Observability

aos obs shows what this machine has been asked to do. Every command, typed at a terminal or called as an MCP tool, records one OpenTelemetry-shaped span in a local file.

Example

$ aos obs stats
route                calls  errors    p50ms    p95ms    maxms
commands                52       0        0        0        0
file delete             43      18        0        0        0
capture screenshot      16       0      142      160      160
system info             15       0       29       36       36
doctor                  14       0      175      187      187
window list             14       0       38       45       45

$ aos obs tail --limit=3
01:05:30  ok   cli        15ms  network status
01:05:35  err  cli         0ms  file delete
01:05:36  err  cli         0ms  file delete

aos obs tail --limit=8

Commands

aos obs audit --since=24h --source=mcp   # everything an agent asked for, oldest first
aos obs audit --failed                   # only the commands that failed
aos obs summary --since=7d               # how much the machine is used, and by what
aos obs stats --since=24h --source=mcp   # calls, failures and latency per route
aos obs tail --limit=20                  # the most recent spans
aos obs export --since=1h > spans.json   # OTLP JSON, ready for a collector
aos obs path                             # where the file lives

--source=cli|mcp separates what you typed from what an agent called. That is the main reason this exists.

What a span holds

The route, the source (cli or mcp), the exit code, the duration, and the number of arguments. Never the arguments themselves. Arguments routinely carry paths, message bodies and clipboard text.

Turn it off, or move it

AOS_TELEMETRY=off aos window list        # do not record this run
AOS_TELEMETRY_DIR=/tmp/t aos obs path    # record somewhere else

Export either variable in your shell to make it permanent.

Gotchas

• It is a file on your disk. Deleting it is fine. aos obs path shows where.
• Nothing is uploaded. obs export writes to stdout. Sending it to a collector is your step.
• Spans are per machine. Over SSH, run aos obs audit on the server to see what happened there.