# 333 Telemetry collection is configurable down to the Python module level

**URL:** https://forum.thousandbrains.org/t/333-telemetry-collection-is-configurable-down-to-the-python-module-level/1076
**Category:** Monty Code
**Created:** [April 23, 2026, 8:50pm UTC](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/t/333-telemetry-collection-is-configurable-down-to-the-python-module-level/1076 "2026-04-23T20:50:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 15

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![tslominski](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forum.thousandbrains.org/tslominski/32/5_2.png) [@tslominski](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/u/tslominski)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2026, 2:56pm UTC](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/t/333-telemetry-collection-is-configurable-down-to-the-python-module-level/1076/15 "2026-06-18T14:56:45Z")

</div>

On the topic of snapshots.

A snapshot is not intended to be “like a log(), but for telemetry()”. “Like a log(), but for telemetry” I would think would be `log()` or `emit()`. What I mean by “snapshot” is very specifically [a fourth thing, outside the big three of (logs, metrics, traces) that don’t have a good industry standard name, but these are things like buffers, frames, snapshots, scrapes, etc](https://forum.thousandbrains.org/t/what-if-monty-had-a-live-view/924/15).

This is why in my example above, I used `telemetry.emit(...)` and not `telemetry.snapshot(...)`, because it is a telemetry event being emitted and not what meets the definition of snapshot:

```python
telemetry.emit(
        level=telemetry.INFO
        event=LearningModuleTerminalState(
            kind="LearningModuleTerminalState",
            id=self.learning_module_id,
            terminal_state=TerminalState.MATCH
        )
    )

```

For a snapshot, I think it’d be something like:

```python
telemetry.snapshot(
    level=telemetry.TRACE,
    event=SensorRGBA(
        kind="SensorRGBA",
        id=self.sensor_module_id,
        image=observation["rgba"] # <-- this data field makes it
        # a snapshot instead of just another telemetry event
    )
)

# likely wrapped to avoid extra data work
if telemetry.isEnabledFor(telemetry.TRACE):
    telemetry.snapshot(
        level=telemetry.TRACE,
        event=SensorRGBA(
            kind="SensorRGBA",
            id=self.sensor_module_id,
            image=observation["rgba"]
        ) 
    )    

```

For something like a `PostEpisodeTelemetry` event, unless it has large data buffers in it, I would still classify it as an “event” (it’s just a big/“wide” one) and not as a “snapshot.”

Another heuristic for discriminating between “event” and “snapshot” would be that snapshots are always `telemetry.TRACE` level and probably contain binary or blob data.

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