Temporal workflow observability

Test the integration

Send and verify events with Temporal workflow observability

Use Temporal workflow observability where your app knows the final result. Collect only the fields you need, then verify a test event before building charts.

1
Choose the outcome
Workflow completion monitoring
2
Define the contract
workflow_type, workflow_id, run_id, and status
3
Log the final result
Send Telemetry events from an activity or worker interceptor, not directly from deterministic workflow code.
4
Check the stored event
Exercise a known fixture, then inspect workflow_completed for one correctly typed terminal row.

Before you start

A server-side TELEMETRY_API_KEY
Stable workflow and activity type names
A place to send external telemetry that workflow replay will not execute again

Delivery setup

Install and initialize server-side

Import telemetry-sh in server-only code and initialize it once with process.env.TELEMETRY_API_KEY. Keep ingestion credentials out of browser bundles, client-visible environment variables, source control, logs, and exception messages.

temporal-install

npm installation

bash

npm install telemetry-sh

1Create one reusable server-side client. Set its timeout and retry limit.
2Log an event when the operation succeeds, fails, retries, or times out.
3Send test events with known results and inspect the stored rows before enabling an alert.

Snippet

Start with one structured event

Add this shape where the workflow completes, fails, or retries. Then build the dashboard from real fields.

temporal

Temporal workflow observability event

javascript

await telemetry.log("workflow_completed", {
  workflow_type: info.workflowType,
  workflow_id: info.workflowId,
  run_id: info.runId,
  task_queue: info.taskQueue,
  status: "success",
  duration_ms: Date.now() - startedAt,
  business_outcome: result.category,
});

Event schema

workflow_type, workflow_id, run_id, and status

activity_type, attempt, queue_name, and duration_ms

error_type, business_outcome, and release

Check your setup

Checkpoint 1

Send Telemetry events from an activity or worker interceptor, not directly from deterministic workflow code.

Checkpoint 2

Keep the logical workflow ID stable while recording Temporal run IDs separately.

Checkpoint 3

Do not log workflow arguments, search attributes containing private data, or activity results.

Verification

Prove the event arrived

Run this after exercising known success and failure cases. Replace the fallback table name if your final event contract differs from the snippet.

temporal-verification

Temporal workflow observability verification query

sql

SELECT *
FROM workflow_completed
ORDER BY timestamp_utc DESC
LIMIT 20;

Confirm one terminal row per logical outcome, with the expected status, identifiers, units, and UTC time.

Inspect the inferred schema and verify that retries do not change field types or generate a new logical event ID.

Search the stored fields for credentials, raw payloads, prompts, private content, and unbounded error messages.

Exercise a provider timeout, ingestion rejection, and process shutdown before treating the dashboard as complete.

Implementation references

Review the event contract, data-safety guidance, and upstream primary documentation before enabling a new production path.

Background job recipes Correlation IDs Temporal TypeScript observability

Where to log

Keep the outcome event small and recoverable

This pattern provides

Record the outcome as an event you can query with SQL.
Stable fields for dashboards, alerts, and cross-event correlation.
Test events for checking success, failure, retries, and timeouts.

This pattern does not provide

An OTLP exporter, automatic collection pipeline, or replacement for detailed traces and diagnostic logs.
Exactly-once delivery merely because the payload contains an event ID.
Permission to collect raw provider payloads, user content, credentials, or regulated data.

Delivery and idempotency Batching and shutdown Troubleshoot ingestion

Example event schemas

Check what each event records, when to send it, and which field types it needs. Review the example payload and privacy checklist before using it in production.

Async reliability11 fields