Independent Observability Architect: AI Observability

Description

"Show me the cold start rate." No SQL. No dashboard hunting. Just ask. AI-powered observability demos are impressive. Watch Claude correlate latency spikes, parse Lambda logs, and answer questions in natural language. But here's what the demos don't show you: these tools excel at standardized telemetry and fall apart on your custom business logic. In this video, I'll show you how to build AI-powered Lambda log analytics with ClickHouse and MCP. More importantly, I'll show you why documentation matters more than the AI itself. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - Build a Lambda log pipeline: CloudWatch to S3 to ClickHouse to Claude - Connect Claude directly to ClickHouse using MCP (Model Context Protocol) - Query cold start rates, latency percentiles, and errors with natural language - Why AI observability struggles with your business logic - How Claude skill files bridge the gap between schema and understanding THE REAL INSIGHT AI observability tools are only as good as your documentation. They excel at HTTP codes and latency percentiles. They struggle with your custom instrumentation unless you teach them what it means. The Claude skill file isn't just for AI. It's the documentation your team has always needed. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 The AI Observability Promise 01:00 About Cardinality Cloud 02:00 SMART Goals for AI Log Analytics 03:00 Architecture: Lambda to ClickHouse to Claude 05:00 Cost Breakdown (and the CloudWatch Trap) 06:00 MCP Integration: Connecting Claude to ClickHouse 08:00 The Demo Trap: Where AI Falls Apart 10:00 The Missing Piece: Claude Skill Files 12:00 Documentation as Shared Knowledge 14:00 The Real Lessons 15:00 Recap and Key Takeaways RESOURCES Read the companion blog post with full SQL schemas, MCP configuration, and Claude skill examples: https://cardinality.cloud/blog/ai-log-analytics/ ABOUT CARDINALITY CLOUD I'm Jack Neely, Independent Observability Architect and owner of Cardinality Cloud, LLC - where observability is leverage, not a tax. With 25 years of SRE and DevOps experience and over a decade as an observability subject matter expert, I help teams turn observability into a competitive advantage. Want help building AI-powered observability or figuring out what documentation your team actually needs? Let's talk. Website: https://cardinality.cloud/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-neely-47316575/ Contact: jjneely@cardinality.cloud #observability #ai #llm #claude #mcp #clickhouse #lambda #aws #devops #sre #loganalytics #aiobservability