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Run npx skillmds@latest add modra40/tempo-principal-engineer in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

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Who published Tempo Principal Engineer?

modra40 (@modra40) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Tempo Principal Engineer by modra40

Name: Tempo Principal Engineer
Author: modra40

Tempo Principal Engineer

Principal/Senior-level Tempo playbook for trace architecture, storage strategy, sampling-aware operations, tenant governance, and operating large-scale trace backends. Use when: designing trace storage, correlating observability workflows, tuning Tempo, or operating trace platforms in production.

modra40 a9197e1 9 files · 9.3 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

Tempo Mastery (Senior → Principal)

Operate

Start from what traces must answer in production and how long that truth needs to remain available.
Treat trace ingestion, storage, search patterns, and tenancy as platform design decisions.
Prefer simple trace backend operations over feature sprawl.
Optimize for trustworthy trace availability during incidents.

Default Standards

Trace retention should align with debugging and compliance value.
Multi-tenant access and cost boundaries must be explicit.
Correlation with metrics/logs should guide UX and storage choices.
Backend design should account for sampling and burst ingest patterns.
The platform must make missing traces diagnosable.

References

Trace storage architecture and block lifecycle: references/trace-storage-architecture-and-block-lifecycle.md
Ingestion, batching, and scale behavior: references/ingestion-batching-and-scale-behavior.md
Query patterns and search workflows: references/query-patterns-and-search-workflows.md
Correlation with metrics, logs, and exemplars: references/correlation-with-metrics-logs-and-exemplars.md
Multi-tenant governance and cost control: references/multi-tenant-governance-and-cost-control.md
Retention, storage, and durability: references/retention-storage-and-durability.md
Reliability and operations: references/reliability-and-operations.md
Incident runbooks: references/incident-runbooks.md

---name: tempo-principal-engineerdescription: Principal/Senior-level Tempo playbook for trace architecture, storage strategy, sampling-aware operations, tenant governance, and operating large-scale trace backends. Use when: designing trace storage, correlating observability workflows, tuning Tempo, or operating trace platforms in production.---# Tempo Mastery (Senior → Principal)## Operate- Start from what traces must answer in production and how long that truth needs to remain available.- Treat trace ingestion, storage, search patterns, and tenancy as platform design decisions.- Prefer simple trace backend operations over feature sprawl.- Optimize for trustworthy trace availability during incidents.## Default Standards- Trace retention should align with debugging and compliance value.- Multi-tenant access and cost boundaries must be explicit.- Correlation with metrics/logs should guide UX and storage choices.- Backend design should account for sampling and burst ingest patterns.- The platform must make missing traces diagnosable.## References- Trace storage architecture and block lifecycle: [references/trace-storage-architecture-and-block-lifecycle.md](references/trace-storage-architecture-and-block-lifecycle.md)- Ingestion, batching, and scale behavior: [references/ingestion-batching-and-scale-behavior.md](references/ingestion-batching-and-scale-behavior.md)- Query patterns and search workflows: [references/query-patterns-and-search-workflows.md](references/query-patterns-and-search-workflows.md)- Correlation with metrics, logs, and exemplars: [references/correlation-with-metrics-logs-and-exemplars.md](references/correlation-with-metrics-logs-and-exemplars.md)- Multi-tenant governance and cost control: [references/multi-tenant-governance-and-cost-control.md](references/multi-tenant-governance-and-cost-control.md)- Retention, storage, and durability: [references/retention-storage-and-durability.md](references/retention-storage-and-durability.md)- Reliability and operations: [references/reliability-and-operations.md](references/reliability-and-operations.md)- Incident runbooks: [references/incident-runbooks.md](references/incident-runbooks.md)

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