Parallax UI evidence

Summary

Parallax exposes useful run and trace navigation, but unstable issue fingerprints, generic span names, weak log correlation, and oversized evidence bodies obscure failures.

Question and scope

What do the observed Issues, Trace, Runs, and Build Trace surfaces reveal about the telemetry contract jackin❯ sends to Parallax?

Method

The evidence comes from operator-supplied Parallax screenshots and command output at the dossier cutoff; the complete input inventory is in the dossier method.

Findings

Issues list

Observed page: Issues.

Problems:

• Titles are raw technical payloads, not normalized symptoms. Examples included full docker exec ... /jackin/runtime/jackin-capsule command lines and BuildKit shell commands.
• The same attach failure appeared as many separate issues because dynamic values are part of the title/fingerprint:
  • jk-qfrehkbv-holla-thearchitect
  • jk-p45np22c-holla-thearchitect
  • jk-xb9cw69q-jackin-thearchitect
  • --user 501:0, --user 501:20, or no --user
• Tags shown in rows were low-value (detail:<none>, jackin_jsonl:true) instead of operational facets (operation=attach, component=host, failure.kind=attach_error, agent=claude, runtime=docker).
• All repeated attach failures had EVENTS=1, so the list reads like many unique incidents instead of one recurring incident.
• KPI cards duplicate visible counts (14 loaded, 14 open, 14 events) without explaining root causes or dominant failure classes.

Desired shape:

• Issue title: Capsule attach failed
• Fingerprint fields: service.name, jackin.component, error.type, jackin.operation, normalized failure code.
• Dynamic data as attributes only: container.name, run.id, user.uid, command argv, log artifact path.
• Row facets: operation=attach, runtime=docker, agent=claude, stage=attach, run_count=N, last_run=<id>.

Issue detail

Observed page: log_error: capsule attach failed ....

Problems:

• H1 is a full variable command string, so the page title itself is unreadable.
• Latest event body contains:
  • actual failure line,
  • capsule log path,
  • last 40 capsule log lines,
  • repeated [jackin-capsule debug] prefixes,
  • terminal byte dumps,
  • render/frame telemetry,
  • paths and dynamic branch/container names.
• Tags include detail=<none> and jackin_jsonl=true, which are implementation markers, not triage data.
• Occurrence row repeats the whole giant body; no separation of summary, cause, evidence, and artifact links.
• The page links one trace, but there is no structured "what failed, where, why, what run, what stage, what command" section.

Desired shape:

• Summary: Capsule attach failed while connecting host to capsule socket.
• Cause fields:
  • error.type=attach_error
  • jackin.operation=capsule.attach
  • jackin.stage=attach
  • command.name=docker
  • process.exit_code or signal when known
  • container.name
  • container.state
• Evidence:
  • first failure line,
  • last meaningful capsule log events after filtering debug firehose,
  • link to full artifact/run bundle,
  • redacted command argv.
• Raw debug tail should be a downloadable/expandable artifact, not the issue body.

Trace detail

Observed page: launch_stage trace.

Problems:

• Waterfall rows all have the same visible name: launch_stage.
• The meaningful stage name (derived image) is hidden under attributes.
• The trace duration card says 123118.4ms, but the selected row has 99849.528ms; the UI does not explain which stage consumed the run.
• Logs: 0 on a launch trace conflicts with run-level logs for the same run. This means logs were not emitted inside the span context or were exported without the active trace/span linkage.
• Many tiny rows with 0.02ms/0.06ms are visually present but operationally meaningless.

Desired shape:

• Span name should be operation-specific, such as:
  • launch.plan
  • launch.prepare_workspace
  • launch.build_derived_image
  • launch.create_container
  • launch.attach_capsule
• Attributes should carry facets: jackin.stage, jackin.role, container.name, image.name, cache.hit.
• Waterfall label should render operation + stage, not just the generic operation.
• Logs emitted during a launch stage must inherit the active span context.

Runs list

Observed page: Runs.

