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Resources / Glossary

Instrumentation drift

Unintended changes to analytics calls between two states of a codebase. Often introduced by refactors or coding agents.

Concepts

About this term

This page is part of the Skene analytics instrumentation glossary. Use it as a reference when writing specs, dashboards, or playbooks.

Canonical glossary index: /resources/glossary

Glossary

Glossary

Analytics callEvent namePayload (event properties)Identify callEvent taxonomyInstrumentation surfaceBaseline manifestInstrumentation driftSemantic diffRemoved eventRenamed eventMoved eventAltered payloadConditional firing changeCustomer Data Platform (CDP)Schema registryMCP (Model Context Protocol)Coding agentSide effectFunnelConversion eventActivation eventCohort

Definition

Instrumentation drift is when the analytics calls in your repo change in ways nobody intended. A capture call disappears in a refactor. An event name gets tidied. A property changes type. The product still runs; the dashboards still draw; the data quietly degrades.

Five shapes of drift

Removed events, renamed events, moved events, altered payloads, and conditional firing changes. Each is technically a code change like any other, and each silently corrupts a downstream analytics surface.

Related terms

  • Removed event
  • Renamed event
  • Altered payload
  • Conditional firing change
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