Observability

Distributed execution cannot be trusted if it cannot be understood.

Forge therefore treats observability as an execution property rather than an operational feature.

Every execution produces sufficient evidence to explain:

how execution was planned
how computation was distributed
how integrity was verified
how results were reduced
how execution can later be replayed

Observability is not simply about collecting metrics.

It is about preserving computational transparency.

What You Will Learn

After reading this guide you will understand:

how execution becomes observable
how telemetry differs from execution evidence
how replay contributes to transparency
how providers, jobs, and shards remain inspectable
how observability supports verification and audit

The Observability Mental Model

Every execution naturally produces operational evidence.

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Execution Contract
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Execution Planning
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Distributed Execution
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Verification
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Deterministic Reduction
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Execution Evidence
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Replay
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Execution Transparency

Observability is the visible expression of the execution lifecycle.

Two Layers of Observability

Forge separates observability into two complementary domains.

Control Plane

The Control Plane explains who, what, and why.

Typical information includes:

organizations
projects
authentication
execution policies
billing
governance
identity events

Control Plane observability answers questions such as:

Who submitted this execution?
Which execution policy was used?
Which project owns the workload?
What execution authority was applied?

This information is primarily available through Forge HQ.

Execution Plane

The Execution Plane explains how computation occurred.

Typical execution telemetry includes:

execution contracts
shard planning
scheduler decisions
participating agents
verification events
reduction summaries
replay metadata
execution artifacts

Execution Plane observability answers questions such as:

How was this workload executed?
Which agents participated?
Was verification successful?
Can this execution be replayed?

Execution transparency depends on both planes together.

Job Transparency

Every completed Job remains inspectable.

Typical execution information includes:

execution contract
primitive and profile identity
execution policy
execution duration
participating agents
shard topology
verification mode
replay references
execution artifacts
billing information

Jobs remain immutable after completion.

Immutability is fundamental to execution trust.

Shard Transparency

Every shard contributes observable execution evidence.

Typical shard telemetry includes:

execution duration
execution target
hardware classification
verification participation
partial artifact metadata
reduction contribution

Shard observability supports:

anomaly detection
execution diagnostics
reliability analysis
verification
replay

Shard evidence always remains associated with the parent execution.

Provider Transparency

Execution providers remain observable throughout their lifecycle.

Typical provider information includes:

execution status
heartbeat health
execution throughput
verification participation
latency characteristics
reliability history
computational contribution

Reliability is determined through observed execution rather than declared capability.

Observed behavior determines future scheduling.

Scheduler Transparency

The runtime also preserves scheduler behavior.

Examples include:

queue depth
dispatch latency
rebalance activity
scheduling decisions
execution fairness
agent health

Scheduler transparency explains how execution capacity was allocated.

It does not alter computational semantics.

Replay Transparency

Replay is an observability surface rather than merely a debugging feature.

Replay preserves:

execution contracts
root seeds
shard derivation
primitive versions
profile versions
aggregation metadata
replay references

Replay allows engineers to understand execution independently of the original infrastructure.

Replay explains execution.

It does not reproduce operational history.

Studio Transparency

Studio executions preserve additional orchestration evidence.

Typical Studio metadata includes:

flow version
graph topology
graph hash
adapter bindings
primitive bindings
execution timestamps
generated execution contracts
execution artifacts

Execution systems therefore remain reproducible even as infrastructure evolves.

Economic Transparency

Economic accounting also contributes to observability.

Forge records execution accounting across:

jobs
shards
execution classes
verification overhead
provider contribution
resource consumption

Economic transparency ensures that billing and provider settlement derive from documented execution evidence rather than inferred activity.

Failure Transparency

Execution failures remain observable.

Typical failure evidence includes:

execution status
failure reason
verification divergence
affected shards
retry history
replay references
billing outcome

Execution evidence survives execution failure.

Failure therefore remains inspectable long after execution terminates.

Runtime Health

Operational health reflects observed runtime behavior.

Health evaluation may include:

execution completion
verification consistency
latency stability
resource utilization
scheduler participation
operational uptime

Health is continuously evaluated.

It is never permanently assumed.

Diagnostics

Forge HQ supports diagnostics across multiple dimensions.

Examples include:

project
workload
execution policy
provider
execution target
verification mode
time range

These dimensions support:

capacity planning
anomaly investigation
replay analysis
execution optimization
operational debugging

Audit

Enterprise deployments frequently require durable execution records.

Forge preserves audit-ready execution structures including:

execution contracts
replay artifacts
verification evidence
execution metadata
ledger records
execution history

Audit derives from preserved execution evidence rather than reconstructed logs.

Relationship to Trust

Observability and Trust address different responsibilities.

Trust establishes:

execution integrity
deterministic behavior
replay semantics

Observability explains:

execution structure
execution behavior
execution history
operational evidence

Trust allows execution to be believed.

Observability allows execution to be understood.

Practical Mental Model

A useful way to understand Forge observability is:

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Execution
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Evidence
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Transparency
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Replay
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Understanding

Execution is not complete until it can be understood.

Where to Go Next

Continue with:

HQ — manage execution through the runtime control plane.
Security — understand execution authority and runtime protection.
Trust Layer — learn how verification and replay establish computational trust.
Architecture — understand how execution transparency is implemented throughout the runtime.

Together these documents explain not only how Forge executes computation, but also how every execution remains explainable.

Final Thought

Observability is not the ability to watch a distributed system.

It is the ability to explain every execution.

Forge preserves telemetry, verification, replay, artifacts, and execution evidence for one reason:

So that distributed computation remains transparent, understandable, and independently verifiable throughout its entire lifecycle.

Observability ​

What You Will Learn ​

The Observability Mental Model ​

Two Layers of Observability ​

Control Plane ​

Execution Plane ​

Job Transparency ​

Shard Transparency ​

Provider Transparency ​

Scheduler Transparency ​

Replay Transparency ​

Studio Transparency ​

Economic Transparency ​

Failure Transparency ​

Runtime Health ​

Diagnostics ​

Audit ​

Relationship to Trust ​

Practical Mental Model ​

Where to Go Next ​

Final Thought ​