Long-running orchestration tools usually split telemetry you watch while something runs from evidence you keep after it stops. The first answers “what is happening now?”; the second answers “what happened, in enough detail to debug or audit later?” Jaiph does the same.
For Jaiph, live observation is the __JAIPH_EVENT__ JSON line protocol on the workflow runner’s stderr (what the interactive CLI and Hooks consume). Durable observation is a directory tree on disk: step captures, an append-only summary timeline, optional inbox copies, and a writable artifacts/ folder for anything workflows publish explicitly.
When you run a workflow, or jaiph test executes workflows inside test blocks, NodeWorkflowRuntime materializes that durable tree. jaiph run defaults to <workspace>/.jaiph/runs/; override with run.logs_dir or JAIPH_RUNS_DIR (see Configuration — Run keys). The test runner uses its own ephemeral runs root under JAIPH_RUNS_DIR so normal workspace runs are not overwritten — see Configuration — Testing with jaiph test. The layout below matches what the runtime creates in the constructor (see Architecture — Durable artifact layout). In Docker mode, paths inside recorded events may use container prefixes (/jaiph/run/…); the CLI maps them to host paths when reporting failures — see Sandboxing — Path remapping.
The runtime uses a UTC-dated hierarchy. Each run gets its own folder: UTC date, then UTC time plus a basename used only for naming (not a path): JAIPH_SOURCE_FILE when set in the environment (the CLI and node-workflow-runner set this to the entry file basename), otherwise basename(graph.entryFile) from the parsed graph.
.jaiph/runs/
<YYYY-MM-DD>/ # UTC date (see NodeWorkflowRuntime)
<HH-MM-SS>-<source-basename>/ # UTC time + basename (see above)
000001-module__step.out # stdout capture per step (6-digit seq prefix)
000001-module__step.err # stderr capture (may be empty)
artifacts/ # user-published files (`jaiphlang/artifacts`); `JAIPH_ARTIFACTS_DIR`
inbox/ # audit copies of routed channel payloads (optional)
heartbeat # liveness: epoch ms, refreshed about every 10s
return_value.txt # `runDefault` only: status 0 and `returnValue` defined (may be "")
run_summary.jsonl # durable event timeline (JSON Lines)
Sequence numbers in those filenames are monotonic and unique per run. RuntimeEventEmitter owns a single in-memory counter (allocStepSeq) that advances whenever a step allocates paired capture files: executeManagedStep (nested workflow / rule, script references, inline scripts, and shell lines run via sh -c) plus prompt steps (which call allocStepSeq inside emitPromptStepStart). Ordinary log, logerr, fail, send, and most const bindings do not open new numbered .out/.err pairs — they still emit LOG/LOGERR or INBOX_ENQUEUE records (and related lines) into run_summary.jsonl where applicable. There is no .seq file in the run directory. For the live vs durable split, see Architecture — Contracts: __JAIPH_EVENT__ on stderr is the streaming path; run_summary.jsonl is the durable timeline.
*.out / *.err — Paired capture files for steps that record subprocess or prompt I/O. The runtime creates both paths at STEP_START. For managed steps (extracted scripts, nested workflows/rules, single-line shell, and similar), stdout/stderr are streamed into the files during execution, then rewritten with the final aggregated strings at step end — so a long-running step’s .out can be tailed while it runs (see CLI — Run artifacts and live output). Prompt steps stream the model transcript into .out; .err is only overwritten when stderr from the backend is non-empty (otherwise the placeholder file stays zero-length). Errors and CLI progress still use the live __JAIPH_EVENT__ stream on stderr; these files are the on-disk record.
run_summary.jsonl — Append-only JSON Lines timeline: workflow boundaries, step start/end, LOG / LOGERR, prompt lifecycle, inbox events, and the same step payload fields as the live stream. It is truncated to empty at runtime startup, then each event appends a line via appendRunSummaryLine as execution proceeds. The in-process test runner can set suppressLiveEvents, which stops __JAIPH_EVENT__ lines from going to stderr while run_summary.jsonl keeps updating (see Architecture — Core components, RuntimeEventEmitter).
inbox/ — When channels are used, a send may persist a copy of the payload here (NNN-<channel>.txt) for audit. The runtime walks ancestor workflow contexts and writes a file only when it finds a matching route for that channel on the stack (same condition as “routed” dispatch — see Inbox & Dispatch); unrouted sends enqueue without creating inbox/ files. Delivery stays in-memory; this directory is not a mailbox API.
heartbeat — Best-effort file containing a wall-clock millisecond timestamp, rewritten on a timer (~10s). Liveness for external watchdogs; not required for normal CLI use.
return_value.txt — Written only from runDefault (the normal jaiph run entry path) when the top-level workflow finishes with exit status 0 and the aggregated result has returnValue !== undefined (empty string is allowed and produces a zero-byte file; undefined means the file is omitted — typically “fell off the end” of the workflow without a return). runNamedWorkflow (test_run_workflow, nested named runs, etc.) returns the value to the caller but does not write this file.
artifacts/ — Created in the constructor together with the empty run_summary.jsonl (truncated file). The runtime sets JAIPH_ARTIFACTS_DIR, JAIPH_RUN_DIR, JAIPH_RUN_SUMMARY_FILE, and JAIPH_RUN_ID: if JAIPH_RUN_ID is already set in the incoming environment it is preserved; otherwise a new UUID is generated. User workflows usually publish into artifacts/ through jaiphlang/artifacts (artifacts.save). In Docker mode it sits under the host-writable run mount (/jaiph/run/... inside the container), not the read-only workspace overlay. See Libraries — jaiphlang/artifacts and Sandboxing.
Run jaiph init to add .jaiph/.gitignore entries for runs and tmp under .jaiph/. You can mirror those paths in a root .gitignore if you prefer.