Maple field manual

Operate from evidence.

Plain-English foundations and hands-on investigations for engineers running production software. Start with APM, then go deeper into observability, OpenTelemetry, and the signals behind a useful answer.

01

Start here

APM fundamentals 12 min read

What is APM, and why is it important?

Learn how application performance monitoring turns service metrics, traces, errors, and logs into a repeatable path from “users are waiting” to “this dependency caused it.”

Read the guide

02 · Foundations

Build the mental model

Foundation 02

What is observability?

Understand traces, logs, and metrics, and why correlation matters more than collecting each signal in isolation.

8 min →
Open standard 03

What is OpenTelemetry?

Learn how vendor-neutral instrumentation keeps telemetry portable across languages, collectors, and backends.

7 min →
Field guide 04

Best open-source observability tools

Compare the leading open-source options by architecture, signals, license, operating cost, and best fit.

14 min →

03 · Field notes

Investigations you can run

API performance

When API p99 jumps but p50 doesn't

Measure the right latency clock, isolate the slow population, and trace a regression to the release and operation responsible.

14 min →

See your first trace today.

Add the SDK, point OTLP at Maple, and watch traces arrive — most setups take under five minutes.

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maple.dev — observability on OpenTelemetry