Problems:

• The page had 52 visible runs: 48 finished wrapper runs, 2 observed-only telemetry runs, and 10 failed exits.
• Most rows had the same command text: jackin --debug. That makes the table useful for chronology but not for diagnosis.
• Failed runs only show exit 1; the row does not show top issue, failing stage, last error, or dominant error type.
• Observed-only rows show span/log counts such as 14387 span(s) · 0 log(s), which is strong evidence of uncorrelated traces without enough run context.
• The status summary says failures exist, but the first-screen list does not explain what failed or whether failures share a cause.

Desired shape:

• Add columns/facets for workflow, role, agent, workspace, top_error.type, top_issue, and failed_stage.
• Show exit 1 · capsule attach failed instead of only exit 1.
• Group repeated jackin --debug rows by role/workflow where useful, while preserving exact run ids.
• Treat observed-only runs with many spans and zero logs as telemetry-health warnings.

Run detail

Observed page: run 18bea0c913570db0.

Problems:

• Header showed finished, exit 0, 18 trace(s), 0 error(s), and 200 log(s), but logs included attach client: socket read failed: early eof.
• The newest logs were repeated mouse movement/debug rows, both prefixed and unprefixed:
  • [jackin debug cockpit-dialog-mouse] kind=Moved ...
  • kind=Moved ...
• Trace list mixed jackin❯ workflow traces, BuildKit traces, provider probes, capsule session traces, and one-span helper traces without a hierarchy.
• The evidence bundle inlined raw Docker inspect output and generated Dockerfile content. This makes the run bundle hard to skim and creates redaction risk.
• No grouped issues inside this run is technically true for this sample, but the page still contains failure-like signals. The UI cannot distinguish expected EOF/noise from actionable errors because jackin❯ does not send typed outcomes.

Desired shape:

• Run summary should show lifecycle phases with status:
  • role.resolve
  • credentials.resolve
  • agent_binaries.prepare
  • image.build
  • container.create
  • capsule.attach
  • agent.session
• Expected terminal/session shutdown should be event.outcome=success|expected_close, not body text containing failed/eof.
• Debug interaction rows should be sampled, counted, or moved to metrics/artifacts.
• Raw large artifacts should be linked from the bundle, with summarized structured rows in the default view.

Build trace detail

Observed page: trace 2c2c18b26eee1bb9b8c4692119a5b957, root build /var/folders/.../.tmpJxRImQ/context.

Problems:

• The trace is a useful BuildKit subtrace, but it is presented as a peer trace to jackin❯ launch instead of a linked child of the launch/image-build workflow.
• The root name includes a host temp path, which is dynamic and noisy.
• Logs: 0 despite the same run having image build logs such as Building Docker image and derived image build source selected.
• Waterfall rows are BuildKit RPC names (moby.buildkit.v1.Control/Status, LLBBridge/Solve) with no jackin❯ semantic wrapper like launch.build_derived_image.
• The trace is dominated by two long BuildKit spans (Control/Solve, Control/Status) but the page does not surface the jackin❯ reason for the build: cache miss, capsule version change, recipe hash change, rebuild flag, etc.

Desired shape:

• Parent launch trace span: launch.build_derived_image.
• Linked BuildKit subtrace:
  • linked.trace_id=<buildx trace>
  • jackin.parent_trace_id=<launch trace>
  • jackin.operation=image.build
  • build.reason=capsule_version_changed
  • image.name, image.recipe.version, image.recipe.hash
• Root name should be stable: buildx.build_image, with temp context path as redacted attribute or local artifact reference.
• Logs emitted by jackin❯ around the build should correlate to the parent span and, when possible, to the BuildKit linked trace.

Implications for jackin❯

Emit stable issue dimensions, meaningful operation names, correlated logs, bounded evidence, and explicit linked-trace relationships so the UI can present workflow state without parsing raw bodies.

Limitations and unknowns

The screenshots represent the UI and stored data at the 2026-07-03 cutoff. Current Parallax grouping and navigation behavior must be revalidated before treating UI gaps as backend limitations.

Sources

• Dossier method and evidence inventory
• Raw data and root causes

Related work

• Tracing and instrumentation
• Signal contract and verification