NKESSLING@TERMINALSCREEN WORKOpen to work from Nov 2026RTM 22:22:21 · UTC 20:22

PRSM ~/work/prism-trace MAINTAINED

PRSM★ 961▲ 0.14 commits/day, 40 wkRUST · 2025

Read traces in the terminal and diff two runs

An OpenTelemetry trace viewer for the terminal with a flame view and run-to-run diffs.

ROLE: Author
STACK: Rust · ratatui · OTLP
YEARS: 2025

COMMIT RATE · 40 WEEKS · PRSM

O(n log n)trace diff, was O(n²)

180 msopen a 1M-span trace

0 depson the collector

README.md · CASE STUDY

An OpenTelemetry trace viewer for the terminal with a flame view and run-to-run diffs.

I kept opening a browser tab to read a trace while debugging over SSH. prism-trace reads OTLP files or a live collector and draws a flame view in the terminal.

Diffing runs

The feature people use most compares two runs of the same request and colours spans that got slower. Matching spans used to be quadratic; sorting by path first made it n log n and a million-span trace opens in 180 ms.

SCRN WORK · SCREENER6 OF 8 SHOWN

More projects.

Every project opens the same way: problem, fix, numbers.

ROLEKEY RESULT

TIDEA write-ahead log that survives the power cordtidewaterAuthor · maintainerRust2024–264,8121.92 GB/s append, one core KILNA build cache that made CI six times fasterkilnAuthorGo2023–262,2076.1x faster CI, median LOOMA Postgres job queue that stays fair under loadloom-queueAuthor · 3 contributorsTypeScript2024–251,39012k/s jobs on one node WRENRelease notes that write themselves from commitswrenAuthorTypeScript2025–261,04511 min saved per release PRSMRead traces in the terminal and diff two runsprism-traceAuthorRust2025961O(n log n) trace diff, was O(n²)FERNA small config language with typesfernAuthorZig2025–266120.4 ms compile a 2k-line config

ALL 8 PROJECTS ↗

NOTE WRITING · RESEARCH NOTES8 NOTES

Notes from the work.

Short write-ups of things that broke and how they got fixed. Plain language, real numbers.

Storage

18 SEPT 20267 min READ

You also have to fsync the directory

Why a new file is not durable until its directory is, and the crash test that proved it.

READ NOTE <GO>

30 AUG 2026Build systemsCache keys are inputs, not branch names9 min 12 JUL 2026DatabasesFair queues in Postgres, with SKIP LOCKED11 min 02 JUN 2026StorageGroup commit, drawn by hand6 min ALL NOTES ↗