Meter(...), in DI-based Monica modules.

using System.Diagnostics.Metrics;

namespace Monica.Repository.Persistence.Metrics;

public static class RepositoryPersistenceMetricNames
{
    public const string MeterName = "Monica.Repository.Persistence";
    public const string EfCoreConnectionEvents =
        "monica.repository.persistence.ef_core.connection.events";
}

internal sealed class EfCoreConnectionMetrics(IMeterFactory meterFactory)
{
    private const string EVENT_TAG_NAME = "event";

    private readonly Counter _connectionEvents = meterFactory
        .Create(RepositoryPersistenceMetricNames.MeterName)
        .CreateCounter(
            RepositoryPersistenceMetricNames.EfCoreConnectionEvents,
            unit: "events",
            description: "EF Core connection lifecycle events observed by Monica Repository.");

    public void RecordConnectionOpened()
    {
        _connectionEvents.Add(1, new KeyValuePair(EVENT_TAG_NAME, "opened"));
    }
}

Register metric owners as singleton:

services.TryAddSingleton();
services.TryAddSingleton();

Host Bootstrap

IMeterFactory is auto-registered by Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting in .NET 8+ and by ASP.NET Core hosts. Monica modules just register their metric owners with TryAddSingleton(). Call services.AddMetrics() only in non-Hosting scenarios such as bare ServiceCollection test fixtures.

Expose a module option when instrumentation has non-trivial overhead or attaches framework adapters:

public bool EnableEfCoreConnectionMetrics { get; set; }

Instrument Choice

• Use Counter for monotonic totals such as requests, failures, lifecycle events, bytes sent, or jobs completed.
• Use Histogram for distributions such as duration, payload size, queue latency, or retry delay.
• Use ObservableGauge for current values read from app-owned state, such as active jobs, pending sends, or open connections.
• Use app-owned state only when Monica needs a current snapshot, UI data, or observable gauge values. Do not mirror counters just to read metric values later.

Tags

Keep tags low-cardinality and stable.

Good tags:

event=opened
result=success
reason=validation
state=pending
provider=postgresql

Avoid tags with unbounded or sensitive values:

user.id
order.id
trace.id
connection.id
exception.message
raw path/query strings

Use private constants for tag names and stable tag values. Private constants use upper snake case in Monica.

App-Owned Diagnostics vs Telemetry

Telemetry instruments are write/observe APIs, not the source of truth for app logic.

Use this split:

Metric owner state
  -> only when observable gauges or Monica snapshots need current values

Metric instruments
  -> emit Counter/Histogram/Gauge measurements

Snapshot models
  -> public Models/ types returned by Facades/UI

For UI diagnostics like SignalR pending sends, keep the state owner cohesive and expose snapshots through a Facade. Emit OpenTelemetry-compatible metrics from the same owner only when useful.

Keep app-owned fields only when an ObservableGauge, snapshot model, or Monica runtime behavior reads them. Do not duplicate Counter values into local Interlocked fields just because the event also increments.

Performance Rules

• Metric calls should stay on hot paths only when they do minimal work.
• Avoid locks in metric recording; use Interlocked only when app-owned state is required.
• Avoid large tag sets; Add/Record with three or fewer individually supplied tags is preferred for hot paths.
• Keep observable callbacks fast: read cached state and return measurements. Do not perform I/O, database calls, service calls, or blocking work.
• Do not register custom MeterListener aggregation in Monica modules unless explicitly designing a collector.

Host Configuration Boundary

Monica modules should document the meter name and emit metrics. A host can subscribe with OpenTelemetry:

builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .WithMetrics(metrics =>
    {
        metrics.AddMeter(RepositoryPersistenceMetricNames.MeterName);
        metrics.AddPrometheusExporter();
    });

The host maps scraping/export endpoints and configures storage/UI. Monica infrastructure modules do not.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Tairitsua
• Source: Tairitsua/Monica
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://monica.dpdns.org/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.