Agent Observability Trace Overhead Cascade

Measure baseline latency without instrumentation vs. with full tracing enabled. Alert when p95 latency increases by >10% after enabling observability, particularly for multi-agent or multi-step workflows with high event amplification.

Implement asynchronous trace emission, reduce inline evaluation depth, sample detailed payloads (1-5% of production traffic), compress trace artifacts, and separate synchronous vs. asynchronous observability layers. Use lighter tracing for high-throughput paths.