Research

Step-level tracing (each agent loop iteration gets a trace span with input/output/tool-calls/latency) provides much better observability than flat file dumps. Zeph already has the otel feature flag for OTLP export.

Proposal

Extend debug dumps to emit structured trace data compatible with OpenTelemetry span format. Each agent loop iteration, tool call, and LLM request becomes a span with parent-child relationships. Can be viewed in Jaeger/Grafana when otel is enabled, or saved as JSON traces when not.

Sources

• https://www.getmaxim.ai/articles/top-5-ai-agent-observability-platforms-in-2026/
• https://www.braintrust.dev/articles/deepeval-alternatives-2026