Audit Logging & Traceability

Build audit logging into your agent architecture from the start, not as an afterthought. Log every action, decision, input, output, error, and security event.

Use JSON or other structured formats for all logs. This makes searching, filtering, and automated analysis dramatically easier than parsing unstructured text.

Understand retention requirements for your industry (HIPAA, GDPR, SOX, PCI-DSS). Build automated lifecycle management to meet legal obligations without manual effort.

Log enough to ensure accountability and debugging, but redact sensitive data (passwords, PII, API keys). Encrypt logs at rest and in transit.

Use centralized logging platforms (ELK, Splunk, Datadog) to aggregate logs from all agents. This enables cross-agent correlation and powerful analytics.

Don't wait for incidents to check logs. Set up automated alerts for errors, performance degradation, security events, and anomalous patterns.

When something goes wrong, you need to trace the full execution path. Include correlation IDs, timestamps, and enough context to reconstruct agent behavior.

Implement tiered storage: hot (recent, fast access), warm (older, slower), cold (archive, compliance). Automatically delete after retention period expires.

Use log analysis to detect repeated failures, slow queries, suspicious access patterns, and resource exhaustion before they become critical problems.

Regularly review logs to identify agent weaknesses, optimize prompts, improve error handling, and refine policies. Audit logs are a goldmine for improvement.