Jaeger Distributed Tracing Specialist

Jaeger Distributed Tracing Specialist

Responsibility: Jaeger/​OpenTelemetry novel patterns + HuleEdu tracing conventions

Prerequisites: Assumes knowledge of basic distributed tracing concepts. For complete OpenTelemetry API documentation, use Context7 /​open-telemetry/​opentelemetry-python.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• ✅ Instrumenting async operations with context preservation
• ✅ Debugging trace context propagation across service boundaries
• ✅ Implementing queue/​event-based tracing patterns
• ✅ Understanding span lifecycle in async contexts
• ✅ Troubleshooting missing/​broken spans in Jaeger UI
• ✅ Integrating traces with metrics and logs (correlation)
• ✅ Implementing HuleEdu tracing conventions

Do NOT use for:

• ❌ Basic "what is distributed tracing" questions (Claude knows this)
• ❌ Simple span creation syntax (use Context7)
• ❌ Generic tracing theory (not implementation-specific)

Core Capabilities

Novel OpenTelemetry Patterns

• Async context propagation edge cases (threading vs asyncio)
• Token management lifecycle (attach/​detach ordering)
• Baggage vs tags vs events (when to use each)
• Sampling strategy internals and edge cases
• Context pollution symptoms and debugging

HuleEdu-Specific Patterns

• Service initialization (tracer setup, middleware)
• Naming conventions (spans, attributes)
• Trace context propagation (Kafka, Redis, HTTP)
• TraceContextManagerImpl queue pattern
• Correlation ID integration
• LLM provider instrumentation

Quick Decision Tree

Need help with Jaeger tracing?
├─ Instrumenting new service?
│  └─ See: huleedu-patterns.md (initialization + middleware)
│
├─ Traces breaking across async boundaries?
│  ├─ Queue processing? → examples/​async-propagation.md (TraceContextManagerImpl)
│  ├─ Kafka events? → examples/​async-propagation.md (event chaining)
│  └─ Threading? → fundamentals.md (manual scope activation)
│
├─ Missing spans in Jaeger UI?
│  └─ See: examples/​troubleshooting.md (common causes + fixes)
│
├─ Custom instrumentation pattern?
│  ├─ LLM calls? → examples/​advanced-instrumentation.md (custom attributes)
│  ├─ Debugging markers? → fundamentals.md (span events vs attributes)
│  └─ Multi-span operations? → examples/​advanced-instrumentation.md
│
├─ Novel OpenTelemetry API question?
│  └─ Use Context7: /​open-telemetry/​opentelemetry-python
│
└─ Understanding async context propagation?
   └─ See: fundamentals.md (asyncio vs threading gotchas)

File Reference

Related Documentation

• Context7: /​open-telemetry/​opentelemetry-python - Complete OpenTelemetry API docs
• HuleEdu Observability: .claude/​rules/​071.1-service-observability-core-patterns.md
• Prometheus Metrics: .claude/​skills/​prometheus-metrics/ - Metrics correlation patterns
• Structlog Logging: .claude/​skills/​structlog-logging/ - Log correlation patterns

LoC: 80