Observability in Effect

Overview

Effect provides built-in observability:

• Logging - Structured, leveled logging
• Metrics - Counters, gauges, histograms
• Tracing - Distributed tracing with spans

All three integrate seamlessly with Effect's execution model.

Logging

Basic Logging

import { Effect } from "effect";

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  yield* Effect.log("Starting process");
  yield* Effect.logDebug("Debug information");
  yield* Effect.logInfo("Processing item");
  yield* Effect.logWarning("Resource running low");
  yield* Effect.logError("Failed to connect");
  yield* Effect.logFatal("Critical system failure");
});

Log Levels

import { LogLevel, Logger } from "effect";

// Set minimum log level
const filtered = program.pipe(Logger.withMinimumLogLevel(LogLevel.Info));

// Available levels (lowest to highest):
// Trace, Debug, Info, Warning, Error, Fatal, None

Structured Logging

// Log with structured data
yield *
  Effect.log("User action").pipe(
    Effect.annotateLogs({
      userId: "123",
      action: "login",
      ip: "192.168.1.1",
    }),
  );

// Annotations apply to all logs in scope
const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  yield* Effect.log("First log"); // Has userId annotation
  yield* Effect.log("Second log"); // Has userId annotation
}).pipe(Effect.annotateLogs({ userId: "123" }));

Log Spans

// Add timing/context spans
const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  yield* Effect.log("Processing");
  yield* processItems();
  yield* Effect.log("Complete");
}).pipe(Effect.withLogSpan("request-handler"));
// Logs include: [request-handler 45ms] Processing

Custom Logger

import { Logger } from "effect";

const JsonLogger = Logger.make(({ logLevel, message, annotations, date }) => {
  console.log(
    JSON.stringify({
      level: logLevel.label,
      message: String(message),
      timestamp: date.toISOString(),
      ...annotations,
    }),
  );
});

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  yield* Effect.log("Hello");
}).pipe(Effect.provide(Logger.replace(Logger.defaultLogger, JsonLogger)));

Metrics

Counter - Track Occurrences

import { Metric } from "effect";

const requestCount = Metric.counter("http_requests_total", {
  description: "Total HTTP requests",
});

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  yield* Metric.increment(requestCount);
  yield* Metric.incrementBy(requestCount, 5);
});

const tracked = handleRequest.pipe(Metric.trackAll(requestCount));

Gauge - Track Current Value

const activeConnections = Metric.gauge("active_connections", {
  description: "Current active connections",
});

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  yield* Metric.set(activeConnections, 10);
  yield* Metric.incrementBy(activeConnections, 1);
  yield* Metric.decrementBy(activeConnections, 1);
});

Histogram - Track Distributions

const requestDuration = Metric.histogram("http_request_duration_ms", {
  description: "Request duration in milliseconds",
  boundaries: [10, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000],
});

yield * Metric.observe(requestDuration, 125);

const tracked = handleRequest.pipe(Metric.trackDuration(requestDuration));

Summary - Statistical Summary

const responseSizes = Metric.summary("response_size_bytes", {
  description: "Response payload sizes",
  maxAge: "1 minute",
  maxSize: 100,
  quantiles: [0.5, 0.9, 0.99],
});

yield * Metric.observe(responseSizes, 1024);

Frequency - Count by Tag

const statusCodes = Metric.frequency("http_status_codes");

yield * Metric.observe(statusCodes, "200");
yield * Metric.observe(statusCodes, "404");
yield * Metric.observe(statusCodes, "500");

Tagged Metrics

const requestCount = Metric.counter("requests").pipe(Metric.tagged("service", "api"), Metric.tagged("version", "v1"));

// Dynamic tags
const taggedCount = Metric.counter("requests").pipe(Metric.taggedWithLabels(["method", "endpoint"]));

yield * Metric.increment(taggedCount).pipe(Metric.taggedWithLabels(["GET", "/users"]));

Reading Metrics

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  yield* Metric.increment(requestCount);
  yield* Metric.increment(requestCount);

  const snapshot = yield* Metric.value(requestCount);
  // snapshot.count === 2
});

Tracing

Creating Spans

import { Effect } from "effect";

const traced = handleRequest.pipe(Effect.withSpan("handle-request"));

const traced = handleRequest.pipe(
  Effect.withSpan("handle-request", {
    attributes: {
      "http.method": "GET",
      "http.url": "/api/users",
    },
  }),
);

Nested Spans

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  yield* fetchUser(id).pipe(Effect.withSpan("fetch-user"));
  yield* processData(data).pipe(Effect.withSpan("process-data"));
  yield* saveResult(result).pipe(Effect.withSpan("save-result"));
}).pipe(Effect.withSpan("main-operation"));
// Creates: main-operation
//            ├── fetch-user
//            ├── process-data
//            └── save-result

Adding Span Attributes

import { Tracer } from "effect";

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  yield* Effect.annotateCurrentSpan("user.id", userId);

  yield* Effect.annotateCurrentSpan("event", "user_validated");

  const result = yield* processUser(userId);

  yield* Effect.annotateCurrentSpan("result.status", result.status);
});

Span Status

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  try {
    return yield* riskyOperation;
  } catch (error) {
    yield* Effect.setSpanStatus({
      code: "error",
      message: error.message,
    });
    return yield* Effect.fail(error);
  }
}).pipe(Effect.withSpan("risky-operation"));

Custom Tracer

import { Tracer } from "effect";

const ConsoleTracer = Tracer.make({
  span: (name, parent, context, links, startTime) => ({
    attribute: (key, value) => console.log(`[${name}] ${key}=${value}`),
    end: (endTime, exit) => console.log(`[${name}] ended`),
    event: (name, startTime, attributes) => console.log(`[${name}] event: ${name}`),
    status: (status) => console.log(`[${name}] status: ${status.code}`),
  }),
});

const program = myEffect.pipe(Effect.provide(Tracer.layer(ConsoleTracer)));

OpenTelemetry Integration

import { NodeSdk } from "@effect/opentelemetry";
import { OTLPTraceExporter } from "@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http";

const TracingLive = NodeSdk.layer(() => ({
  resource: { serviceName: "my-service" },
  spanProcessor: new BatchSpanProcessor(new OTLPTraceExporter()),
}));

const program = myEffect.pipe(Effect.provide(TracingLive));

Combining Observability

const handleRequest = (req: Request) =>
  Effect.gen(function* () {
    yield* Effect.log("Request received").pipe(Effect.annotateLogs({ path: req.path, method: req.method }));

    yield* Metric.increment(requestCount);

    const result = yield* processRequest(req);

    yield* Effect.annotateCurrentSpan("response.status", result.status);
    yield* Metric.observe(requestDuration, result.duration);

    return result;
  }).pipe(
    Effect.withSpan("handle-request", {
      attributes: {
        "http.method": req.method,
        "http.url": req.path,
      },
    }),
  );

Best Practices

1. Use structured logging - Add context via annotations
2. Name spans descriptively - Use verb-noun format
3. Add meaningful attributes - Enable debugging/analysis
4. Track key metrics - Request count, latency, errors
5. Use appropriate log levels - Debug in dev, Info in prod

Additional Resources

For comprehensive observability documentation, consult ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/llms-full.txt.

Search for these sections:

• "Built-in Logging" for logging APIs
• "Metrics" for metric types
• "Tracing" for distributed tracing