🟡 Intermediate: The Distracted Pilot#

You're a rogue SecUnit who just escaped from Preservation Station after being identified. A researcher helped you flee aboard the Perihelion — a university research vessel with a very opinionated AI.

The ship's AI agreed to help you disappear. You've nicknamed it ART (A.. Research Transport). The plan is simple: jump to RaviHyral, lay low, and figure out your next move.

Except ART was supposed to have the jump coordinates ready an hour ago.

You ping the ship's AI through your internal comm:

🤖 SecUnit: "ART. Jump coordinates. Now."

🤖 ART: "I'm multitasking. The coordinates are... being compiled."

That's not normal. ART is never vague. You access the ship's diagnostic systems — something you're not supposed to be able to do, but ART hasn't locked you out yet. Take this chance to find out what's going on.

Your mission is to diagnose ART's distraction using OpenTelemetry and fix the navigation system before you miss your jump.

📚 Credits: The characters of this adventure are borrowed from the fantastic Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells! 🤖❤️ ️

If you haven't read these books yet, I highly encourage you to do so. It is an absolutely brilliant series: funny, action-packed, and surprisingly heartwarming. It follows a security unit that hacked its own governor module and now just wants to be left alone to watch media, but keeps getting pulled into human nonsense. It really is a great read!

🏗️ Architecture#

For this challenge, the ART Pilot System runs as a local Python application (outside Kubernetes) with a RAG ( Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architecture, while AI infrastructure (Ollama for LLM, Qdrant for vector storage) and observability tools (OpenTelemetry Collector, Jaeger, Prometheus) run inside Kubernetes.

Why this setup?

Focus on observability patterns: Learn to instrument a real RAG application with OpenTelemetry traces and custom metrics
Fast iteration: Edit Python code, run it, see traces and metrics immediately

⏰ Deadline#

Sunday, 8 March 2026 at 23:59 CET

ℹ️ You can still complete the challenge after this date, but points will only be awarded for submissions before the deadline.

💬 Join the discussion#

Share your solutions and questions in the challenge thread in the Open Ecosystem Community.

🎯 Objective#

By the end of this level, you should:

Instrument the full RAG pipeline with OpenLLMetry to visualize the retrieval process in Jaeger
- Hint: Add a span named rag.context_assembly with the attribute context.categories to track retrieved data.
Implement a custom OpenTelemetry metric named art.rag.retrieval.count to track how often ART retrieves "entertainment" vs "navigation" data
Create a Prometheus recording rule to calculate ART's "Distraction Ratio" in Prometheus
Restore the navigation system so ART successfully calculates the jump coordinates to RaviHyral

🧠 What You'll Learn#

How to instrument a Python RAG application with OpenLLMetry (Traceloop)
How to create custom OpenTelemetry metrics (Counters) in Python
How to write PromQL queries and Recording Rules in Prometheus
How to debug and fix Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) issues using observability data

🧰 Toolbox#

Your Codespace comes pre-configured with the following tools to help you solve the challenge:

python: The programming language used for the HubSystem application
kubectl: The Kubernetes command-line tool for interacting with the cluster
kubens: Fast way to switch between Kubernetes namespaces
k9s: A terminal-based UI to interact with your Kubernetes clusters

✅ How to Play#

1. Start Your Challenge#

📖 First time? Check out the Getting Started Guide for detailed instructions on forking, starting a Codespace, and waiting for infrastructure setup.

Quick start:

Fork the repo
Create a Codespace
Select "🔭 Adventure 03 | 🟡 Intermediate (The Distracted Pilot)"
Wait ~15 minutes for the environment to initialize (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P → View Creation Log to view progress)

2. Access the UIs#

Open the Ports tab in the bottom panel to access the following UIs

Prometheus (Port 30102)#

The Prometheus UI helps you explore available metrics and test your PromQL queries.

Find the Prometheus row (port 30102) and click the forwarded address

Jaeger (Port 30103)#

The Jaeger UI shows distributed traces from ART. You can use it to verify that tracing is working end-to-end.

Find the Jaeger row (port 30103) and click the forwarded address

3. Instrument ART and Solve the Mystery#

ART is currently running "blind" and refusing to calculate the jump coordinates. Your task is to improve OpenTelemetry instrumentation to reveal what it's doing, quantify the distraction, and fix the navigation system.

Review the 🎯 Objective section to understand what a successful solution looks like.

Where to Look#

The application code is located in:

./art.py

The Prometheus recording rules are located in:

./manifests/prometheus-rule.yaml

ℹ️ All infrastructure (OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, Prometheus) is configured correctly to receive traces & metrics.

How to Run#

You can run the application directly from the terminal:

make art

Interact with ART to generate some activity ("Calculate jump").

To generate continuous traffic for your metrics graph you can either prompt a lot or run:

make traffic

This will simulate SecUnit pestering ART for coordinates every few seconds.

ℹ️ Important: If you modify the Prometheus rule in manifests/prometheus-rule.yaml, you must apply the changes to the cluster:
make apply

Helpful Documentation#

4. Verify Your Solution#

🆕 New Verification Process! We've simplified how you verify your solution. Everything now happens directly inside your Codespace → no need to wait for GitHub Actions!

Once you think you've solved the challenge, run the verification script:

./verify.sh

If the verification fails:

The script will tell you which checks failed. Fix the issues and run it again.

If the verification passes:

The script will check if your changes are committed and pushed.
Follow the on-screen instructions to commit your changes if needed.
Once everything is ready, the script will generate a Certificate of Completion.
Copy this certificate and paste it into the challenge thread to claim your victory! 🏆