Observability
The Panel and each Core log to stdout/stderr. Whoever supervises the process owns the sink. There is no metrics endpoint and no tracing exporter. The Panel holds no task-shaped state to report on — each Core owns its own — so the useful signal is the process log plus actana status on the machine in question.
| How you run it | Where the logs are |
|---|---|
| Compose / Docker | docker compose logs panel, docker compose logs core |
| systemd user unit (Linux Core) | journalctl --user -u actana-core |
| LaunchAgent (macOS Core) | actana logs tails ~/Library/Logs/Actana/core.log |
Foreground (pnpm start) |
the terminal you started it in |
On any Core, actana logs (-f to follow) reads the daemon's log wherever it lands. actana status is the healthcheck: it prints the Core's health, its endpoint, whether this Core has pairing material yet, and — when one exists — whether a newer release is available.
A containerised Core refuses actana logs and names docker compose logs -f core instead. Status, pair, and harness install still work there.
Lines worth grepping
A Core says something when a Session's status is decided by something other than the harness reporting it. All of them are ordinary log lines — there is no counter to scrape:
| Line | What it means |
|---|---|
hook-delivery.missed |
a hook's POST never got an ack; the line names the task, the event, and curl's exit |
hook-delivery.missed-total |
how many drops this Core has seen since boot — one a week is a flake, forty in an hour is a Core losing to its own load |
session-sweep.settled |
rows a Core restart stranded, marked disconnected at boot |
session-backstop.settled |
a Session settled because its turn went quiet and no Stop ever arrived |
Missed hook deliveries are recorded by the hook itself into <user-data-dir>/hook-misses.log and drained into the log from there, so drops that happened while the Core was down show up on its next boot.
See also
- HTTP surfaces —
GET /api/healthzon the Panel; hook receiver on the Core. - Environment variables —
ACTANA_UPDATE_CHECK. - Operating a Core — status, logs, update.
