docs(adr): add ADR-018 for GlitchTip frontend error tracking via @sentry/sveltekit
Some checks failed
CI / Unit & Component Tests (pull_request) Successful in 3m4s
CI / OCR Service Tests (pull_request) Successful in 18s
CI / Backend Unit Tests (pull_request) Successful in 2m39s
CI / fail2ban Regex (pull_request) Successful in 40s
CI / Compose Bucket Idempotency (pull_request) Successful in 59s
CI / Unit & Component Tests (push) Successful in 5m46s
CI / OCR Service Tests (push) Successful in 45s
CI / Backend Unit Tests (push) Failing after 10m32s
CI / fail2ban Regex (push) Successful in 3m7s
CI / Compose Bucket Idempotency (push) Successful in 2m26s
Some checks failed
CI / Unit & Component Tests (pull_request) Successful in 3m4s
CI / OCR Service Tests (pull_request) Successful in 18s
CI / Backend Unit Tests (pull_request) Successful in 2m39s
CI / fail2ban Regex (pull_request) Successful in 40s
CI / Compose Bucket Idempotency (pull_request) Successful in 59s
CI / Unit & Component Tests (push) Successful in 5m46s
CI / OCR Service Tests (push) Successful in 45s
CI / Backend Unit Tests (push) Failing after 10m32s
CI / fail2ban Regex (push) Successful in 3m7s
CI / Compose Bucket Idempotency (push) Successful in 2m26s
Documents the decision to use the Sentry SDK with self-hosted GlitchTip, sendDefaultPii:false rationale, errorId surfacing to users, and alternatives considered (Sentry SaaS rejected for data-minimisation reasons). Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit was merged in pull request #608.
This commit is contained in:
86
docs/adr/018-glitchtip-frontend-error-tracking.md
Normal file
86
docs/adr/018-glitchtip-frontend-error-tracking.md
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
|
||||
# ADR-018: GlitchTip frontend error tracking via @sentry/sveltekit
|
||||
|
||||
**Date:** 2026-05-17
|
||||
**Status:** Accepted
|
||||
**Deciders:** Marcel Raddatz
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Context
|
||||
|
||||
The Familienarchiv had no client-side error reporting. When a user encountered a crash
|
||||
or unhandled error in the SvelteKit frontend, there was no way for the operator to
|
||||
observe it — errors were invisible until a user manually reported them. A GlitchTip
|
||||
instance (self-hosted, Sentry-compatible) was already running as part of the
|
||||
observability stack (`docker-compose.observability.yml`). The backend already reported
|
||||
server-side errors to it.
|
||||
|
||||
We needed a way to:
|
||||
1. Capture frontend errors automatically and route them to GlitchTip.
|
||||
2. Give users a visible error identifier they can include in a support message.
|
||||
3. Do this without leaking personally identifiable information (PII) from the family
|
||||
archive — documents contain personal histories, names, and relationships.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Decision
|
||||
|
||||
Use `@sentry/sveltekit` (the official Sentry SDK for SvelteKit) to:
|
||||
|
||||
- Initialise with `sendDefaultPii: false` on both `hooks.server.ts` and `hooks.client.ts`.
|
||||
- Pass a callback to `Sentry.handleErrorWithSentry()` that returns
|
||||
`{ message, errorId }` where `errorId` is `Sentry.lastEventId()` when Sentry
|
||||
captured the event, or a fresh `crypto.randomUUID()` as fallback.
|
||||
- Display the `errorId` on the `+error.svelte` page so users can include it in a
|
||||
report to the operator.
|
||||
|
||||
The SDK is initialised with `enabled: !!import.meta.env.VITE_SENTRY_DSN` so that
|
||||
development and CI builds without a DSN configured do not send any events.
|
||||
|
||||
`VITE_SENTRY_DSN` is a write-only ingest key — it can POST events to GlitchTip but
|
||||
cannot read them. It is safe to include in the client bundle per the Sentry security
|
||||
model; it does not require rotation like a password.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Alternatives considered
|
||||
|
||||
**Sentry SaaS** — rejected. The archive contains private family documents and personal
|
||||
history. Sending error events with stack traces to a US-hosted third party is
|
||||
inconsistent with the project's data-minimisation posture. Self-hosted GlitchTip on
|
||||
the same Hetzner VPS keeps all data on infrastructure the operator controls.
|
||||
|
||||
**Custom error logging endpoint** — rejected. The @sentry/sveltekit SDK handles
|
||||
SvelteKit's hook lifecycle, source-map upload, and event grouping automatically.
|
||||
Reimplementing this would cost significant engineering time for no benefit.
|
||||
|
||||
**Log-only (no user-visible errorId)** — rejected. Without a visible error ID, users
|
||||
can only describe what happened in natural language, making it hard to correlate a
|
||||
report with a specific GlitchTip event. The `errorId` closes this gap at negligible UI
|
||||
cost.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Consequences
|
||||
|
||||
**Positive:**
|
||||
- Frontend errors are now observable without requiring user reports.
|
||||
- Users can provide an `errorId` that maps directly to a GlitchTip event.
|
||||
- `sendDefaultPii: false` ensures names, IPs, and cookie values are not included in
|
||||
captured events.
|
||||
- `tracesSampleRate: 0.1` limits trace volume to 10% of transactions, keeping
|
||||
GlitchTip load low on the shared VPS.
|
||||
|
||||
**Negative / trade-offs:**
|
||||
- The `@sentry/sveltekit` SDK is now a production dependency. SDK updates must be
|
||||
reviewed for changes to the default PII scrubbing behaviour.
|
||||
- The `handleError` callback in both hooks returns a hardcoded English message
|
||||
(`'An unexpected error occurred'`). This bypasses Paraglide i18n — the error page
|
||||
will always show English text when the hooks are active, regardless of the user's
|
||||
locale. This is acceptable because: (a) the error page is a last-resort fallback
|
||||
not part of normal UX, (b) the `errorId` is the actionable information, not the
|
||||
message text. A future ADR may address this if internationalised error messages
|
||||
become a requirement.
|
||||
- `Sentry.lastEventId()` returns `undefined` when Sentry did not capture the event
|
||||
(e.g. DSN not configured). The `crypto.randomUUID()` fallback guarantees an `errorId`
|
||||
is always present, but that UUID will not appear in GlitchTip.
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user